Part 8

It will suffice for you, though, Tom, if Nelly will make the pirouette, simple or reversed, without substantially shifting the position of the two pivot feet. But you must remember that if you start with a half-and-half education, it is more difficult to perfect the training than if you start in a more systematic manner; and I do not pretend that these are the proper, but only easy methods.

It is by the union of the side steps of forehand and croup, the former always a trifle in advance, that a horse is taught to "traverse," that is, to move sideways at a walk, trot, or gallop. But the traverse is a School gait rarely needed on the road, and a horse may be trained to entire usefulness without being able to traverse, _as a gait_, if he can willingly make a few quick side steps in either direction. Moreover, to properly traverse, a horse should be taught the passage, which is a gait in which the feet are raised much higher, by the inducement of the spur and the indication of the rein, than the horse would naturally lift them. The passage is put to use in very many of the airs of the _manège_.

XXXIX.

To revert now to the canter, for which the pirouettes are preparations. There are two or three ways of teaching a horse to lead with either foot, but the best way is to begin with the flexions which I have just described to you, and the more perfect these are, the easier and quicker the progress, and the more satisfactory the result.

If you have not patience to wade through all these, you may try the following plan, which is founded on the natural instincts and balance of the horse, but for the execution of which, with your load on his back, he has not been prepared.

A horse will lead with the off foot most readily if he is going round a circle to the right; with the near foot, if circling to the left. In other words, the foot which will quickest sustain his weight against the centrifugal motion is the one which is planted first, that is, the foot not leading. The way a horse is taught in a riding-school to lead with either foot is by associating the proper indication to do so with the lead he naturally takes as he canters around the right or left of the ring, or changes direction in what are called the voltes in teaching pupils. But I have seen many horses who would do this very readily inside school walls, who were very stupid or refractory on a straight bit of road. I think this is universally true, in fact, and that is why I recommend road teaching whenever practicable.

It cannot be alleged that every horse will always use the proper foot in the lead. A horse unused to cantering with a rider's weight upon his back may do all kinds of awkward things which at liberty, or when trained, he will not attempt to do. But the above way of leading is the natural thing, and that which a horse generally does when at liberty; and it is not hard to induce him to do what comes naturally to him, nor by practice to strengthen the habit.

The action of the legs of the leading side is higher in the canter and the gallop than that of the other pair. A horse is said to be "false" in his canter or gallop if he turns with a wrong lead, that is, if he turns to the right until he alters his lead to the right shoulder, unless he is already so leading, or _vice versa_. This is true of sharp turns, which may indeed cause a dangerous fall if "false," but a horse can safely make turns with a long radius and good footing without altering his lead, and this is often convenient to be done. But if the ground is slippery, it is a risk to turn a sharp corner with a wrong lead. I have often seen men punish a horse for slipping at such a turn, when it was solely owing to the false lead that he did so; and the false lead was either the lack of education in the horse or the rider, or both. Sometimes a horse will be leading with one shoulder, and following with the alternate hind leg. He is then said to be "disunited," or "disconnected." The leg or spur, applied on either side to bring him to the proper lead, will soon correct this error, as it is equally disagreeable to horse and rider, and it is a relief to both to change it.

Now, acting on this theory of the horse having a natural lead, suppose you canter Nelly about in a circle small enough to induce her to use the proper leg in the lead. A circle fifty feet in diameter will do. At the same time apply a constant but slight pressure of your leg on the side opposite her leading shoulder. She will by and by associate this pressure with what you want her to do. Stick to one direction long enough, say three or four days, to impress the idea on her mind, and she will be rather apt to keep it in memory. Then try the other direction with opposite pressure, and you will gradually get the opposite result.

Again, a horse canters best with off shoulder leading, if moving along the side of a hill which slopes up to his right, and _vice versa_. Thus, if you keep on the left side of most roads, where the grade slopes towards the gutter, you will find that Nelly will lead best with her right shoulder. This is for the same reason. She wishes to plant quickest that foot which will keep her from slipping down hill. If she is on the right of the road she will lead best with the left shoulder. She will, perhaps, not do this as readily as on the circle, but she will be apt to do it. If you should watch a horse in the circus ring, you would notice that this is apparently not true. But the slanting path of the circus ring is really not on a slant at all, when we calculate the centrifugal force of the motion around so small a circle. It is as if a horse were moving on a horizontal plane, for he is really perpendicular to the slanting path; and its tipped position is governed by the same mathematical rule as the road-bed of a railroad curve.

