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 Ages used the circle to train the horse to bend its spine in the direction of the turn, by yielding to the lateral effects of hand and legs, but without alteration of gait. It was employed especially to teach the animal to take the gallop, since a horse walking or trotting on a circle to the right is already placed. Its neck is already somewhat turned by the snaffle, and to change to the gallop it needs only the impulse of the rider's legs to augment the action of the right hind limb. The circle, therefore, taken alternately at the two hands and by means of the lateral effects, will soon teach the horse to gallop to either side.

This movement, very easy in the lateral equitation, is much more complicated in the reasoned