If he throws himself to the Right, you must put him so as to have the Wall on the Right; you must support and pinch him with your Left-leg, and shorten your Right-rein by carrying your Hand to the Left.—I must however repeat it over and over, that in a Lesson of this kind, in which a Horse may find out Methods and Inventions to resist and defend himself; I say, in giving such Lessons, the Rider ought to be Master of the surest Judgment and most consummate Prudence.
Moreover, you should take care not to fall into the Mistake of those who imagine that the higher a Horse rises, the more he is upon his Haunches.—In the Pesade, the Croupe is pushed back, and the Horse bends his Haunches; but if he rises too high, he no longer sits upon his Haunches, for from that Moment he becomes stiff, and stands strait upon his Hocks; and instead of throwing his Croupe back, he draws it towards him.
Those Sort of Pesades, in which the Horse rises too high, and stiffens his Hocks, are call'd Goat-Pesades, as they resemble the Action of that Animal.
The Aids that are to be given in Pesades are derived from those used to make a Horse go backward.—Place your Hand as if you intended to make your Horse go backward, but close your Legs at the same time, and he will rise.—For this reason nothing is more absurd than the Method which some Horsemen teach their Scholars, who oblige them, in order to make their Horses rise, to use only their Switch; they must certainly not know that the Hand confining the Fore-part, and the Rider's Legs driving the Hinder-parts forward, the Horse is compell'd, whether he will or no, to raise his Shoulders from the Ground, and to throw all the Weight of his Body upon his Haunches.
CHAP. XVII.
Of the Mezair.
The Gallop is the Foundation of the Terre-a-Terre; for in these two Motions the Principle of the Action is the same, since the Terre-a-Terre is only a shorten'd Gallop, with the Croupe in, and the Haunches following in a close and quick Time.
The Mezair is higher than the Action of Terre-a-Terre, and lower than that of Curvets; we may therefore conclude, that the Terre-a-Terre, is the Foundation of the Mezair, as well as of Curvets.—In the Terre-a-Terre, the Horse should be more together than in the Gallop, that he may mark his Time or Cadence more distinctly; although in a true Terre-a-Terre, there are no Times to be mark'd, for it is rather a gliding of the Haunches, which comes from the natural Springs in the Limbs of the Horse.
I have said, that the Terre-a-Terre is the Foundation of the Mezair; in effect, the higher you raise the Fore-parts of the Horse, the slower and more distinct his Action will be, and by making him beat and mark the Time with his Hind-feet, instead of gliding them along as in the Terre-a-Terre, you put him to the Mezair, or Half-curvets.
When a Horse works Terre-a-Terre, he always ought, the same as in the Gallop, to lead with the Legs that are within the Volte, his two Fore-feet being in the Air, and the Moment that they are coming down, his two Hind-feet following.