Page:Equitation.djvu/378

 This is Baucher's principle. Fillis advocates destroying the contraction while the horse is still moving. But a rider of Fillis's ability can do this without danger of confusing his mount, since his seat is so secure that he can resist the defenses which follow the contraction without impairing his effects of hand and legs. But the student or the ordinary rider cannot do this. If he attempts it, he endangers the temper of the horse and the soundness of its limbs. Moreover, the horse gets the idea that it can refuse by contracting; and when the rider applies his effects in correction, the horse discovers that it can resist these by bounding. All this it retains in its memory for use whenever it wishes to defend itself against the rider.

Baucher, on the contrary, always starts from the equestrian axiom: The horse's position of suppleness and balance make possible the execution of the movement asked. This position, since it is the foundation of every movement, must be permanent. To permit the animal to conceive the possibility of movement when not occupying this position is to accustom it to the possibility of contractions, refusals, and bounds. But to stop the horse at the first sign of contraction, to restore its suppleness at once, and only then to carry it forward, is to impress upon its memory the impossibility of moving unless supple and balanced. To follow out this principle invariably develops with the progress of the instruction a second nature in the horse,