Conclusion
Everybody complains now-a-days of the degeneration of our breeds of horses. Apprehensive too late of a state of things which threatens even the national independence,U patriotic spirits are seeking to go back to the source of the evil, and are arranging divers systems for remedying it as soon as possible. Among the causes which have contributed the most to the loss of our old breeds, they forget, it seems to me, to mention the decline of horsemanship, nor do they consider that the revival of this art is indispensable in bringing about the regeneration of the horse.
The difficulties of horsemanship have long been the same, but formerly constant practice, if not taste, kept it up; these stimulants exist no longer. Fifty years ago, every man of rank was expected to be able to handle a horse with skill, and break one if necessary. This study was an indispensable part of the education of young people of family; and as it obliged them to devote two or three years to the rough exercises of the manège, in the end they all became horsemen, some by taste, the rest by habit. These habits once acquired were preserved throughout life; they then felt the necessity of possessing good horses, and men of fortune spared nothing in getting them. The sale of fine horses thus became easy; all gained by it, the breeder as well as the horse. It is not so now; the aristocracy of fortune, succeeding to that of birth, is very willing to possess the advantages of the latter, but would dispense with the onerous obligations which appertained to an elevated rank. The desire of showing off in public places, or motives still more frivolous, sometimes lead gentlemen of our times to commence the study of horsemanship, but, soon wearied of a work without satisfactory results, they find only a monotonous fatigue where they sought a pleasure, and are satisfied they know enough as soon as they can stick passably well in the saddle. So insufficient a knowledge of horsemanship, as dangerous as it is thoughtless, must necessarily occasion sad accidents. They then become disgusted with horsemanship and horses, and as nothing obliges them to continue the exercise, they give it up nearly altogether, and so much the more easily as they naturally care very little about the breeds of horses and their perfection. We must then, as a preliminary measure in the improvement of horses, raise up horsemanship from the low state into which it has fallen. The government can undoubtedly do much here; but it is for the masters of the art to supply, if necessary, what it leaves undone. Let them render attractive and to the purpose studies which have hitherto been too monotonous and often barren; let rational and true principles make the scholar see a real progress, that each of his efforts brings a success with it; and we will soon see young persons of fortune become passionately fond of an exercise which has been rendered as interesting to them as it is noble, and discover, with their love for horses, a lively solicitude for all that concerns their qualities and education.
But horsemen can aim at still more brilliant results. If they succeed in rendering easy the education of common horses, they will make the study of horsemanship popular among the masses; they will put within reach of moderate fortunes, so numerous in our land of equality, the practice of an art that has hitherto been confined to the rich. Such has been the aim of the labors of my whole life. It is in the hope of attaining this end that I give to the public the fruit of my long researches.
But I should say, however, that if I was upheld by the hope of being one day useful to my country, it was the army above all that occupied my thoughts. Though counting many skillful horsemen in its ranks, the system they are made to follow, impotent in my eyes, is the true cause of the equestrian inferiority of so many, as well as of their horses being so awkward and badly broken. I might add that to the same motive is to be attributed the little taste for horsemanship felt by the officers and soldiers. How can it be otherwise? The low price allowed by government for horses of remount, causes few horses of good shape to be met with in the army, and it is only of these that the education is easy. The officers themselves, mounted upon a very common sort of horses, strive in vain to render them docile and agreeable. After two or three years of fatiguing exercise, they end by gaining a mechanical obedience, but the same resistances and the same faults of construction are perpetually recurring. Disgusted by difficulties that appear insurmountable, they trouble themselves no more about horses and horsemanship than the demands of the service actually require.
Yet it is indispensable that a cavalry officer be always master of his horse, so much so as to be able, so to say, to communicate his own thoughts to him; the uniformity of man[oe]uvres, the necessities of command, the perils of the battle-field, all demand it imperatively. The life of the rider, every one knows, often depends upon the good or bad disposition of his steed; in the same way the loss or the gain of a battle often hangs on the degree of precision in man[oe]uvring a squadron. My method will give military men a taste for horsemanship, a taste which is indispensable in the profession they practise. The nature of officers’ horses, considered as so defective, is exactly the one upon which the most satisfactory results may be obtained. These animals generally possess a certain degree of energy, and as soon as we know how rightly to use their powers by remedying the physical faults that paralyze them, we will be astonished at the resources they will exhibit. The rider fashioning the steed by degrees will regard him as the work of his hand, will become sincerely attached to him, and will find as much charm in horsemanship as he previously felt ennui and disgust. My principles are simple, easy in their application, and within the reach of every mind. They can everywhere make (what is now so rare) skillful horsemen. I am sure that if my method is adopted and well understood in the army, where the daily exercise of the horse is a necessary duty, we will see equestrian capacities spring up among the officers and sub-officers by thousands. There is not one among them who, with an hour a day of study would not soon be able to give any horse in less than three months the following qualities and education:
1. General suppling.
2. Perfect lightness.
3. Graceful position.
4. A steady walk.
5. Trot steady, measured, extended.
6. Backing as easily and freely as going forward.
7. Gallop easy with either foot, and change of foot by the touch.
8. Easy and regular movement of the haunches, comprising ordinary and reversed pirouettes.
9. Leaping the ditch and the bar.
10. Piaffer.
11. Halt from the gallop, by the aid of first, the pressure of the legs, and then a light support of the hand. I ask all conscientious men: have they seen many horsemen of renown obtain similar results in so short a time?
