Transcriber's Note:
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully aspossible, including inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation.
HAND-BOOK FOR HORSEWOMEN.
BY
H. L. De BUSSIGNY,
FORMERLY LIEUTENANT OF CAVALRY AND INSTRUCTOR OF RIDING
IN THE FRENCH ARMY.
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.
1884.
Copyright, 1884,
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
PREFACE.
For many years two styles of riding haveprevailed in Western Europe—the English andthe continental or school system. The two areusually supposed to be somewhat antagonistic,so much so that the followers of each are notunapt to regard the other with feelings ofmore or less dislike, not to say contempt; theone side being sneered at as pedants, the otherdespised as barbarians. To the unprejudicedboth seem somewhat unreasonable.
The English method, originating in thenational taste for field sports, has developed arace of horsemen worthy of that noblest ofanimals, the thorough-bred horse. The chiefessential for the race-course and the hunting-field,however, being high speed on lines thatare practically straight, the tendency of Englishmenis to leave their horses very muchalone, provided they can gallop and jump andare sufficiently under control not to run away,[Pg 4]the rider usually keeping a pretty even pressureon the bit and making comparatively littleattempt to regulate the animal's action by theuse of his own legs.
The school, on the other hand, is the nurseryof cavalry; and, for the army, speed is not somuch needed as uniformity of movement andgeneral handiness in rapid and complicatedevolutions. Hence the great military ridersof the continent have aimed at bringing thehorse under complete control, and to this endthey have applied themselves to the problemof mastering his hind legs, which are the propellingpower, and therefore the seat of resistance.And it is precisely this subjection thathorses dislike and try to evade with the utmostpersistence. To accomplish the result,the rider is taught so to use his own legs andspurs as to bring the animal's hind legs underhim, and thus carry him forward, instead ofletting him go forward in his own way, as theEnglish do. By balancing the effect of leg andspur upon the hind quarters, against the effectof hand and bit upon the mouth, the horse isbrought into a position of equilibrium betweenthe two, either at rest or in motion; he is thenin complete subjection, and can be moved inany direction at his master's will. This is the[Pg 5]basis of the whole manege system, and it isthus that horses are made to passage, to piaffer,or even to trot backward.
The objection to the method is that, as equilibriumis gained, initiative is diminished, andthis, together with the pedantry of the old-fashionedprofessors of the haute école, served tobring the whole theory into disrepute.
Looked at impartially, nevertheless, it mustbe admitted that each system is well adaptedto accomplish