You may utilize this slanting instinct also in the same fashion as the circle first mentioned for getting the elementary idea into Nelly's head that pressure on one side means leading with the opposite shoulder. Moreover, the side of the road, which is the slope most handy, has the additional advantage of being generally the softest cantering ground.

There is an upward play of the rein, which can be explained only to the student who has advanced some distance in the art, which tends to lighten, or invigorate one or the other side of a horse, and thus induce him, coupled with other means, to make the long strides, that is, lead, with the lightened or active shoulder. But you, Tom, will not be able to use this until you have devoted more time to study as well as practice.

After you have tried the circle to your satisfaction, try cantering in a figure eight of sufficient size. Nelly will thereby learn instinctively to change step as she comes to the loops. You can probably find a field or lawn somewhere on which you can practice. Out-of-door instruction is always preferable to riding-school work, if equally good, both for man and beast. And such instruction as these hints are intended to enable you to give, will teach you more than the average riding-school ever does. I by no means refer to those schools which teach equitation as a true art, instead of merely drilling you in the bald elements of riding. Nor is there any better place to give Nelly proper instruction than a riding-school, unless it be the lawn or field. What you teach Nelly out-of-doors you will find her much more willing and able to put into use on the road than if she had gone through the same drill in a school.

XL.

The above is, of course, the crudest of methods compared with the best School systems, but if you have taught Nelly her side steps (or pirouettes), as I have described them to you, or in other words have to a certain extent suppled her forehand and croup by the proper flexions, you can start in a more certain way. You must not expect to succeed at once. Success depends upon Nelly's intelligence, your own patience, and the delicate perceptions of both. I assume that you will have already taught Nelly to canter whenever you wish her to do so, though she may have been selecting her own lead. Now, you can, of course, see, when you want her to canter, that if you keep her head straight with the reins and press upon her near flank with your leg, she will throw her croup away from your leg, and be for the moment out of the true line of advance. This is bad for the walk or the trot, but just what you want to induce her to start the canter with the off shoulder leading. For if you can keep her in this position until she takes the canter, she will be more apt to lead off with her right shoulder, because the forcing of her croup to the right has also pushed this shoulder in advance of the other. If at the same time she is traveling along a slope which runs up from her right, say the left side of the road, or on a circle turning to the right, she will be all the more apt to do this. You can aid her also by a little marked play with the right rein, which will tend to enliven that side, and by giving it increased action, aid in bringing it forward, even if not done with entire expertness.

A number of English writers state that the proper indication for the lead with the right foot is a tap of the whip on the right side, but this appears to be lacking in good theory, and might prove very confusing to a horse, despite the fact that the animal can be made to learn anything as an indication. A tap of the whip under the right elbow would be more consistent with the horse's action, although it is quite possible, as a feat, to teach a horse to lead with the off shoulder by pulling his off ear, or his tail, for the matter of that. But indications are best when they tally with a sound theory of the horse's motions.

Reverse causes will induce Nelly to lead with the left shoulder. Not, of course, at once. For though she will do it in a circle or figure eight, on the road she may still be often confused. It requires much time and practice to make her perfect. But once Nelly catches the idea, you can surely succeed in impressing it on her for good and all, and though she will blunder often enough, she will in the end learn it thoroughly.

When you start out to make Nelly lead off with one shoulder, be sure you accomplish your object. If she leads off with the other, stop her at once, and try again. Always succeed with a horse in what you undertake. If you cannot, on any given day, make Nelly lead right, do not let her canter at all, but keep her on a trot or a walk. It requires a number of successful trials to make it plain to the intelligence of a horse that he has done what you want, and is to do it again on similar indications. It is, therefore, well for him not to have to learn too many new lessons at once.

XLI.

To change lead in motion is harder for the horse and rider both to learn, and there is no better test of a well-trained horse than an immediate and balanced change of lead on call. A canter is a gait somewhat similar to the gallop, though the feet move and come down in different progression. But at certain times one or more of the four feet are successively sustaining the weight, and there is an interval when the horse is unsupported in the air, or has only one hind foot upon the ground. It is this last period which the horse chooses in which to change his lead. Now, suppose you are cantering with Nelly's right shoulder leading, and want her to change to the left. If you press upon her right flank with your leg, she will want to shift her croup to the left. This will incline her naturally to turn her head to the right, which inclination you must counteract with as little motion as possible of the reins. Nelly will thus find that she is cantering uncomfortably to herself, and if you will keep along in this way for a few strides, she will very likely shift to her left lead, because the constraint of your leg and the bit are irksome while she continues to lead with the right, and she will try what she can do to get rid of the restraint. She certainly will change after a while, particularly if aided by the circle or slope, even if she does it because she does not know what else to do. And by rousing or lightening the left shoulder by a play of the left rein you will materially aid the change. So soon as she has changed, reward her by a few words, and canter along on the new lead.

