also give to the shoulders the greatest possible mobility, which is an indispensable quality for every kind of work.

We can exert no direct action on the shoulders, as we can on the mouth and hind quarters. The impulsion to put them in movement is given by the hind quarters, which are put in action by our legs ; and the direction is given by the mouth, which receives the indication of the reins.

I shall now describe how I make the shoulders rotate, namely, how I do the pirouette from left to right.

Having halted the horse in the middle of the school, I carry both hands to the right and close the legs, in order to prevent a retrograde movement ; the left leg being pressed more strongly to the side than the right leg, so as to prevent the horse from bringing his hind quarters round to the left. I work the snaffle reins simultaneously with the legs, the off rein being lightly drawn to the right, but not backwards, while the near rein pushes the shoulders to the right. The near rein performs another office, as follows : If the horse, having carried his shoulders to the right, wishes to throw his hind quarters to the left, a slight pull of the near rein gives immediate help to the left leg to keep the croup in its place, by carrying the head more or less to the left, according to the extent the hind quarters have swung round to the left.

At the beginning we should make a large circle rather than a small one, which would be a true pirouette. In this way we keep the horse in hand, and we easily prevent him getting behind the bit, which we should always take the utmost care to do.

The absolute necessity of avoiding any tendency in the horse to get behind his bit, makes it dangerous during the first period of breaking to teach simple or reversed pirouettes, which are excellent exercises for both man and horse, when they are sufficiently advanced in their education.

The reversed pirouette has the great fault of leaving the