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impulse, to transform the forward movement into a movement from left to right, with the least possible resistance.[1]
I continue this work for a sufficiently long time, and accentuate it according to the progress obtained, by which I wish to say, that at first I am content to make the horse take two or three side paces. Later on, when he gets more expert, I require more from him, always at the moment when we arrive close to the wall, so as to obtain five or six side steps. Further on, I begin the side steps at the middle of the school, so that I can make him do twelve or fifteen steps. I finally make him do the shoulder-in.[2]
Energetic impulse is the first condition of correctly executed work on two tracks. It results from the firm support of the inward leg, providing that the outward leg has a predominant action.
If, during work on two tracks, the inward hind leg of the horse is carried away from the body instead of being brought under its centre — as would be the case if there was sufficient impulsion — the horse will be inclined to get behind his bit ; the cause of this fault being the insufficient energy of the inward leg of the rider, the action of which ought to be supplemented by a corresponding action of the outward leg. ↩︎
I do not put the horse's shoulder to the wall until he has been well trained. A horse has only too great a tendency to allow himself to be guided by the wall, instead of giving himself up exclusively to the "aids." I greatly dislike continual work close to the wall. If the horse is straight and limits himself to following the wall, whatever the pace may be, he will let himself be guided by this permanent obstacle, much more than by the rider's "aids." He will even take a kind of moral support from it, and his natural tendency will always be to slightly carry away his croup, and to get the shoulder close to the wall ; hence the difficulty of holding him straight, and of keeping him well between the legs.
In movements on two tracks, the wall leads the horse so well and helps him so much in keeping his shoulders in the proper direction, that he quickly begins to shave the wall too closely, which often becomes a " defence " on his part.
If we remove the horse from the wall, we will be obliged to direct the shoulders with the hand, which ought to be the only guide. If the horse, when doing the shoulder-in, gets behind the bit, and brings his hind quarters too close to the wall, we should stop the movement on two tracks without changing the position of the horse, should push him forward with the legs, and make him go down the centre of the school. No exercise is better than this to give impulse in the movement on two tracks, and to make the horse independent of the wall. ↩︎