The reverse accomplishes a similar result. It will probably take you many weeks to bring about all this. If you do it in a few weeks, you will succeed far beyond the average. But the process of teaching an intelligent horse, if you are patient, is as pleasant as the result of the lessons is agreeable, after they have had their due effect.

A horse should be so well trained as to be ready to turn with a "false" lead if you ask him to do so. Left to himself, he should take the proper lead at the moment of turning. But he must obey you to the extent of doing what he would otherwise not do, and should properly not do, if you give him the indication. And this without becoming confused, so as to fail to do the proper thing on the next occasion.

Though I by no means hold up Patroclus to-day as a model performer of School-paces, which I am perhaps too lazy to keep him as perfect in as I ought to do, the results of good training still remain. I sometimes, when out of sight, canter him quite a stretch, say quarter of a mile, changing lead, first every fourth stride, then every third stride, then every second, in regular rhythmic succession. If Patroclus fails to do this feat with exactness, I can always recognize my own error in too late an indication, rather than his in obeying it. It is possible to canter him very slowly with a change of lead at every stride, but such work is very exhausting to a horse, and I have not often done it. This latter feat must be done so slowly that the gait is properly not a canter; but Patroclus can perform the true canter, and change at every second step readily for several hundred yards.

There are undoubtedly many well-trained horses in Boston, very likely more highly trained ones than I am aware of; but certainly the great majority of saddle beasts possess scarcely the rudiments of an education. This seems to be a pity, when it requires so little labor to give them one, if their owners will but learn how to do so.

Not long ago a friend of mine, and an old rider too, was exhibiting to me a recently purchased horse, for whom he had paid a high price, because he was said to have come fresh from the hands of some noted trainer. The horse would fall into a canter with his own lead readily enough, but when, after a struggle of some hundred yards, he was made to lead with the foot selected by the rider, it was thought to be a triumph of cleverness. Is not this a common case? And would it not be well to rectify it?

XLII.

There are a number of little exercises which you ought by no means to omit, as, for instance, practicing Nelly in backing quickly, handily, and without losing her balance. This is only to be done by slow degrees, a few steps at a time, and by generously rewarding progress as she increases her number of backward steps. Never force her. Use persuasion only. In doing this, watch that she is always well poised. Otherwise she cannot back properly. You must also teach her, by that use of the reins and legs which you will already have learned, to change direction as she backs, as easily as she does in moving forward. These necessary things she has already been crudely taught in her breaking-in.

If Nelly has the pride of a courageous horse, as I should judge by her bright eye that she had, she will be fairly greedy of kind words and caresses. And I trust you will never allow her to become afraid of the whip. You should be able to switch your whip all about her face without her heeding it. Reward goes much farther than punishment. The latter needs very rarely to be resorted to. I have never used it, barring in isolated cases, but what afterwards I was ashamed of it, and not infrequently I have made most sincere apology and amends to the sufferer. But the harm done has always been hard to eradicate. An impatient man quickly loses his standing in the confidence and affection of an intelligent horse. In your training, a whip will be much more useful than a crop. The latter is but a badge of fashion, of absolutely no use on the road, and of but little in education.

Now, Tom, I have suggested to you a number of very crude rules for training your mare. Like Captain Jack Bunsby I ought to add that "the bearings of this observation lays in the application on it." But by the patient aid of even these simple methods, intelligently used, you will have given Nelly an easy mouth, you will have suppled her forehand and croup, and you will have taught her to canter with either foot in the lead.

Everything which I have told you can be put to use by a lady as well as a man. But a lady needs preliminary teaching in a school, because it is neither pleasant nor safe for her to be on the road quite untaught. But having acquired a seat and some little control of her horse, she can apply all the rules I have given you, using her whip as a man would use his right leg. The short skirts of the day enable her to use her left leg as readily as you can.

The gallop comes of itself, and needs but care that your own position is good and does not lose firmness or interfere with your hands. Better sit down to the gallop. The jockey habit of galloping in the stirrups is rarely of use except as a means of changing your own seat and sometimes of easing your horse across ploughed fields or bad ground. It is never proper for the road.

XLIII.

Having got thus far, you will surely want to teach the mare to jump and yourself to sit her firmly when she does so. Perhaps you may choose to defer the tedious processes described and go at jumping at once.

