248 HIGH-SCHOOL RIDING. 



horse, which is all the greater because up to this time I have 

 always trained him to go forward at the slightest pressure of 

 the legs. We should keep him as quiet as possible and 

 not insist too strongly, because the less a horse understands 

 what is required of him, the more irritable does he become. 

 We ought to be content with two or three steps to the 

 rear, and immediately he has taken them, we should make 

 him take the same numbsr of steps forward, by relaxing the 

 pressure of the thighs, and by touching him with the heel or 

 spur. We should, above all things, avoid letting him rein 

 back quicker than we wish him to do. 



I sum up by saying that at first I close the legs and feel the 

 reins sufficiently to bring about the rein back. Having 

 obtained the retrograde movement, I hasten to pat the horse 

 on the neck, and I repeat the work, while each time increasing 

 the pressure of the legs, and diminishing the tension of the 

 reins. Finally, when the horse has learned, little by little, what 

 is required of him, I leave go the reins. 



ROCKING THE FOREHAND. 



In rocking the forehand, the horse raises his fore legs 

 successively, without extending them, and rocks his forehand 

 from one leg to the other, while separating them as widely as 

 possible from each other, at the moment when they touch 

 the ground. 



Having taught the horse to extend his legs as already 

 described, it is easy by this means to make him balance the 

 forehand. With this object, his head and neck should not be 

 raised too high, and his legs should only be half straightened, 

 which I get him to do in the following way. The horse being 

 halted, I make him raise the right fore, as if to extend it, but 

 as soon as he raises it, and before he has completely extended 

 it, I carry my hands to the right, and, consequently, all the 

 weight of the forehand which was on the left leg is suddenly 



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