A New System of Horsemanship

CHAP. VI.

Of teaching a Horse to go backward

The Action of a Horse, when he goes backward, is to have always one of his hinder Legs under his Belly, to push his Croupe backward, to bend his Haunches, and to rest and ballance himself, one time on one Leg, one on the other; this Lesson is very efficacious to lighten a Horse, to settle him in the Hand, to make him ready to advance and go forward, and to prepare him to put himself together, and sit down upon his Haunches.

It should not however be practised, till the Horse has been well laid out and worked in the Trot, and his Limbs are become supple; because, till he is arrived to this Point, you should not begin to unite or put him together: Care must be taken, that this Action of going backward be just, and that in performing it, the Horse keeps his Head steady, fixt, and in a right Place; that his Body be trussed or gathered up, as it were, under him; that his Feet be even; that he be not upon his Shoulders, but on the contrary, on his Haunches; for if he should be false as to any of these Particulars, this Lesson, very far from putting him together, would have the contrary Effect, and dis-unite him.

In order that a Horse may be able to execute what is required of him, he must first comprehend what it is that is asked of him, and for this Purpose the Horseman should make his Lessons short, and demand but little at a Time; begin then to make him go backward, when he is arrived far enough to understand what you expect him to do; but at first be contented with a little, it is sufficient if he understands what you want.

There are Horses, who can go backward, not only with great Ease, but do it even with the Exactness of Horses that are perfectly drest; if you examine these Horses, you will find that all the Parts of their Body are exactly proportioned; they have Strength, and Nature herself has taught them to unite themselves; but there are others, who can't go backwards without great Difficulty; these are weak in the Back, or otherwise imperfect in their Make; don't demand too much of these, work them with caution, for Rigour with such Horses, is never successful.

There are another sort of Horses, who never can be reconciled to Subjection; whenever you try to make them go backward, they fix their fore Feet fast upon the Ground, and arm themselves; in this Case you must endeavour to win them, as it were insensibly, and by degrees. For this Purpose, raise your hand a little, remove it from your Body, at the same time shake your Reins, and you will find that by degrees you will accustom your Horse to obey; but remember at the same time, that you would have a less share of Reason, than the Animal you undertake to dress, were you to expect to reduce him to Obedience all at once; your Horse answering to the Reins which you shake, will move perhaps only one of his fore Feet, leaving the other advanced; this Posture without doubt is defective, because he is dis-united; but as Perfection can't be gained at once, Patience and gentle Usage are the only certain Methods of bringing your Horse to perform what you want. There are others, who when they go backward, do it with Fury and Impatience; these you should correct, briskly, and support lightly with your Legs, while they go backward. There are another sort, who work their lower Jaw about as if they wanted to catch hold of the Bit, who bear upon the Hand, and endeavour to force it; to such Horses you must keep your Hand extremely low, and your Reins exactly even, distribute equally the Power of each, by rounding your Wrist, and keeping your Nails exactly opposite your Body.

After having made your Horse go backward, let him advance two or three Steps, if he obeys the Hand readily. – This will take off any Dislike or Fear, he may entertain from the Constraint of going backward; if he forces the Hand in going backward, these three Steps forward will contribute to bring him into it again; and lastly, they prevent any Vice, that this Lesson might otherwise produce.

After having advanced three Steps, let him stop, and turn him; you will by these means support him, and take him off from any ill Designs, which the Treatment you are obliged to observe towards him, in order to make him stop and go backward with Precision and Order, might otherwise give rise to. – After having turned him, make him go backward, you will prevent his having too great Desire of going too soon from the Place where he stopp'd, as well as from that to which he turned.

The Moment the Stop is made, give him his Bridle; by stopping you have augmented the Degree of the Apuy in the Horse's Mouth; you must increase it still more, in order to make him go backwards; hence a hard Hand and bad Mouth.

This Reasoning is plain, and these Principles are true; notwithstanding which, there are few Horsemen who attend to it, either because they never think and reflect, or else that the Force of bad Habits overcomes them.

