2. Mobility of the haunches, the horse resting on his fore legs, while his hind legs balance themselves alternately the one over the other; when the hind leg which is raised from left to right is moved, and is placed on the ground to become pivot in its turn, the other to be instantly raised and to execute the same movement.
The simple mobility of the haunches is one of the exercises that I have pointed out for the elementary education of the horse. We can complicate this performance by multiplying the alternate contact of the legs, until we succeed in easily carrying the horse's croup, one leg over the other, in such a way that the movement from left to right and from right to left cannot exceed one step. This exercise is good to give great nicety of touch to the rider, and to prepare the horse to respond to the lightest effects.
3. Passing instantly from the slow piaffer to the precipitate piaffer, and vice versâ.
After having brought the horse to display great mobility of the legs, we ought to regulate the movement of them. It is by the slow and alternated pressure of his legs that the rider will obtain the slow piaffer. He will make it precipitate by multiplying the contact. Both these piaffers can be obtained from all horses; but as this is among the great difficulties, perfect tact is indispensable.
4. To back with an equal elevation of the transverse legs, which leave the ground and are placed again on it at the same time, the horse executing the movement with as much freedom and facility as if he were going forward, and without apparent aid from the rider.
Backing is not new, but it certainly is new upon the conditions that I lay down. It is only by the aid of a complete suppling and ramener that we succeed in so suspending the horse's body that the distribution of the weight is perfectly regular and the extremities acquire energy and activity alike. This movement then becomes as easy and graceful as it is painful and devoid of elegance when it is changed into acculement.[T]
5. Simultaneous mobility of the two diagonal legs, the horse stationary. After having raised the two opposite legs, he carries them to the rear to bring them back again to the place they first occupied, and recommences the same movement with the other diagonal.
The suppling, and having got the horse in hand, make this movement easy. When he no longer presents any resistance, he appreciates the lightest effects of the rider, intended in this case to displace only the least possible quantity of forces and weight necessary to set in motion the opposite extremities. By repeating this exercise, it will in a little while be rendered familiar to the horse. The finish of the mechanism will soon give the finish of intelligence.
6. Trot with a sustained extension; the horse, after having raised his legs, carries them forward, sustaining them an instant in the air before replacing them on the ground.
The processes that form the basis of my method reproduce themselves in each simple movement, and with still more reason in the complicated ones. If equilibrium is only obtained by lightness, in return there is no lightness without equilibrium; it is by the union of these two conditions that the horse will acquire the facility of extending his trot to the farthest possible limits, and will completely change his original gait.