Buffon's Natural History. Volume 05 (of 10) / Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c

by comte de Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon

Great attention must be paid in weaning young colts, to put them into a proper stable, not too hot, for fear of making them too delicate and too sensible of the impressions of the air. They should frequently have fresh litter and be kept very clean, by frequently rubbing them down with a wisp of straw. But they should not be tied up or curried till they are near three years old, their skin being till then too delicate to bear the comb. The rack and manger must not be too high, as the necessity of raising their heads to reach their food may give a habit of raising it in that fashion, and spoil their necks.

When about a year or eighteen months old, their tails ought to be cut, as the hair will then grow stronger and thicker. From two years old the colts should be put with the horses and the females with the mares; without this precaution, the colts would fatigue and enervate themselves. At the age of three years, or three years and a half, we may begin to make them tractable; they should at first have a light easy saddle, and wear it two or three hours every day; they should also be accustomed to have a snaffle bit in their mouths, and to have their feet lifted up and struck, to habituate them to shoeing; if designed for coach or draught horses, they should also wear a harness. At first a curb should not be used; they may be held by a cavesson, or leather strap, and be made to trot on even ground, and with only the saddle or harness on their bodies; and when they turn easily, and willingly follow the person who holds the leather strap, the rough rider should mount him and dismount again in the same place, without making him move, till he is four years old, because before that age the weight of a man overloads him[A]; but at four years he should be made to walk or trot, a little way at a time, with the rider on his back. When a coach horse is accustomed to the harness, he should be paired with a horse that is thoroughly broke, putting on him a bridle with a strap passed through it, till he begins to be used to his duty; after this the coachman may try to make him draw, having the assistance of a man to push him gently behind, and even to give him some blows to make him do it. All this should be done before young horses have changed their food, for when once they are on grain or hay they are more vigorous, less tractable, and more difficult to break.

[A] This assertion of our author will meet with little credit in the present day, when daily practice proves they may be completely trained while rising three years, and have sufficient strength to enter the lists on the course before they are four.

The bit and the spur are two means made use of to bring them into order, the former for their guidance, and the latter to make them increase their motion. The mouth does not appear formed by nature to receive any other impressions than that of taste and appetite; but there is so great a sensibility in the mouth of a horse, that, in preference to the eyes and ears, we address ourselves to it, to make him understand our pleasure; the slightest motions, or pressure of the bit, is sufficient to inform and determine his course; and this organ of sense has no other fault than its perfection. Its too great sensibility requires particular management, for if it is abused the mouth of the horse is spoiled, and rendered insensible to the impression of the bit: the senses of sight and hearing cannot be dulled in this manner; but in all likelihood it has been found inconvenient to govern horses by these organs; besides, signs given them by the sense of feeling have more effect on animals in general than those conveyed by the eyes or ears. The situation of the eyes of horses, with relation to those who mount or conduct them, is very unfavourable; and, though they are frequently conducted and animated by the ear, it appears that the use of this organ is limited to common horses, because in the menage they are seldom spoken to; in fact, if they are well broke the smallest pressure of the thighs, or most trifling motion of the bit, is sufficient to direct them. The spur is even useless, or at least it is only made use of to force them to violent motions; and as through the folly of the rider it often happens, that in giving the spur he checks the bridle, the horse finding himself excited on one side, and kept in on the other, only prances and capers without stirring out of his place.

By means of the bridle horses are taught to hold up their heads, and keep them in the most graceful position, and the smallest sign or movement of the rider is sufficient to make the horse shew all his different paces; the most natural is perhaps the trot, but pacing and galloping is more pleasant for the rider, and these are the two paces we particularly endeavour to improve. When the horse lifts up his fore legs to walk, this motion should be performed with spirit and ease, and the knee sufficiently bent. The leg lifted up should seem as if suspended for a moment, and when let down the foot should be firmly rested on the ground without the horse’s head receiving any impression from this motion, for when the leg suddenly falls down, and the head sinks at the same time: it is usual to ease the other leg, which has not strength to support the whole weight of the body. This is a great fault, as well as that of carrying the foot too far out or in. We should also observe, that when he rests on his heel it is a mark of weakness, and when he rests on the forepart of his hoof it is a fatiguing and unnatural attitude that he cannot long support.