This Lesson, if well weigh'd and given properly, is a necessary and certain Method of teaching Horses to make a good Stop, of rendering them light and obedient when they pull or are beyond the Degree of what is call'd full in the Hand. – But if given improperly, or if too often repeated, it then grows to be a Habit, and a Habit is no Correction. Never practise it long with Horses who are hot, and who have hard Mouths, their Impatience and Heat, join'd to Habit and Custom, would prevent them from knowing the Cause, and feeling the Effects. It is the same with those who have short Fore-hands; for as they are generally thick-shoulder'd and heavy, the Difficulty they feel to collect themselves upon their Haunches, naturally disposes them to press the Branches of the Bit against their Chest, by which means this Lesson becomes quite ineffectual.

CHAP. VII.

Of the uniting or putting a Horse together

The End which the Horseman proposes to attain by his Art, is to give to the Horses, which he undertakes, the Union, without which, no Horse can be said to be perfectly drest; every one allows that the whole of the Art depends upon this, yet few People reason or act from Principles and Theory, but trust entirely to Practice; hence it follows, that they must work upon Foundations false and uncertain, and so thick is the Darkness in which they wander, that it is difficult to find any one who is able to define this Term of uniting or putting a Horse together, which is yet so constantly in the Mouth of every Body; I will undertake, however, to give a clear and distinct Idea of it; and for that Purpose shall treat it with Order and Method.

The uniting then or putting together, is the Action by which a Horse draws together and assembles the Parts of his Body, and his Strength, in distributing it equally upon his four Legs, and in re-uniting or drawing them together, as we do ourselves, when we are going to jump, or perform any other Action which demands Strength and Agility. This Posture alone is sufficient to settle and place the Head of the Animal, to lighten and render his Shoulders and Legs active, which from the Structure of his Body, support and govern the greater Part of his Weight; being then by these means made steady, and his Head well placed, you will perceive in every Motion that he makes, a surprizing Correspondence of the Parts with the whole. I say, that from the natural Structure of a Horse's Body, his Legs and Shoulders support the greatest Part of his Weight, in reality his Croupe or Haunches carry nothing but his Tail, while his fore Legs, being perpendicular, are loaded with the Head, Neck, and Shoulders; so that, let the Animal be ever so well made, ever so well proportioned, his fore Part, either when he is in Motion, or in a State of Rest, is always employed, and consequently in want of the Assistance of Art to ease it; and in this consists the Union or putting together, which by putting the Horse upon his Haunches, counterballances and relieves his fore Part.

The Union not only helps and relieves the Part of the Horse that is the weakest, but it is so necessary to every Horse, that no Horse that is dis-united can go freely, he can neither Leap nor Gallop with Agility and Lightness, nor run without being in manifest Danger of falling and pitching himself headlong, because his Motions have no Harmony, no Agreement one with another. It is allowed, that Nature has given to every Horse a certain Equilibre, by which he supports and regulates himself in all his Motions; we knew that his Body is supported by his four Legs, and that his four Legs have a Motion, which his Body must of necessity follow; but yet this natural Equilibre is not sufficient. All Men can walk, they are supported on two Legs, notwithstanding this we make a great Difference between that Person to whom proper Exercises have taught the free Use of his Limbs, and him whose Carriage is unimproved by Art, and consequently heavy and aukward.

'Tis just the same with respect to a Horse; we must have recourse to Art to unfold the natural Powers that lay hid and are shut up in him, if we mean he should make a proper Use of the Limbs which Nature has given him; the Use of which can be discover'd and made familiar to him no other way than by working him upon true and just Principles.

The Trot is very efficacious to bring a Horse to this Union so important, and so necessary; I speak of the Trot, in which he is supported and kept together, and suppled at the same time; this compels the Horse to put himself together: in effect, the Trot in which a Horse is well supported partakes of a quick and violent Motion: It forces a Horse to collect and unite all his Strength, because it is impossible that a Horse that is kept together, should at the same time abandon and fling himself forward. I explain myself thus. – In order to support your Horse in his Trot, the Horseman should hold his Hand near his Body, keeping his Horse together a little, and have his Legs near his Sides. The Effect of the Hand is to confine and raise the fore Parts of the Horse; the Effect of the Legs is to push and drive forward the hinder Parts: Now if the fore Parts are kept back or confin'd, and the hinder Parts are driven forward, the Horse in a quick Motion, such as the Trot, must of necessity sit down upon his Haunches, and unite and put himself together.

