Patroclus and Penelope: A Chat in the Saddle

XXXIV

When you have got Nelly to the point where she guides fairly well by the neck, what next?

It is evident that the muscles of your mare's neck are rather rigid, for she carries it straight, though her crest is well curved. From this rigidity springs that resistance to the bit which she so constantly shows. A neck which arches easily means, as a rule, obedience to it. It is extremely rare that a horse will arch his neck, except when very fresh, so as to bring his mouth to the yielding position and keep it there, of his own volition; and then he is apt to pull on your hands. You must not suppose that an arched neck means that the horseman is worrying his beast to make him appear proud or prance for the purpose of showing off. It is precisely this which a good horseman never does. He always uses his bits gently. It is cruelty, as well as ruin to the horse's mouth, to hold him by the curb until his neck tires, and he leans upon it, held suspended by the equal torture of the chain and the aching muscles. A horse never should pull on a curb. If your hands are light, the curb rein may be loose and still the horse's head be in its proper position, that is, about perpendicular. The well-trained horse, without the slightest effort, arches his neck to the curb or snaffle alike, and keeps it so. It is only when his rider releases it, or chooses to let him "have his head" that he takes it. Often, in fact, a horse will not do so when you give him the chance. Patroclus here will get tired out, certainly completely tire me out, long before his bit becomes irksome. When trotting, or when galloping across the fields or in deep snow, I am often apt to let him carry his head as he chooses on account of the change or the extra exertion. But with his well-suppled neck I always feel certain that the slightest intimation of the bit will bring his head in place instead of meeting resistance. And he generally seems to prefer to bring his head well into the bit, so, as it were, to establish agreeable relations with you. I often notice that he feels unsteady if I give him his head too much. And when tired, he seems to like the encouragement given by light and lively hands all the more.

The first thing, then, to do is to get Penelope's neck suppled. This means that the naturally rigid muscles of the neck shall be by proper exercises made so supple as to allow the mare to bring her head to the position where there can be a constant "give and take" between your hands and her mouth. The usual outward sign of such suppleness is an arched neck, though as occasionally an habitual puller will arch his neck naturally, this is not an infallible sign. And some horses, especially thoroughbreds, however good their wind, will roar if you too quickly bring their heads in. This is because the wind-pipe of such horses is compressed too much by arching the neck. Thoroughbreds on the turf are wont to stick their noses out while running, because this affords them the best breathing power at very high speed. This habit becomes hereditary, and among them there are not a few who cannot readily be brought in by the bit. Sometimes, except as a feat, you can never supple such necks. Oftener, it only needs more time and patience, – in other words a slower process. A limber-necked thoroughbred has, however, the most delightful of mouths, except for the fact that he seems occasionally to draw or yield almost a yard of rein, owing to the length of his neck, and your hands have to be watched accordingly. If he has such a neck, the only safety, if he is high-strung, is never to let him beyond the hand.

The result of the suppling of the neck is a soft mouth under all conditions. How shall you begin to supple Nelly's neck, you ask, without the long process of the Schools?

You cannot perfectly, but you may partially do this under saddle. Whenever you are on a walk you may, as a habit, let your horse have his head, and encourage him to keep at his best gait. A dull walker is a nuisance. A little motion of the hands or heels and an occasional word will keep him lively and at work, and get him into the habit of walking well, if he has enough ambition. The School-rider keeps his horse "collected" on the walk at all times, and though the steps are thus shortened, they become quicker and more springy, and the speed is not diminished. I do either way, as the mood takes me, for though I incline to the method of the School-riders, I do not think that it hurts a horse to have entire freedom now and then.

Some amblers are slow walkers, but the five-mile amble takes the place of the rapid walk, and is often more agreeable. Few horses walk more than three and a half miles an hour. A four-mile walk is a good one. Exceptionally, you may reach the ideal five miles. I once knew a horse in Ohio who walked (and not a running walk either, but a square "heel and toe" walk) six miles in an hour, on wagers. But our confab, Tom, often gets too diffuse. Let us go on with our lesson.

