i;o ORDINARY RIDING. 



making the change of leg so easy, that the horse will often 

 do it on his own account, when prompted merely by the 

 preparations to which he has been submitted. In fact, when 

 we stop him on one leg, the " aids " ought to slightly prepare 

 him to start off on the other leg. 



Whenever I have had time to prepare a horse, I have never 

 failed to make him change his leg at the first attempt. What- 

 ever kind of horse he may be, he will always do one change 

 correctly, after having failed to do several. We should then 

 get off, pat him on the neck, and send him back to his stable. 

 At the following lesson we ought to repeat and prolong the 

 same lesson, until the animal changes easily from the near 

 fore to the off fore. Having then turned round, so as to go 

 to the left, we should, in the same way, make him change 

 from the off fore to the near fore. 



We should always avoid making him change at the same 

 place, as that would always make him want to change 

 when he passes it. It would therefore become impossible to 

 make him change as we wish, because our will would be 

 subordinated to his.* 



When I have got the horse to readily change from the out- 

 ward to the inward leg in the corners, I put him to do the 

 same work on a straight line. 



The change of leg should be required only at a certain 

 period of the stride, when it is easiest for the horse to do. As 



" I have said that in all things horses acquire habits with great facility. 

 Therefore, during breaking, we should most carefully avoid giving him 

 bench-marks (if I may use the term), whether by putting him to the same 

 work at the same place, or by repeating different exercises in the same order. 

 This advice is, I think, all the more important, because the majority of 

 riding masters persistently give bench-marks to their horses, which makes 

 the breaking apparently more easy. Although the horse by routine 

 does his work at a given moment, at certain spots, and according to a 

 prearranged programme, he is not properly trained, because, so far from 

 being submissive to the will of his rider, the rider has to accommodate 

 himself to the habits of the animal. Consequently the horse is habituated, 

 or, as we may say, " routined," but he is not broken in. 



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