For the same Reason making your Horse launch out vigorously in his Trot, and quickening his Cadence from time to time, putting him to make Pesades, stopping him and making him go backward, will all contribute towards his acquiring the Union. – I would define his going off readily, or all at once, not to be a violent and precipitate Manner of Running, but only to consist in the Horse's being a little animated, and going somewhat faster than the ordinary Time of his Pace. – Your Horse trots, press him a little; in the Instant that he redoubles and quickens his Action, moderate and shorten, if I may so say, the Hurry of his Pace; the more then that he presses to go forward, the more will his being check'd and confin'd tend to unite his Limbs, and the Union will owe its Birth to opposite Causes; that is to say, on one hand to the Ardour of the Horse who presses to go forward, and to the Diligence and Attention of the Horseman on the other, who, by holding him in, slackens the Pace, and raises the Fore-parts of the Creature, and at the same time distributes his Strength equally to all his Limbs. The Action of a Horse, when going backward, is directly opposite to his abandoning himself upon his Shoulders; by this you compel him to put himself upon his Haunches: this Lesson is by so much therefore the more effectual, as that the Cause of a Horse's being dis-united, is often owing to the Pain he feels in bending his Haunches.

The Pesades have no less Effect, especially upon Horses that are clumsy and heavy shoulder'd; because they teach them to use them, and to raise them; and when they raise them up, it follows of necessity that all their Weight must be thrown upon their Haunches. A light and gentle Hand then, and the Aids of the Legs judiciously managed, are capable to give a Horse the Union; but it is not so clear at what time we ought to begin to put a Horse upon his Haunches. Is it not necessary before we do this, that the Horse should have his Shoulders entirely suppled? It is evident, that a Horse can never support himself upon his Haunches, unless his Fore-part be lightened; let us see then by what means we may hope to acquire this Suppleness, the only Source of light and free Action. Nothing can supple more the Shoulders than the Working a Horse upon large Circles. – Walk him first round the Circle, in order to make him know his Ground; afterwards try to draw his Head in, or towards the Center, by means of your inner Rein and inner Leg. For instance, – I work my Horse upon a Circle, and I go to the Right by pulling the right Rein; I bring in his outward Shoulder by the means of the left Rein, and support him at the same time with my inner Leg; thus the Horse has, if I may so say, his Head in, or towards the Center, although the Croupe is at Liberty. The right Leg crosses over the left Leg, and the right Shoulder is suppled, while the left Leg supports the whole Weight of the Horse in the Action: In working him to the left Hand, and following the same Method, the left Shoulder supples, and the right is pressed and confined. This Lesson, which tends not only to supple the Shoulders, but likewise to give an Apuy, being well comprehended by the Horse, I lead him along the Side of the Wall, – having placed his Head, I make use of the inner Rein, which draws in his Head, and I bring in his outward Shoulder by means of the other Rein: In this Posture, I support him with my inner Leg, and he goes along the Wall, his Croupe being out and at liberty, and his inner Leg passing over and crossing his outward Leg at every Step he makes. – By this, I supple his Neck, I supple his Shoulders, I work his Haunches, and I teach the Horse to know the Heels. I say, that the Haunches are worked, though his Croupe is at liberty, because it is from the Fore-parts only, that a Horse can be upon his Haunches.

In effect, after having placed his Head, draw it in, and you will lengthen his Croupe, you raise him higher before than behind, his Legs come under his Belly, and consequently he bends his Haunches. It is the same as when he comes down Hill, his Croupe, being higher than his Fore-parts, is pushed under him, and the Horse is upon his Haunches; since it is evident that the Hinder support all the Fore-parts, therefore in going along the Side of the Wall, by the means of the inner Rein, I put together and unite my Horse.

