322 HIGH-SCHOOL RIDING. 



We have now to convert the canter without gaining ground, 

 into the canter to the rear, for which purpose, when my horse 

 is cantering on one spot, with such ease and Hghtness that I 

 have no need for the reins, I try to bring him back an inch 

 or two by my seat and legs, and not by the reins. While my 

 legs are raising the horse, I seize the moment when he is in 

 the air to carry my seat back. I change the position of my 

 seat, and not that of the upper part of my body, by taking 

 nearly all my weight off the stirrups to put it on my buttocks. 

 The mobility of the horse is so great, at a moment when he is 

 in suspension,* that a movement of the rider is sufficient to 

 make him gain a little ground to the rear, which is enough 

 to begin the canter to the rear. By repeating and gradually 

 increasing these effects every day, we succeed in obtaining 

 the canter to the rear as I have described. If we try to get 

 the backward movement by the reins, the rassembler will be 

 immediately lost, because the action of the reins will send the 

 hocks a long way to the rear ; their duty, on the contrary, 

 being to remain under the centre of the body. When 

 they are to the rear, the hind quarters being over-loaded 

 lose the mobility which enables them to gain ground to 

 the rear. 



NEW SCHOOL MOVEMENTS. 



I have invented a certain number of school exercises, and 

 will content myself by enumerating them. They are done 

 according to the same principles and by means of the " aids " 

 which have been used for the teaching of the preceding 

 ixiovements : — 



I. New Spanish walk, which consists in making a step 



* This is the moment we have taken for changing the leg between the last time 

 of one stride and the first time of the ne.xt stride. It can be seized only with 

 difficulty, and then we can get everything out of a horse, because he is in the air. 

 A puff of wind can displace him. 



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