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I have already said, each stride is composed of three distinct periods, which are marked by the feet of the horse coming down on the ground. In reality there is a fourth, namely, the period of suspension, which is not marked.
The canter to the right may be divided as follows : 1st period, near hind ; 2nd period, off hind and near fore ; and 3rd period, off fore. The fourth period begins at the moment the off fore leaves the ground, and ends when the near hind is placed on the ground. At this moment the horse is in the air, between the third period of one stride and the first period of the next stride.
The best time to obtain the change of leg is at the fourth period, because the horse is then in the air.[1]
Baucher gives no explanation of this subject. The majority of riding masters make this change of leg during support, and not when the horse is in the air, as I have advised. Their plan gives rise to an inevitable halt, which destroys the rhythm of the canter, and consequently alters the canter. My method, on the contrary, maintains the canter with all its impulse, and allows the rider to lengthen or shorten the stride, as he may wish, in all the changes of leg.
A correctly executed change of leg at each stride thus forms a true pace, at which I obtain so much impulse that I am ready, without false modesty, to challenge anyone to have a race at it.
On this subject I sent the following letter to the editor of Gil Blas, who declined to publish it. I fortunately got it inserted in the Echo de Paris, but it received no answer :—
" Paris, 27th August, 1890.
" To THE Editor Gil Blas.
" Sir,—
" Baron de Vaux has severely criticised my book and my riding in a long article which recently appeared in Gil Blas. It has in no way annoyed me, and I, being a horseman, have not the rashness to find fault with the criticism of a penman.
" There is, however, one point which I think is worthy of notice, because it can be submitted to practical proof.
" The writer of the article tries to make out that I do not hold my horses straight in the changes of leg. If this be true, I must necessarily lose ground in forward progression. That being the case, I propose a race of changes of leg at each stride, which I believe is an original idea that has never been tried. The winner will, of course, be he whose horse is the straighter of the two. ↩︎