If you think you can sit a fairish jump, probably the best plan is to follow the hounds in a quiet way some day, if it happens to be in their season. A great many horses will jump imitatively when in company and do pretty clean simple work. There is a bit of a chance for a blunder this way, because a horse unused to jumping cannot gauge his work and may come down. But by taking him slowly at his fences, perhaps at a walk, there is comparatively little risk. It is the exceptional horse who will jump well in cold blood, like Patroclus in the illustrations. But any horse can be taught to do so in a measure, and no horse can be called a hunter unless he will do so cleverly.

If you first go out with the hounds, there is some danger that if your seat is insecure you will drag Nelly back from her leaps, and worry or confuse her so much that you will lose a deal of ground. Though, indeed, she will be less readily spoiled if she gets excited by the chase, than if put at equally high jumps as a lesson, because her eagerness to keep up with the other horses will exceed her annoyance at your unsteady hands.

I would advise you, on the whole, to have a little practice in some quiet spot all by yourself. A horse who will only jump in company is far from perfect in this accomplishment. A well-trained horse should jump a three and a half foot gate or an eight foot ditch at any time as willingly as start into a sharp gallop.

I assume that Nelly knows nothing of leaping. Wander off into the fields somewhere. Find a place where there is a gate or fence of several bars. Let all these down but one or two,--leaving enough in height for Nelly to step over if she lifts her feet way up,--say twenty inches. A fallen log is an excellent thing to try on. Make her cross and recross the bar or log a number of times, by persuasion only. Any horse will step over a high bar if you stand him in front of it and encourage him. Don't scold or strike her. Nothing disheartens the learning or courageous horse so much.

From the days of Xenophon down, any one who loses his temper in training a horse, or uses any but gentle means, violates the precept, practice, and experience of all successful horsemen.

"But never to approach a horse in a fit of anger is the one great precept and maxim of conduct in regard to the treatment of a horse; for anger is destitute of forethought, and consequently often does that of which the agent must necessarily repent." Xen. Horsemanship, vi. 13.

Curiously enough, in spite of this rule, Xenophon advocates the use of the whip and spur in teaching a horse to leap--the gravest error, I think, of this exceedingly sensible horseman.

It has been said that you should not make a horse keep on jumping the same obstacle, because he sees no reason for doing it, and feels that you are making a fool of him. But my experience is that a horse likes to jump at any well-known thing, if he has been petted or rewarded for cleverly clearing it. A horse who has been given a bit of sugar or apple after jumping is far from feeling that he has been made a fool of, even if he is jumped a dozen times over the same obstacle. And every horse goes with double confidence at a thing he has leaped before. It is the horse who knows the country who makes easiest headway and quickest after hounds, and is oftenest in at the death. At the same time it is true that a horse can be spoiled by leaping him in cold blood much more easily than when in the company of many others. And it is also true that if a horse is ridden at different things in succession, if such can be readily found, he learns to take whatever comes in his path more handily than if he is confined to only one jump. Still, after once learning to jump any one obstacle, the lesson is easily carried farther by riding across simple bits of country.

As soon as Nelly walks right over the bar without hesitation or any pause longer than enough to lift her feet, walk or jog her up to it a bit faster. She will soon find that it is less exertion for her to rise to it with both feet at once, and hop over it, than to lift her feet so high. As soon as she has caught this idea, reward her with a nibble of something, for she has made her first step in learning the lesson. A little sugar, salt, or a bit of apple, or a green leaf or two, or a bunch of grass you will find to be wonderful incentives.

Don't raise the bar too soon or too much. When Nelly is quite familiar with the small jump at a slow gait, trot her at it. Most horses can jump well from a trot. In fact some of the best riders always trot up to timber. It is a temptation of Providence to try to fly a stiff bit of timber, unless you have a wonderful jumper who knows you well, or unless you are at the beginning of a run, when your horse is in his best condition; and Providence should never be tempted except when a considerable result lies trembling in the balance.

When Nelly takes the obstacle cleverly from a trot, canter her at it, and gradually she will take pleasure in hopping over it, particularly if she now and then gets a tidbit at the other side. Moreover, this tidbit will accomplish another object. It will teach your mare not to rush as soon as she clears her fence, which a horse who is whipped at his jumps almost always does. By insensible degrees and within a few weeks you will get Nelly to jump three feet high, or even three and a half. If she can do this in cold blood, "clane and cliver," she will be able to do anything within reason which you need when in company. You can try her in just the same way at small, then at large ditches, always keeping to the familiar place and rewarding success, until Nelly learns what jumping in the abstract is. After that, try her at all kinds of things in moderation.