XXXV

Here we are quietly walking along the road. Suppose you draw up the reins a bit, the curb somewhat the more. Nelly will at once bring up her head, and very naturally stick out her nose in the endeavor to avoid the pressure of the curb chain. At the same time, as you see, she will shorten her steps. Don't jerk or worry her, but still exert a gentle pressure on the curb, and keep up a slight vibrating movement of the hands, speaking to her kindly. In a moment or two, she will arch her neck, and the bit will hang loosely in her mouth. There, you see, her nose comes down, and a handsome head and neck she has! Now pat her, and speak caressingly to her, and after a few seconds release her head. When these exercises are done on the stable floor, the use of the snaffle will accomplish the same result, and this is very desirable. But if you begin these flexions on the road you must use the curb, because Nelly now understands the snaffle to be for another purpose. The use of the curb is apt to lower a horse's head, and with some horses too much. The snaffle may be employed to correct this low carriage, but this use of it involves more than I can explain to you now. If Nelly's head gets too low, raise your hands a bit.

Try it over again, and each time prolong the period of holding her head in poise. But never hold it so long that her neck will ache and she begin to lean upon the bit. If she should do so before you release her head, play gently with the rein for an instant to get her back to the soft mouthing of the bit, caress her, and then release her head. This is on the principle that you should always have your way with a horse, and not he his. And kindness alone accomplishes this much more speedily and certainly than severity. If the occasion ever comes when you cannot have your way with Nelly, give a new turn to the matter by attracting her attention to something else, so as not to leave on her mind the impression that she has resisted you.

Notice two things, Tom, while Nelly is thus champing her bit. She has an almost imperceptible hold of your hands and her gait is shorter and more elastic. This has the effect of a semi-poised position, from which she can more readily move into any desired gait than from the extended looseness of the simple walk. This is one step towards what horsemen call being "in hand," or "collected;" and grooms, "pulled together," though indeed the "pulling together" of the groom but very distantly approaches the fine poise of the Schools.

Of all means of destroying a good mouth, to allow the horse to lean upon the curb is the surest. Avoid this by all means. But so long as Nell will bring in her head and play with the bit, keep her doing so at intervals. After a week or two she will be ready to walk quite a stretch with her head in position, and you will both of you have gained something in the way of schooling her mouth and your hands. You can then try her on a trot, and if you can keep your seat without holding on by the reins, she will learn to do the same thing at this gait too, and later at the canter and the gallop. But unless your own seat is firm and your hands are light, you will only be doing her future education an injury. Every twitch on her sensitive mouth, occasioned by an insecure seat or jerky hands, will be so much lost. Moreover, your curb chain must neither be too long nor too short. If too long, Nelly will not bring down her head at all. If too short, it will worry her unnecessarily. You can judge of it by her willingness gradually to accustom herself to it without jerking her head or resisting it, and without lolling her tongue.

This suppling of Nelly's neck which you will give her on her daily ride is only of the muscles governing the direct up and down motion of the head and neck. You are not overcoming the lateral rigidities. This requires stable exercises. If you have leisure for these (and you very likely will make some when you find the strides in comfort and elegance Nelly is making), you will buy one of the manuals I have told you about. What you have taught her, however, is excellent so far as it goes, and is time well employed. It will serve its purpose upon the road, if it does not suffice for the more perfect education.

XXXVI

The next step will be for you to try to supple the croup or hind-quarters of your mare. The two things can go on together, though it is well to get the forehand fairly suppled before beginning on the croup. The flexions of the croup are fully as important, if not more so, than those of the forehand, and in their proper teaching lies the root of your success. If you wear spurs, you should be absolutely sure you will never touch Nelly with them by accident. Spurs need not to be severe in any event. It is uselessly cruel to bring the blood, except in a race, where every ounce of exertion must be called for. Spurs in training or riding should never be used for punishment. They will be too essential in conveying your meaning to Penelope for you to throw away their value in bad temper. The horse should learn that the spur is an encouragement and an indication of your wishes, and should be taught to receive its attack without wincing or anger.

The old habit of the manège was to force all the weight of the horse, by the power of a severe curb bit, back upon his haunches, and oblige him to execute all the airs in a position all but poised upon his hind legs. The modern dispensation endeavors to effect better results by teaching the animal to be constantly balanced upon all four legs, and, by having his forces properly distributed, to be in a condition to move any of them at the will of his rider in any direction, without disturbing this balance. Moreover, the element of severity has been eliminated from training altogether.

