Was I not right then in saying that if it is not in my power to change the defective formation of a horse, I can yet prevent the evil effect of his physical defects, so as to render him as fit to do everything with grace and natural ease, as the better formed horse? In suppling the parts of the animal upon which the rider acts directly, in order to govern and guide him, in accustoming them to yield without difficulty or hesitation to the different impressions which are communicated to them, I have, by so doing, destroyed their stiffness and restored the centre of gravity to its true place, namely, to the middle of the body. I have, besides, settled the greatest difficulty of horsemanship: that of subjecting, before everything else, the parts upon which the rider acts directly, in order to prepare for him infallible means of acting upon the horse.
It is only by destroying the instinctive forces, and by suppling the different parts of the horse, that we will obtain this. All the springs of the animal's body are thus yielded up to the discretion of the rider. But this first advantage will not be enough to make him a complete horseman. The employment of these forces thus abandoned to him, demand, in order to execute the different paces, much study and skill. I will show in the subsequent chapters the rules to be observed. I will conclude this one by a rapid recapitulation of the progression to be followed in the supplings.
Stationary exercise, the rider on foot. Fore-parts.—
1. Flexions of the jaw to the right and left, using the curb-bit.
2. Direct flexions of the jaw, and depression of the neck.
3. Lateral flexions of the neck with the snaffle-reins and with the curb.
Stationary exercise, the rider on horseback.—
1. Lateral flexions of the neck with the snaffle-reins, and with the curb-reins.
2. Direct flexions of the head or placing it in a perpendicular position with the snaffle, and with the curb-reins.
Hind-parts.—