back (ramener) ; but I try to obtain direct flexion only during forward movement, which at once enables me to get the horse in hand. I therefore exclude from my vocabulary the word ramener, which indicates a backward action, and is therefore entirely opposed to my system of riding.^[1]

Direct flexion should always be preceded, sustained, and completed by the action of the legs pressing the hind quarters on the forehand.

The legs ought to take and give like the hands, and with the hands, that is to say, simultaneously and in the same proportion. This constitutes general movement. If the hands give and the legs continue their action, the horse will be out of hand, because the propulsion developed by the legs will no longer be received by the hands. If the hands act without the legs sending them any impulsion, the horse will bring his chin into his breast or will get behind his bit ; because his hocks have been left too far behind him. The expression " take and give," as I have explained it when speaking of direct flexion, therefore applies as well to the action of the legs as to that of the hands. Legs and hands should always act in harmony, according to the desired result. We get the horse in hand by this combination of the alternate actions of the legs and hands acting on the whole.

Getting the horse in hand, which is an excellent term of the old school, is the result of equilibrium during propulsion, obtained and preserved by direct flexion, resulting from the action of the legs impelling the hind quarters on to the forehand. Here we are in the best conditions of good horsemanship. The hind legs, being well under the body, drive it forward and maintain equilibrium by the high position of the