MANEGE
.—The MANEGE is a term used in a synonymous sense with equestrian academy, or riding school; implying not only the receptacle itself, but the instructions there to be derived from those who profess to teach the ART of HORSEMANSHIP by riding the great horse. There are many of this description, and of much celebrity, in and round the Metropolis, replete with every convenience for the accommodation of gentlemen, and the breaking of horses; and for ladies also, who have the advantage of riding under cover at all seasons of the year. In every MANEGE a centrical spot is appropriated to the regulating the round or volts, in which is fixed a pillar; and to this horses are occasionally fastened in their first lessons. Other pillars are likewise placed in pairs at the sides of the manege, for the more perfect completion of their volts and airs.
The MANEGE may be properly divided into the GREATER and the LESSER; or, in the precise words of a modern writer, "the grand and petit manege: the former, or management of the great horse, intended purely for the purposes of parade and shew; the latter, confined solely to the utile of military tactics. The grand manege consists in teaching a horse, already perfectly broke in the common way, certain artificial motions, the chief of which are called the terra a terra, demi-volt, corvet, capriole, croupade, balotade, and the step and the leap; which last is a motion compounded of three airs; namely, the terra a terra, corvet, and the leap, by which the motion is finished. When a horse is perfect in all these, he is styled a full dressed, or maneged horse.
"The petit manege is that drilling, or training, by which the army riding-masters fit the horse for military service in the ranks. The chief objects of it are, to set him upon his haunches, and make him rein well; to give him a cadenced pace; to teach him to rein back, or retreat; to move sideways, to stand fire, and to leap. After these, a horse will soon become capable of all the necessary military evolutions. The common business of our town riding-schools, is to teach grown gentlemen and ladies, and to set ill-broken horses upon their haunches. It is well known that the grand manege has been long out of fashion in this country; and farther, that it has for years past been upon the decline in every other. I look upon it as a relict of that superstition in all things, which is the characteristic of barbarous times. It is unnecessary to any good or useful purpose, because all such, whether of parade or business, may be fully answered by the common, rational, and uninjurious management; whereas there is always more or less cruelty practised in completing the full-dressed horse; such, for instance, as severe whippings, the meaning of which the horse cannot possibly comprehend, and which are therefore unnatural and illegitimate measures; the labour and irritation also are excessive; and, after all, the natural paces of the horse are spoiled, and he is rendered unfit for common business; the only compensation for which is, that he has learned sundry harlequin tricks; two of which are, to skip like a GOAT, and kick up behind like an ASS."