Suppose, then, that you are walking Nelly and are holding her head in poise. Now bring your legs gently together, so as to slightly touch her sides. You will see that she at once moves quickly towards the bit. Here she must find herself held in check by it. The result of the two conditions will be that she will get her hind legs somewhat more under her than usual. It is just this act, properly done, which produces the equilibrium desired. When a horse is what is termed "collected," or "in hand," he has merely brought his hind feet well under him, and has yielded his mouth to your hands in such a way that he can quickly respond to your demands. This he cannot do when he is in an open or sprawling position.

It were better to teach Nelly this gathering of the hind legs under her by certain preliminary exercises on foot; but you can by patient trial while mounted accomplish a great part of the same result. And between bit to restrain her ardor and spur to keep her well up to it, the mare will get accustomed to a position of equilibrium from which she can, when taught, instantly take any gait, advance any foot, or perform any duty required. She will be really in the condition of a fine scale which a hair's weight will instantly affect.

Do not suppose that bit and spur are to be used harshly. On the contrary, the bit ought to play in her mouth loosely, and with the trained horse the barest motion of the leg towards the body suffices. The spur need very rarely touch her flank. The delicacy of perception of the schooled horse is often amazing. But the co-efficient of a balanced horse is a rider with firm seat and light hands. Either is powerless without the other. Moreover, a generous and intelligent beast, reasonably treated, learns the duty prescribed to him without the least friction. To respond to a kindly rider's wants seems to be a pride and a pleasure to him instead of a task.

Among the most agreeable incidents of horse-training is the evident delight which the horse takes in learning, the appreciation with which he receives your praise, and the confiding willingness with which he performs airs requiring the greatest exertion, and often a painful application of the spur, without any idea of resistance or resentment, even when his strength, endurance, intelligence, and good temper are taxed to the severest degree. I have sometimes wondered at a patience, which I myself could never have exhibited, in a creature which could so readily refuse the demands made upon him, as well as at the manifest pleasure he will take in the simple reward of a gentle word.

There is much difference in the nomenclature of horse-training. Unless one needs to be specific, as in describing the methods of the Haute Ecole, "in hand" and "collected" are frequently used interchangeably. But they should really be distinct in meaning, "in hand" being the response to the bit, "collected," the response to bit and legs, and "in poise," a very close position of equilibrium, preceding the most difficult movements of the School.

Now, in order to get Penelope accustomed to respond to the pressure of the legs, you must practice bringing your legs towards her flanks while her head is well poised, at frequent intervals. Whenever she responds by bringing her hind legs under her – and you will notice when she does so by her greater elasticity and more active movement – speak a good word to her, and keep her gathered in this way only so long as she can comfortably remain so, gradually prolonging the terms during which you hold her thus "collected." You will find that her step will soon become lighter and the speed of her response to your own movements a great contrast to the sluggishness of the horse moving his natural gait in the saddle. Her carriage will begin to show the same equilibrium in which the practiced fencer stands "in guard," or more properly, it will show that splendid action of the horse at liberty which he never exhibits in the restraint of the saddle, except when trained.

Whoever has watched a half-dozen fine horses just turned loose from the stall into a pretty paddock, will have noticed that, in their delighted bounds and curvetings, each one will perform his part with a wonderful grace, ease, and elegance of action. You may see the passage, piaffer, and Spanish trot, and even the passage backwards, done by the untrained horse of his own playful volition, urged thereto solely by the exuberance of his spirits. Under saddle he will not do this, unless taught by the methods of the School. But so taught, he will perform all these and more, with readiness and evident satisfaction to himself.

I must again impress upon you, Tom, that for perfect success, even in little things, you will need vastly more careful training than this; and that what I am discussing with you is but a very partial substitute for the higher education. I am indeed sorry to feel tied down to such simple instruction. But I want to tell you just enough to lead you to experiment for yourself, and to catch sufficient of the fascination of the art to study it thoroughly. I am, however, anxious that you should by no means understand me to say that you can, by any such simple means as I shall have detailed to you, perfect the education of your mare. You can improve her present condition vastly, and make her light and handy compared to what she naturally is. But the best results involve far other work.

