7. Serpentine trot, the horse turning to the right and to the left, to return nearly to his starting point, after having made five or six steps in each direction.
This movement will present no difficulty if we keep the horse in hand while executing the flexions of the neck at the walk and trot; you can readily see that such a performance is impossible without this condition. The leg opposite to the side towards which the neck turns ought always to be pressed.
8. Instant halt by the aid of the spurs, the horse being at a gallop.
When the horse, being perfectly suppled, will properly bear the attaques and the rassembler, he will be fit to execute the halt upon the above conditions. In the application of this we will start with a slow gallop, in order to go on successively to the greatest speed. The legs preceding the hand, will bring the horse's hind legs under the middle of his body, then a prompt effect of the hand, by fixing them in this position, will immediately stop the bound. By this means we spare the horse's organization, which can thus be always kept free from blemish.
9. Continued mobility or pawing, while stationary, of one of the horse's fore legs; the horse, at the rider's will, executing the movement by which he, of his own accord, often manifests his impatience.
This movement will be obtained by the same process that serves to keep the horse's leg in the air. In the latter case, the rider's legs must impress a continued support, in order that the force which holds the horse's leg raised keep up its effect; while, for the movement now in question, we must renew the action by a quantity of slight pressures, in order to cause the motion of the leg held up in the air. This extremity of the horse will soon acquire a movement subordinate to that of the rider's legs, and if the time is well seized, it will seem, so to say, that we make the animal move by the aid of mechanical means.
10. To trot backwards, the horse preserving the same cadence and the same step as in the trot forwards.
The first condition, in order to obtain the trot backwards, is to keep the horse in a perfect cadence and as rassemblé as possible. The second is all in the proceedings of the rider. He ought to seek insensibly by the combined effects to make the forces of the fore-hand exceed those of the hind-parts, without affecting the harmony of the movement. Thus we see that by the rassembler we will successively obtain the piaffer stationary, and the piaffer backwards, even without the aid of the reins.
11. To gallop backwards, the time being the same as in the ordinary gallop; but the fore legs once raised, in place of coming to the ground, are carried backwards, that the hind-parts may execute the same backward movement as soon as the fore-feet are placed on the ground.
The principle is the same as for the preceding performance; with a perfect rassembler, the hind legs will find themselves so brought under the centre, that by raising the fore-hand, the movement of the hocks can only be an upward one. This performance, though easily executed with a powerful horse, ought not to be attempted with one not possessing this quality.