Behold then, in short, the most certain Methods of enabling yourself to give to a Horse this Union, this Freedom and Ease, by which learning how to ballance his Weight equally and with Art, and distributing his Strength with Exactness to all his Limbs, he becomes able to undertake and execute with Justness and Grace, whatever the Horseman demands of him, conformable to his Strength and Disposition.

CHAP. VIII.

Of the Pillars

It is the same with respect to the Pillars, as with all other Lessons which you must teach a Horse, in order to make him perfect in his Air. Excellent in itself, it becomes pernicious and destructive under the Direction of the Ignorant, and is not only capable to dishearten any Horse, but to strain and ruin him entirely.

The Pillar partly owes its Origin to the famous Pignatelli[1]. Mess. de la Broue and Pluvinel, who were his Scholars, brought it first into France; the first indeed made little use of it, and seem'd to be very well appriz'd of its Inconveniencies and Dangers; as for the other, one may say, that he knew not a better or shorter Method of dressing and adjusting a Horse. In effect, according to his Notions, working a Horse round a single Pillar could never fail of setting him upon his Haunches, making him advance, suppling and teaching him to turn roundly and exactly; and by putting him between two Pillars, provided he had Vigour, he was taught to obey the Heels readily, to unite himself, and acquire in a shorter time a good Apuy in making Curvets. If he wanted to settle his Horse's Head in a short time, the Pillars were very efficacious. He tied the Horse between them to the Cords of the Snaffle which he had in his Mouth, instead of the Bridle. There he work'd his Horse without a Saddle, and maintain'd, that if the Horse tossed or shook his Head, bore too much, or too little upon his Bridle, he punish'd himself in such a manner, that (as he imagin'd) the Horse was compell'd to put himself upon his Haunches, and to take a good Apuy; especially as the Fear of the Chambriere or Whip, always ready behind him, kept him in awe. The Horse was often taken out of the two Pillars, in order to be put to the single Pillar, with a Cord tied to the Banquet of the Bit as a false Rein; here he was work'd by being made to rise before, and driven round the Pillar, with a design and in hopes of making him step out and embrace, or cover well the Ground he went round, as well as to give him Resolution in his Work, and to cure him of Dullness and Sloth, if he had it in his Temper. We don't know whether Mr. Pluvinel designed any real Advantages from this Method or no; but be that as it will, it prevails no longer among us. – It must be owned, that the two Pillars of his inventing are still preserved, and that no Manage is without them; but at least we have suppress'd the single Pillar, which serves only to fatigue and harrass a Horse: Learn never to put a Horse between the two Pillars till he is well suppled, and you have given him the first Principles of the Union between the Legs, which are the natural Pillars that every Horseman should employ. We must take care to work the Horse with great Prudence at first, and as gently as possible; for a Horse being in this Lesson very much confined and forced, and not able to escape, nor to go forward nor backward, he oftentimes grows quite furious, and abandons himself to every Motion that Rage and Resentment can suggest. Begin then this Lesson in the plainest Manner, contenting yourself with only making him go from side to side, by means of the Switch, or from fear of the Chambriere. At the End of some Days, the Horse, thus become obedient, and accustomed to the Subjection of the Pillars; try to make him insensibly go into the Cords, which when he will do readily, endeavour to get a Step or two exact and in time of the Passage or Piaffer.

Footnote 1: He liv'd at Naples, and was the most eminent Horseman of his Time.

If he offers to present himself to it, be it never so little, make him leave off, encourage him, and send him to the Stable; augment thus your Lessons by degrees, and examine and endeavour to discover to what his Disposition turns, that you may cultivate and improve it. The worst Effect of the Pillars is the Hazard you run of entirely ruining the Hocks of your Horse, if you don't distinguish very exactly between those Parts and the Haunches. Many People think that when the Horse goes into the Cords, he is of consequence upon his Haunches; but they don't remark, that often the Horse only bends his Hocks, and that his Hocks pain him by so much the more, as his hinder Feet are not in their due Equilibre.