The education of the men’s horses, being less complicated than that of those intended for officers, would on that account be more rapid. The principal things will be the supplings and the backing, followed by the walk, the trot and the gallop, while keeping the horse perfectly in hand. The colonels will soon appreciate the excellent results of this exercise, in consequence of the precision with which all the movements are made. The important flexions of the fore-hand can be executed without leaving the stables, each rider turning his horse around in the stall. It is not for me to point out to the colonels of regiments the exact way of putting my method in practice; it is enough for me to lay down my principles and to explain them. The instructors will themselves supply the details of application too long to enumerate here.
I must again repeat, this book is the fruit of twenty years of observation constantly verified by practice. A long and painful work without doubt, but what compensation I have found in the results I have been happy enough to obtain. In order to let the public judge of the importance of my discoveries, it is sufficient here to give their nomenclature, and I present these processes as new ones, because I can conscientiously say that they never were practised before me. I have added then successively to the manual of the horseman the following principles and innovations:
1. New means of obtaining a good seat.
2. Means of making the horse come to the man, and rendering him steady to mount.
3. Distinction between the instinctive forces of the horse and the communicated forces.
4. Explanation of the influence of a bad formation upon the horse’s resistances.
5. Effect of bad formations on the neck and croup, the principal focuses of resistance.
6. Means of remedying the faults, or supplings of the two extremities, and the whole of the horse’s body.
7. Annihilation of the instinctive forces of the horse, in order to substitute for them forces transmitted by the rider, and to give ease and beauty of motion to the ungraceful animal.
8. Equality of sensibility of mouth in all horses; adoption of a uniform bit.
9. Equality of sensibility of flanks in all horses; means of accustoming them all to bear the spur alike.
10. All horses can place their heads in the position of ramener and acquire the same lightness.
11. Means of bringing the centre of gravity in a badly-formed horse to the place it occupies in a well-formed one.
12. The rider disposes his horse for a moment, but he does not determine the movement.
13. Why sound horses often are faulty in their paces. Means of remedying this in a few lessons.
14. For changes of direction, use of the leg opposite to the side towards which we turn, so that it may precede the other one.
15. In all backward movements of the horse the rider’s legs ought to precede the hands.
16. Distinction between the reculer and the acculement; the good effect of the former in the horse’s education; the bad effect of the latter.
17. The use of the spurs as a means of education.
18. All horses can piaffer; means of rendering this movement slow or precipitate.
19. Definition of the true rassembler; means of obtaining it; of its usefulness to produce grace and regularity in complicated movements.
20. Means of bringing all horses to step out freely at a trot.
21. Rational means of putting a horse at a gallop.
22. Halt at a gallop, the legs or the spur preceding the hand.
23. Force continued in proportion to the forces of the horse; the rider should never yield until after having annulled the horse’s resistances.
24. Education of the horse in parts, or means of exercising his forces separately.
25. Complete education of horses of ordinary formation in less than three months.
26. Sixteen new figures of the manège proper for giving the finishing touch to the horse’s education, and for perfecting the rider’s touch.
It is understood that all the details of application appertaining to these innovations are new also, and likewise belong to me.
The End
Footnotes
[A] “The commission was composed of Lieutenant-General Oudinot, Col. Carrelet, Commander of the Municipal Guard, the Chef d’Escadrons De Novital, commanding the Cavalry Riding-School, and the Captain-instructors deGues, of the 5th Cuirassiers, and De Mesanges, of the 3d Lancers.” (Return)
[B] I have divided all the flexions into two parts, and, in order to facilitate the understanding of the text, I have added to it plates representing the position of the horse at the moment the flexion is about to commence, and at the moment it is terminated. (Return)
[C] Ramener means to place the horse’s head in a perpendicular position.— Translator. (Return)
[D] The full meaning of the word rassembler will be understood after reading the chapter, further on in this work, under that head. With regard to the other word, ramener, to avoid the constant circumlocution of saying, “placing the horse’s head in a perpendicular position,” it will be used in future wherever it occurs.—Translator. (Return)
[E] This position of the hand at a distance from the saddle and the body will be criticised; but let the rider be reassured, eight or ten lessons will suffice to make the horse change the position of his head, and allow the hand to resume its normal position. (Return)
[F] The word equilibrium, so often repeated in the course of this work, must be categorically explained. People have never rightly understood what it means, this true equilibrium of a horse, which serves as the basis of his education, and by which he takes instantly, at the rider’s will, such a pace, or such a change or direction.
