When the rider has accustomed the croup of the horse to yield promptly to the pressure of the legs, he will be able to put it in motion, or fix it motionless at will, and can, consequently, execute ordinary pirouettes.[K] For this purpose he will take a snaffle-rein in each hand, one to direct the neck and shoulders towards the side to which we wish to wheel, the other to second the opposite leg, if it is not sufficient to keep the croup still. At the beginning, this leg should be placed as far back as possible, and not be used until the haunches bear against it. By careful and progressive management the results will soon be attained; at the start, the horse should be allowed to rest after executing two or three steps well, which will give five or six halts in the complete rotation of the shoulders around the croup.
Here the stationary exercises cease. I will now explain how the suppling of the hind-parts will be completed, by commencing to combine the play of its springs with those of the fore-parts.
Backing.—The retrograde movement, otherwise called backing, is an exercise, the importance of which has not been sufficiently appreciated, and which yet ought to have a very great influence upon his education. When practised after the old erroneous methods, it would have been without success, since the thread of exercises that ought to precede it were unknown. Backing properly differs essentially from that incorrect backward movement which carries the horse to the rear with his croup contracted and his neck stiff; that is, backing away from and avoiding the effect of the reins. Backing correctly supples the horse, and adds grace and precision to his natural motions. The first of the conditions upon which it is to be obtained, is to keep the horse in hand; that is to say, supple, light in the mouth, steady on his legs, and perfectly balanced in all his parts. Thus disposed, the animal will be able with ease to move and elevate equally his fore and hind legs.
It is here that we will be enabled to appreciate the good effects and the indispensable necessity of suppling the neck and haunches. Backing, which at first is tolerably painful to the horse, will always lead him to combat the motions of our hand, by stiffening his neck, and those of our legs, by contracting his croup; these are the instinctive resistances. If we cannot obviate the bad disposition of them, how will we be able to obtain that shifting and re-shifting of weight, which alone ought to make the execution of this movement perfect? If the impulsion which, to back him, ought to come from the fore-parts, should pass over its proper limits, the movement would become painful, impossible in fact, and occasion, on the part of the animal, sudden, violent movements which are always injurious to his organization.
On the other hand, the displacements[L] of the croup, by destroying the harmony which should exist between the relative forces of fore and hind-parts, would also hinder the proper execution of the backing. The previous exercise to which we have subjected the croup will aid us in keeping it in a straight line with the shoulders, in order to preserve the necessary transferring of the forces and weight.
To commence the movement, the rider ought first to assure himself that the haunches are on a line with the shoulders, and the horse light in hand; then he will slowly close his legs, in order that the action they will communicate to the hind-parts of the horse may make him lift one of his hind legs, and prevent the body from yielding before the neck. It is then that the immediate pressure of the bit, forcing the horse to regain his equilibrium behind, will produce the first part of the backing. As soon as the horse obeys, the rider will instantly give the hand to reward the animal, and not to force the play of his fore-parts. If his croup is displaced, the rider will bring it back by means of his leg, and if necessary, use for this purpose the snaffle-rein on that side.
After having defined what I call the proper backing (reculer), I ought to explain what I understand by backing so as to avoid the bit (l'acculement). This movement is too painful to the horse, too ungraceful, and too much opposed to the right development of his mechanism, not to have struck any one who has occupied himself at all with horsemanship. We force a horse backwards in this way, whenever we crowd too much his forces and weight upon his hind-parts; by so doing we destroy his equilibrium, and render grace, measure and correctness impossible. Lightness, always lightness! this is the basis, the touchstone of all beautiful execution. With this, all is easy, as much for the horse as the rider. That being the case, it is understood that the difficulty of horsemanship does not consist in the direction to give the horse, but in the position to make him assume—a position which alone can smooth all obstacles. Indeed, if the horse executes, it is the rider who makes him do so; upon him then rests the responsibility of every false movement.
It will suffice to exercise the horse for eight days (for five minutes each lesson), in backing, to make him execute it with facility. The rider will content himself the first few times with one or two steps to the rear, followed by the combined effect of the legs and hand, increasing in proportion to the progress he makes, until he finds no more difficulty in a backward than in a forward movement.
What an immense step we will then have made in the education of our pupil! At the start, the defective formation of the animal, his natural contractions, the resistances we encountered everywhere, seemed as if they might defy our efforts forever. Without doubt they would have been vain, had we made use of a bad course of proceeding, but the wise system of progression that we have introduced into our work, the destruction of the instinctive forces of the horse, the suppling, the separate subjection of all the rebellious parts, have soon placed in our power the whole of the mechanism to such a degree as to enable us to govern it completely, and to restore that pliability, ease, and harmony of the parts, which their bad arrangement appeared as if it would always prevent. As I shall point out hereafter in classing the general division of the labor, it will be seen that eight or ten days will be sufficient to obtain these important results.