Patroclus and Penelope: A Chat in the Saddle

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.

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.