It is not here a question of the equilibrium which prevents the horse from falling down, but of that upon which depends his performance, when it is prompt, graceful and regular, and by means of which his paces are either measured or extended at will.
Equilibrium of Baucher.
Croup————————————————————————Head.
Here the weight and the forces are equally distributed. By means of this just distribution the different positions, the different paces, and the equilibriums that belong to them, are obtained without effort on the part of man or horse. (Return)
[G] The bars are the continuations of the two bones of the lower jaw between the masticating and the front teeth. It is on these that the bit rests. (Return)
[H] The mouth-piece of the bit consists of three parts: the port, to give freedom to the tongue, and the two canons, which are the parts that come in contact with the bars.—Translator. (Return)
[I] See note, page 63. (Return)
[J] “La piste is an imaginary line upon which the horse is made to walk. When the hind legs follow the same line as the fore ones, the horse is said to go d’une piste, or on one line. He goes de deux pistes, or on two lines, when his hind legs pass along a line parallel to that traced by the fore legs.”—Baucher’s Dictionnaire d’Equitation. (Return)
[K] “The pirouette is executed on the fore or hind legs, by making the horse turn round upon himself, in such a way, that the leg on the side he is going, acts as a pivot, and is the principal support around which the other three legs move.”—Baucher’s Dictionnaire d’Equitation. (Return)
[L] These displacements of the croup mean sideway displacements, or the horse’s croup not being in a line with the shoulders.—Translator. (Return)
[M] It must not be forgotten that the hand and legs have their vocabulary also; and a very concise one. This mute, laconic language consists of these few words. You are doing badly; this is what you should do; you do well now. It is sufficient for the rider to be able to translate, by his mechanism, the meaning of these three remarks, to possess all the equestrian erudition, and share his intelligence with his horse. (Return)
[N] I am not of the opinion of those connoisseurs who imagine that the qualities of the horse, as well as his speed in trotting, depend principally on the height of his withers. I think, that for the horse to be stylish and regular in his movements, the croup should be on a level with the withers; such was the construction of the old English horses. A certain kind of horses, very much à la mode, called steppers, are constructed after an entirely different fashion; they strike out with their fore legs, and drag their hind-parts after them. Horses with a low croup, or withers very high in proportion to their croup, were preferred by horsemen of the old school, and are still in favor now-a-days among amateur horsemen. The German horsemen have an equally marked predilection for this sort of formation, although it is contrary to strength of the croup, to the equilibrium of the horse, and to the regular play of his feet and legs. This fault of construction (for it is one) has been scarcely noticed till now; nevertheless, it is a great one, and really retards the horse’s education. In fact, we are obliged, in order to render his movements uniform, to lower his neck, so that the kind of lever it represents, may serve to lighten his hind-parts of the weight with which they are overburdened. I ought also to say, that this change of position, or of equilibrium, is only obtained by the aid of my principles. I explain the cause and effect, and I point out the remedies. Is this not the proper way for an author to proceed? (Return)
[O] Previously explained. (Return)
[P] I have often proved that horses that were considered dull, or unable to move their shoulders freely, have not the defect that is supposed; in other words, that it is very rare that they are paralyzed in their shoulders so as to injure the regularity and speed of their paces, principally as regards trotting. The shoulders of the horse, if I may use the comparison, resemble the wings of a wind-mill; the impulse given by the hocks replaces the motive force. There undoubtedly exist some local complaints that affect the shoulders; but this is very rare; the defect, if there is one, has its origin in the hind-parts. For my part, I have been able to make all such horses very free in their movements, and that after fifteen days of exercise, half an hour a day. The means, like all I employ, are very simple. They consist in suppling the neck to get the horse in hand, and then, by the aid of the legs, and afterwards slight use of the spurs, in bringing his haunches nearer the centre. Then the hocks will obtain a leverage, by which they can propel the mass forward, and give the shoulders a freedom that people would not expect. (Return)
[Q] I would never have thought that this means, which serves as a corrective to the processes used by all horsemen, would have aroused the sensibility of some amateurs. These latter have preferred to be affected by exaggerated or erroneous reports, rather than satisfy themselves by observation, that this pretended cruelty is in fact the most innocent thing in the world. Must we not teach the horse to respond to the spur as well as to the legs and the hand? Is it not by this spurring, judiciously applied, that we bring in at will the hind legs more or less near the centre of gravity? Is not this the only way of increasing or diminishing the leverage of the hocks, whether for extending or raising them in motion, or for the purpose of halting? (Return)
[R] “The piaffer is the horse’s raising his legs diagonally, as in the trot, but without advancing or receding.”—Baucher’s “Dictionnaire d’Equitation.” (Return)
[S] The use of the spurs. (Return)
[T] Acculement and reculer have been previously explained; one is the horse backing falsely, the other backing correctly.—Translator. (Return)
[U] Much in this chapter, though written for France, applies with great appropriateness to our own country. (Return)