244 HIGH-SCHOOL RIDING. 



not obliged to teach it to the horse, in order, later on, to 

 complete his high school education by pirouettes on three 

 legs, the Spanish trot, and the canter on three legs. For 

 this, it is of the utmost necessity that the breaker can 

 obtain, at will, extension of the legs, and especially by 

 the spurs, which is the only means of keeping a horse in 

 equilibrium, of teaching him to go up to his bit, and of 

 making him hold his legs as high and as extended as he 

 ought to do. 



There is, alas ! another way for teaching a horse the 

 Spanish walk, and I hasten to say that I never use this 

 method of which I am obliged to speak, because it is greatly 

 in vogue among the new school. By this term I designate 

 the riding masters who have sprung up since the death of 

 Baucher, and who have substituted for the school movements 

 he executed most brilliantly, a series of strange contortions 

 obtained by a host of accessories, the employment of which 

 necessitates the assistance of a large number of men. 



To teach the Spanish walk according to the method of the 

 new school, it is necessary to employ an entire squad of 

 breakers — four privates and a corporal : never less, and often 

 more. 



They begin by placing on each fore leg a hobble, to which is 

 attached a cord, each cord being held by a man. A third 

 person holds the bridle and a cutting whip. The corporal 

 mounts the animal, and a fifth tormenter has the noble mission 

 of flourishing a driving whip. We will now see the collective 

 operations which the squad performs on the unfortunate 

 animal. 



No. 3, who has the cutting whip, taps the left leg of the 

 horse with it. No. i, who holds the cord of that leg, pulls the 

 leg straight, and the corporal, who is on the back of the 

 animal, presses his right leg against the horse's side so as to 

 accustom him to extend his leg on being touched by the spur. 



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