XXXVII

You tell me that Nelly can only trot and walk, and you want to teach her the canter and hand-gallop. Many horses will naturally fall into a canter if you shake the reins; but some who come of trotting stock will not do so without considerable effort; and still such a horse is often the best one to buy. Now the easiest way to get Nelly into a canter, if she persists in trotting, is to push her beyond her speed, for which purpose you should select a soft piece of ground. So soon as she has broken into a gallop, unless she has been trained to settle back into a trot, you can readily slow up without changing her gait. If it has been attempted to train her as a trotter, you will have harder work to do this. But there is a little vibrating movement of the hands, sometimes called "lifting," which tends to keep a horse cantering, just as a steady pull keeps him trotting. This movement is in the little what the galloping action of a horse is in the great. The hands move very slightly forward and upward, and pass back again on an under line.

Apparently, Nelly has been broken in the usual way, for she trots naturally on a steady rein or on the snaffle. Now, you will find that a moving rein or the curb is apt to break her trot, and make her do something else, – either prance, or trot with high unsettled steps, or canter. It is for your own hands, when she gets to the canter, to hold her there. This may take you some time, but you can certainly do it by repeated trials. Having accomplished it, you may, between curb bit and spurs, both gently used, mind you, gradually teach her to carry her head properly at this pace, and get her haunches well under her; and it will give you pleasure to notice how much more natural it is for her to come "in hand" than on the trot. As the canter is the natural gait of the horse, you will find Nelly soon keep to it if she understands that you so desire. But remember that you should canter or gallop habitually only on soft ground. Hard roads soon injure the fore feet and fetlock joints if a horse is constantly cantered or galloped upon them, because the strides are longer and the weight comes down harder, and always more upon the leading fore foot than upon the other. Moreover, the canter with the hind legs well gathered is apt to be somewhat of a strain to the houghs of the horse unless it is properly – rhythmically – performed, and unless the animal is gradually broken in by proper flexions.

But to canter is one thing. You have yet to teach Penelope to canter on either foot at will, leading off with left or right and changing foot in motion. This is quite another matter, and you will find that it will take some time and a vast deal of patience in both of you.

Let us suppose that you have brought Nell down to a fairly slow canter. Until you can, without effort to her or you, rein her down to quite a slow one, she does not know the rudiments of the gait. To canter properly, she must, without resistance, pull, or fret, come down to a canter quite as slow as a fast walk, even slower, and not show the least attempt to fall into a jog; all this while so poised that she can bound into a gallop at the next stride. Any plug can run. Few of the saddle horses you meet on the road seem to canter slowly, and yet it is one of the most essential of gaits and a great relief from a constant trot, especially for a lady.

It may perhaps look more sportsmanlike – I don't like to use the word "horsey" – for a lady always to trot; but no lady, apart from this, begins to look as well upon the trot as when sitting the properly timed park canter of a fresh and handsome horse. Moreover, it requires vastly less art to ride the trot usually seen with us than to bring a high-couraged horse down to a slow parade canter and keep him there, not to dilate upon the gloriously invigorating and luxurious feeling of this gait when executed in its perfection.

Some lazy horses find that they can canter as easily as walk and nearly as slowly, but this disjointed, lax-muscled progress is a very different performance from the proud, open action of the generous horse, whose stride is so vigorous that you feel as if he had wings, but who curbs his ardor to your desires, and with the pressure of a silken thread on the bit will canter a five-mile gait.

XXXVIII

You have probably noticed that Nelly sometimes canters with one shoulder forward and sometimes with the other. Almost all sound horses will change lead of their own accord, but not knowing why. When a horse shies at a strange object, or hops over anything in his path, or gets on new ground, or changes direction, he will often do this. If a horse does not frequently change, it is apt to be on account of an unsound foot, hough, or shoulder, which makes painful or difficult the lead he avoids. But occasionally a sound horse will always lead with the same leg, until taught to change. For a lady the canter is generally easier with the right shoulder leading, and some horses are much easier with one than the other lead. In fact, on the trot, many horses are easier when you rise with the off than when you rise with the near foot, or vice versa; and some writers have said that a horse leads with one or other foot in trotting. But as the trot should be a square and even gait, the peculiarity in question is owing to excess of muscular action in one leg and not to anything approaching the lead in the canter or the gallop.

