Would you make your horse go backwards, quit the first position; let your wrist be quite round, your thumb in the place of the little finger in the second position, and the little-finger in that of the thumb, turning your nails quite upwards, and towards your face, and your knuckles will be towards your horse’s neck.—This is the third Position.
Would you turn your horse to the Right? leave the first position; carry your nails to the right, turning your hand upside down, in such a manner that your thumb be carried out to the left, and the little-finger brought in to the Right.—This is the fourth Position.
Lastly, would you turn your horse to the Left? quit again the first position, carry the back of your hand a little to the left, so that the knuckles come under a little, that your thumb may incline to the right, and the little-finger to the left.—This makes the fifth Position.
These different Positions, however, alone are not sufficient; we must be able to pass from one to the other with readiness and order.
Three qualities are necessary to the hand. Viz. Firm, Gentle, and Light: I call that a firm hand, or steady hand whose feeling corresponds exactly with the feeling in the horse’s mouth, and which consists in a certain degree of steadiness, which constitutes that just correspondence between the hand and the horse’s mouth, which every horseman wishes to find.
An easy or gentle hand. I call that which, relaxing a little of its strength and firmness, eases and mitigates the degree of feeling between the hand and horse’s mouth, which I have already described.
Lastly, the light hand is that which lessens still more the feeling between the rider’s hand and the horse’s mouth, which was before moderated by the Gentle Hand.
The hand, therefore, with respect to these properties must operate in part, within certain degrees, and depends upon being more or less felt, or yeilded to the horse, or with-held.
It should be a rule with every horseman not to pass from one extreme to another; from a firm hand to a slack one; so that in the motion of the hand on no account jump over that degree of sensation which constitutes the Easy or Gentle Hand: were you once to go from a firm strong hand to a slack one, you then entirely abandon your horse; you would surprise him, deprive him of the support he trusted to, and precipitate him on his shoulders; supposing you do this at an improper time. On the contrary, were you to pass from the slack to the tight rein, all at once, you must jerk your hand, and give a violent shock to the horse’s mouth; which rough and irregular motion would be sufficient to falsify and ruin a good mouth; it is indispensably necessary, therefore, that all its [opeperations] should be gentle and light, and in order to this, it is necessary that the Wrist alone should direct and govern all its motions, by turning and steering it as it were, through every motion it is to [make]
In consequence then of these principles, I insist that the wrist be kept so round that your knuckles may be always directly above the horse’s neck, and that your thumb be always kept flat upon the reins. In reality were your wrist to be more or less rounded than in the degree I have fixed, you could never work with your hand but by means of your arm, and besides it would appear as though you were lame; again were your thumb not to be upon the flat of the reins, pressed hard upon your fore finger, they would be constantly slipping away, and lengthened, and in order to recover them you would be obliged every minute to raise your hand and arm, which would throw you into disorder and make you lose that justness without which no horse will be obedient and work with readiness and pleasure to himself.