Though walking is the slowest of all their paces, his step should be light, brisk, and neither too long nor too short; his carriage should be easy, which depends much on the freedom of his shoulders, and is known by the manner in which he carries his head in walking; if he keeps it high and steady, he is generally vigorous and quick. When the motion of the shoulders is not free, the leg does not rise enough, and the horse is apt to stumble, and strike his foot against the inequalities on the ground. A horse should raise his shoulders, and lower his haunches, in walking; he should also raise and support his leg; but if he keeps it up too long, or lets it fall too slowly, he loses all the advantage of his suppleness, becomes heavy, and fit for nothing but to match with another for shew and parade.

It is not sufficient that his walk should be easy, his steps must be also equal and uniform, both behind and before, for if his crupper has a swinging motion while he keeps up his shoulders, the rider is much jolted, and rendered uneasy; the same thing happens when the horse extends his hind leg so much as to rest it beyond the same place in which he rested his fore foot. Horses with short bodies are subject to this fault; those which cross their legs or strike them against each other, are not sure footed; in general those whose bodies are long, are the most easy for the rider, because he is at a greater distance from the two centres of motion, the shoulders and haunches, and therefore less sensible of the jolting.

The usual method of walking among quadrupeds is to lift, at the same time, one of the fore legs of one side, and one of the hind legs of the other. As their bodies are sustained upon four points of support, which form an oblong square, the easiest manner of moving for them is to change two at once in the diagonal, in such a manner that the centre of gravity of the body of the animal may rest always in the direction of the two points which are not in motion. In the three natural paces of the horse, the walk, the trot, and the gallop, this rule of motion is always observed, though with some difference. In the walk there are four beats, in the movement; if the right fore leg moves first the left hind leg follows the instant after; then the left fore leg moves forward in turn, and is followed instantly by the right hind leg; thus the right fore foot rests on the ground first, the left hind foot next, then the left fore foot rests, and lastly, the right hind foot, which makes a movement of four beats, and at three intervals, of which the first and last are shorter than the middle one. In the trot there are but two beats; if the right fore leg goes off the ground the left hind leg moves at the same time, and then the left fore leg moves at the same time with the right hind one, in such a manner, that there are in this movement only two beats and one interval; the right fore foot, and the left hind foot, rest on the ground at the same time, as is also the case with the left fore foot and the right hind one. In the gallop there is usually three beats; but as in this movement there is a kind of leaping of the two fore legs, the right ought to advance more forward than the left, which ought to remain on the ground to serve as a point of rest for the sudden jerk he takes: the left hind foot moves the first, and rests the first on the ground; then the right hind leg is lifted up conjointly with the left fore leg, and both rest on the ground together; and lastly, the right fore leg is raised instantly after the left fore leg and right hind one, and rests last on the ground: thus in the gallop there are three beats and two intervals; in the first interval, when the movement is made with haste, the four legs are, for an instant, in the air at the same time, and the four shoes may be seen at once. When the horse has supple limbs and haunches, and moves with agility, the gallop is the more perfect, and the cadence is made in four times; first, the left hind foot, then the right hind foot, next the left fore foot, and, lastly, the right fore foot.

Horses usually gallop on the right foot, in the same manner as they carry the fore right leg in walking and trotting; they also throw up the dirt in galloping first with the right fore leg, which is more advanced than the left; and the right hind leg, which follows immediately the right fore one, is also more advanced than the left hind leg, from whence it results, that the left leg, which supports all the weight, and forces forwards the others, is the most fatigued; for this reason it would be right to learn horses to gallop alternately on the left and right legs, as they would then bear much longer this violent motion; this is done in the riding-schools, but, perhaps for no other reason than in traversing a circle, the centre of which is sometimes on the right and sometimes to the left, the rider is compelled to change hands.

In walking the horse almost scrapes the ground with his feet; in trotting they are somewhat raised; and in galloping they are lifted up still higher. The walk ought to be quick, light, and sure; the trot should be firm, quick, and equally sustained, and the hind feet ought to press forward the fore ones. The horse, in this pace should carry his head high, and keep his body, straight, for if the haunches rise and fall alternately at each motion, and if the crupper moves up and down, and the horse rocks himself, he is too weak for this motion. If he throws out his fore legs it is another fault; the fore legs should tread in a line with the hind ones, and always efface their tracks. When one of the hind legs is thrown forwards, if the fore leg of the same side rests too long, the motion becomes uneasy from this resistance, and it is for this reason that the interval between the two beats of the trot should be short; but, be it ever so short, this resistance is sufficient to make this pace more uneasy than walking or galloping.