ments. But if he is not in rhythm, he will come down too soon on the saddle, and will receive a shock from the right biped, as the result of the straightening of the left hock. He will come twice in the saddle and will ride incorrectly.

The rider ought to be able to ride at the trot equally well on one biped, as on the other biped, and should be able to change from one to the other, so as to relieve himself, and especially the horse, during a long journey, but this requires a certain amount of practice to do. A rider ought to learn how to know on what biped he is, which is difficult at first. It is best to begin a preliminary study at the walk, while raising ourselves in the stirrups at each step the horse takes, as if he were trotting. We have thus time to see what movement of the horse we are following. After a little practice at this exercise, we can start again into the trot.

It is worthy of note that each rider naturally adopts one particular biped, and almost always without knowing that he does so, and he becomes so habituated to it that he feels ill at ease when he changes to the other biped.

If we wish to have a fine trotter, we should complete his education in the open, after having made him do in the school the exercises I have just described. On a road a horse lends himself more readily to the work, and goes freer than in a school. As we have space in front of us in the open, we are able to keep up the speed of the pace for a longer time ; but in a school the corners oblige us to slacken a little at frequent intervals.

All horses do not trot in an equally free manner. Certain animals readily maintain this pace, if the speed is moderate ; but if the speed is increased, they will break into a short canter. It is correctly said that such horses keep themselves back. It is very important not to allow a horse to change his pace without giving him the indications to do so, but it is not less