François Baucher

“ Long and conscientious observations have shown me that, whatever be the fault of formation that in the horse prevents a just distribution of his forces, it is always in the neck that the most immediate effect is felt. There is no improper movement, no resistance that is not preceded by the contraction of this part of the animal; and as the jaw is intimately connected with the neck, the stiffness of the one is instantly communicated to the other. These two points are the prop upon which the horse rests, in order to annul all the rider's efforts. ”

“ They try hard at first to deny the knowledge of the innovator; but the masses who instinctively know the true, and judge from what they see, soon range themselves on his side, turn their backs upon his detractors, and leave them to their solitude and vain pretensions.
To the mass of horsemen I address myself, when I say, either the horse is under the influence of your forces, and entirely submissive to your power, or you are struggling with him. ”

“ How can we believe that, according as a horse has one or two lines of flesh, more or less, between the bit and the bone of the lower jaw, he should yield to the lightest impulse of the hand, or become unmanageable in spite of all the efforts of two vigorous arms? ”

“ When things get into this state, they can only grow worse. The rider, soon disgusted with the impotence of his efforts, will cast back upon the horse the responsibility of his own ignorance; he will brand as a jade an animal possessing the most brilliant resources, and of whom, with more discernment and tact, he could have made a hackney as docile in character, as graceful and agreeable in his paces. ”

“ It is here that we will be enabled to appreciate the good effects and the indispensable necessity of suppling the neck and haunches. Backing, which at first is tolerably painful to the horse, will always lead him to combat the motions of our hand, by stiffening his neck, and those of our legs, by contracting his croup; these are the instinctive resistances. If we cannot obviate the bad disposition of them, how will we be able to obtain that shifting and re-shifting of weight, which alone ought to make the execution of this movement perfect? ”

“ You gather your horse by raising the hand and closing the legs. I ask, what good can this movement of the rider do upon an animal badly formed, contracted, and that remains under the influence of all the evil propensities of its nature? This mechanical support of the hands and legs, far from preparing the horse for obedience, will only make him redouble his means of resistance, since, while giving him notice that we are about to demand a movement on his part, we remain unable to dispose his forces in such a way as to force him to it. ”

“ In vain would be our labor to render the head and neck flexible, light, obedient to the touch of the hand; incomplete would be the results, the equilibrium of the whole imperfect, as long as the croup remained dull, contracted and rebellious to the direct governing agent. ”

“ To a horse of natural action, but with long weak loins, and bad action behind, every motion backward is painful, and the very disposition that leads him to rush ahead, serves him to avoid the pain of the spur. He returns to this movement whenever he feels the rider's legs touch him; and far from being a spirited horse, he is only scared and crazy. The more he feels the spur, the more he plunges out of hand, and baffles the means intended to make him obedient. There is everything to fear from such a horse; he will scare at objects from the very ease he possesses of avoiding them. ”

“ The resistances to the hand are always either sideways, upward or downward. I at first considered the neck alone as the source of these resistances, and exercised myself in suppling the animal by flexions, repeated in every direction. The result was immense; but, although, at the end of a certain time, the supplings of the neck rendered me perfectly master of the forces of the fore-parts of the horse, I still felt a slight resistance which I could not at first account for. ”

“ Let them render attractive and to the purpose studies which have hitherto been too monotonous and often barren; let rational and true principles make the scholar see a real progress, that each of his efforts brings a success with it; and we will soon see young persons of fortune become passionately fond of an exercise which has been rendered as interesting to them as it is noble, and discover, with their love for horses, a lively solicitude for all that concerns their qualities and education. ”

“ We can bring all horses to piaffer, and I will prove that in this particularly, without reforming the work of nature, without deranging the formation of the bones, or that of the muscles of the animal, we can remedy the consequences of its physical imperfections, and change the vicious disposition occasioned by faulty construction. There is no doubt that the horse whose forces and weight are collected in one of his extremities will be unfit to execute the elegant cadence of the piaffer. ”

“ Of their causes and effects.—The horse, like all organized beings, is possessed of a weight and a force peculiar to himself. The weight inherent to the material of which the animal is composed, renders the mass inert, and tends to fix it to the ground. The force, on the contrary, by the faculty it gives him of moving this weight, of dividing it, of transferring it from one of his parts to another, communicates movement to his whole being, determines his equilibrium, speed and direction. ”

“ People have never rightly understood what it means, this true equilibrium of a horse, which serves as the basis of his education, and by which he takes instantly, at the rider's will, such a pace, or such a change or direction. ”

“ By the exercise of suppling, we have completely annulled the instinctive forces of the horse. We must now reunite these forces in their true centre of gravity, that is, the middle of the animal's body; it is by the properly combined opposition of the legs and hands that we will succeed in this. The advantages we possess already over the horse, will enable us to combat from their very birth, all the resistances which tend to make him leave the proper position, the only one in which we can successfully practice these oppositions. ”

“ That being the case, it is understood that the difficulty of horsemanship does not consist in the direction to give the horse, but in the position to make him assume—a position which alone can smooth all obstacles. ”

“ In the progression we are about to pursue in order to subject the different parts of the animal to suppling, we will naturally commence with the most important parts, that is to say, with the jaw and neck.
The head and neck of the horse are at once the rudder and compass of the rider. By them he directs the animal; [34] by them, also, he can judge of the regularity and precision of his movements. The equilibrium of the whole body is perfect, its lightness complete, when the head and neck remain of themselves easy, pliable and graceful. ”

“ He will submit himself calmly and without repugnance to work in which there will be nothing painful to him, and we will be able thus to push his education to the farthest limits, not only without injury to his physical organization, but in restoring to their normal state organs that a forced exercise might have weakened. This regular development of all the organs of the horse will not only give him grace, but also strength and health, and will thus prolong his existence, while increasing a hundredfold the delights of the true horseman. ”

“ When the latter himself determines the use of them, the forces are instinctive; I call them transmitted when they emanate from the rider. In the first case, the man governed by his horse remains the plaything of his caprices; in the second, on the contrary, he makes him a docile instrument, submissive to all the impulses of his will. The horse, then, from the moment he is mounted, should only act by transmitted forces. The invariable application of this principle constitutes the true talent of the horseman. ”

“ I have often proved that horses that were considered dull, or unable to move their shoulders freely, have not the defect that is supposed; in other words, that it is very rare that they are paralyzed in their shoulders so as to injure the regularity and speed of their paces, principally as regards trotting. The shoulders of the horse, if I may use the comparison, resemble the wings of a wind-mill; the impulse given by the hocks replaces the motive force. ”

“ I have just explained the simple and easy means of giving to the fore-parts the qualities indispensable to a good management thereof: it remains to tell how we will fashion, in the same way, the hind-parts, in order to complete the suppling of the horse, and bring about a uniform harmony in the development of all his moving parts. The resistances of the neck and croup mutually aiding one another, our labor will be more easy, as we have already destroyed the former. ”

“ The method of horsemanship of M. Baucher is positive and rational; it is easy to understand, especially when studied under the direction of some one who knows it. It is attractive to the rider, gives him a taste for horses and horsemanship, tends to develop the horse's qualities, especially that of lightness, which is so delightful to discover in a saddle-horse. * * Applied to the breaking of young horses, it develops their instinct, makes them find the domination of the rider easy and pleasant; it preserves them from the premature ruin that an improper breaking often brings with it ”

“ By giving a good direction to the forces, we will facilitate the rise and freedom of the bound. I do not pretend by this, to say, that a horse of ordinary capabilities will attain the same height and elegance in this movement as one that is well constituted, but he will, at least, be able to display in it all the resources of his organization to more purpose. ”