It is possible to teach a horse to start with either or to change lead in the canter without more flexing of the croup than you can give him on the road; but it is worth your while to put Nelly through some exercises which I will explain to you. It will save time in the end. Their eventual object is so to supple the croup as to render the hind-quarters subject to the rider's will, and absolutely under the control of the horse as directed by him. The flexions of the croup are in reality more important than those of the forehand. Unless a horse's hind-quarters are well under him and so thoroughly suppled as to obey the slightest indication of the rider's leg, he is lacking in the greatest element of his education, if he is to be made a School-horse. At the same time a supple croup and a rigid forehand cannot work in unison. Both should be elastic in equal degree.

For the purpose of beginning the croup flexions, you can best use the stable floor, or other convenient spot, say after mounting as you start, or before dismounting as you return from your ride, or, better, both. And this is what you should do.

Suppose you are standing on the stable floor, mounted. Any other place will do, but you want to be where you are quite undisturbed. Bring Nelly in hand by gathering up the reins quietly, so as not to disturb her equanimity or her position. Perhaps you had better hold the reins in both hands for these exercises. At all times, indeed, it is well that a horse should be kept acquainted with the feel of the two hands. In many respects, and for many purposes, I am an advocate of two hands in riding. Do not misunderstand me on this point. My plea is for such education that one hand may suffice for all needs, when the other can be better employed than with the reins; but I myself often use both my hands, perhaps even half the time.

Nelly being collected, gently press one foot towards her flank, if need be till the spur touches her. She will naturally move away from it by a side step with her hind feet. You should have kept her head so well in hand that she will not have moved her fore feet. So soon as she makes this one side step, stop and caress her. Try once more with the same foot. Same result, and you will again reward her with a kind word. Do not at first try to make her take two steps consecutively. If you do so, she may, having failed to satisfy you with one step, and imagining that you want something else, try to step towards the spur instead of away from it, and you will have thus lost some ground. A horse argues very simply, and if one course does not seem to comply with his rider's will, he almost always and at once tries the other. After a few days, you will find that Nelly will side step very nicely, one or two steps at a time, and before long she will do so in either direction. You cannot, however, consider her as perfect until she can handily complete the circle, with the opposite fore foot immovably planted, in either direction at will, and without disturbing her equilibrium. But this is much harder to do, and if you propose to give Nelly a college education you must first qualify yourself as professor.

You should now at the same time test how well you have taught Penelope to guide by the neck. If you will use the pressure of your legs judiciously, so as to prevent her from moving her hind feet at all, you should be able to describe part of a circle about them by such use of the reins as to make her side step with the fore feet. When she can take two or three steps with fore or hind feet to either side quickly, and at will, keeping the hind or fore feet in place, you have made a very substantial gain in her training.

There can be, of course, only one pivot foot. It is the one opposite the direction in which you are moving the croup or forehand. But to teach Nelly to use the proper pivot foot you must begin much more carefully, and it is perhaps not necessary, if you aspire only to train her for road use, to be so particular.

Properly speaking, you ought about this time to give Nelly a little side suppling of the neck, so as to make the parts respond readily to your will. This is done first on foot, by gently turning the mouthpiece of the curb bit in a horizontal plane, so as to force her head to either side and make her arch her neck, without allowing her to shift feet. Later, it is done by drawing one curb rein over her neck so as to bring her head sidewise down towards the shoulder, while steadying her with a less marked pressure on the other rein. To do this properly, the Baucher diagrams, or a longer description, would be useful. When the neck is in this exercise perfectly flexed, she will be looking to the rear. With some little practice Nelly will thus readily, at call, bring her head way round to the saddle-flap, with neck arched, and mouthing her bit. Later still, you can practice this flexion mounted, by holding both reins, and pulling a trifle more strongly on one curb than on the other, and steadying her by voice and leg to prevent her from moving. This exercise will make it physically easier for Nelly by and by to respond to your demands, for her neck will be flexible enough for her to hold her head in any desired position without undue effort. And the same thing can be done in motion, if this is not too rapid.

As already said, the circular movement described (termed a pirouette about the hind, and a reversed pirouette about the fore feet) should be made on one absolutely unmoved fore or hind foot as pivot. For, plainly, both feet cannot act as one pivot without twisting the legs. This pirouette is really a "low pirouette," the pirouette proper being a movement by the horse poised on his hind legs alone, describing the circle with fore legs in the air, which is a vastly finer performance.

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.