Q. What good will there result to the horse from this judicious employment of his forces?
A. As we will only make use of forces useful for certain movements, fatigue or exhaustion can only result from the length of time during which the animal will remain at an accelerated pace, and will not be the effect of an excessive muscular contraction which would preserve its intensity, even at a moderate pace.
Q. When should we first undertake to make the horse back?
A. After the suppling of the neck and haunches.
Q. Why should the suppling of the haunches precede that of the loins (the reculer)?
A. To keep the horse more easily in a straight line and to render the flowing back and forward of the weight more easy.
Q. Ought these first retrograde movements of the horse to be prolonged during the first lessons?
A. No. As their only object is to annul the instinctive forces of the horse, we must wait till he is perfectly in hand to obtain a backward movement, a true reculer.
Q. What constitutes a true reculer?
A. The lightness of the horse (head perpendicular), the exact balance of his body, and the elevation to the same height of the legs diagonally.