The Fore-legs of a Horse are made like those of a Man, the Knees are before or without, the Hinder-legs are shaped like our Arms, he bends his Hocks as we do our Elbows; therefore if he rises before very high, he must stretch and stiffen his Hocks, and consequently can never be seated upon his Haunches; to be upon them, the Horse must bend and bring them under him, because the more his Hinder-legs are brought under him, the more his Hinder-feet are in the necessary Point of Gravity, to support all the Weight of his Body, which is in the Air, in a just Equilibre. – These Remarks are sufficient to evince the Inconveniencies that may arise from the Pillars; never quit sight of these Principles, you will find by adhering to them, the Horse that is drest according to their Tenour, will be a Proof of the real Advantages that you may draw from a Lesson, which never does harm, but when occasioned by the Imprudence or Ignorance of those who give it.

CHAP. IX.

Of Aids and Corrections

An Aid may be termed whatever assists or directs a Horse, and whatever enables him to execute what we put him to do. – Corrections are whatever Methods we use to awe and punish him, whenever he disobeys: Aids therefore are to prevent, and Corrections to punish, whatever Fault he may commit.

The Aids are various, and are to be given in different Manners, upon different Occasions, they are only meant to accompany the Ease and Smoothness of the Horse in his Air, and to form and maintain the Justness of it; for this Reason they ought to be delicate, fine, smooth, and steady, and proportioned to the Sensibility or Feeling of the Horse; for if they are harsh and rude, very far from Aiding, they would throw the Horse into Disorder, or else occasion his Manage to be false, his Time broken, constrained, and disagreeable.

Corrections are of two Sorts; you may punish your Horse with the Spurs, the Switch, or Chambriere; you may punish him by keeping him in a greater Degree of Subjection; but in all these Cases, a real Horseman will endeavour rather to work upon the Understanding of the Creature, than upon the different Parts of his Body. A Horse has Imagination, Memory and Judgment; work upon these three Faculties, and you will be most likely to succeed. In reality, the Corrections which reduce a Horse to the greatest Obedience, and which dishearten him the least, are such as are not severe, but such as consist in opposing his Will and Humour, by restraining and putting him to do directly the contrary. – If your Horse don't advance or go off readily, or if he is sluggish, make him go sideways, sometimes to one hand, sometimes to the other, and drive him forward; and so alternatively. – If he goes forward too fast, being extremely quick of feeling, moderate your Aids, and make him go backwards some Steps; if he presses forward with Hurry and Violence, make him go backward a great deal. – If he is disorderly and turbulent, walk him strait forward, with his Head in and Croupe out; these sorts of Corrections have great Influence upon most Horses. It is true, that there are some of so bad and rebellious Dispositions, which availing themselves of their Memory to falsify their Lessons, require sharp Correction, and upon whom gentle Punishment would have no Effect; but in using Severity to such Horses, great Prudence and Management are necessary. The Character of a Horseman is to work with Design, and to execute with Method and Order; he should have more Forbearance, more Experience, and more Sagacity than most People are possessed of.

The Spurs, when used by a knowing and able Horseman, are of great Service; but when used improperly, nothing so soon makes a Horse abject and jadish. Given properly, they awe and correct the Animal; given unduly, they make him restive and vicious, and are even capable of Discouraging a drest Horse, and giving him a Disgust to the Manage; don't be too hasty therefore to correct your Horse with them.

Be patient; if your Horse deserves Punishment, punish him smartly, but seldom; for besides your habituating him to Blows, till he ceases to mind them, you will astonish and confound him, and be more likely to make him rebel, than to bring him to the Point you aim at. To give your Horse both Spurs properly, you must change the Posture of your Legs, and bending your Knee, strike him with them at once as quick and firmly as you can. A Stroke of the Spurs wrongly given is no Punishment; it rather hardens the Horse against them, teaches him to shake and frisk about his Tail, and often to return the Blow with a Kick. Take care never to open your Thighs and Legs in order to give both Spurs, for besides that the Blow would not be at all stronger for being given in this Manner, you would by this means lose the Time in which you ought to give it, and the Horse would rather be alarmed at the Motion you make in order to give the Blow, than punished by it when he felt in; and thence your Action becoming irregular, could never produce a good Effect.