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reins, and the horse quickly establishes a connection between these two acts. But if, in place of starting off the moment we adjust the reins, we keep the horse at the walk, he will not contract this bad habit, or he will give it up if he has acquired it. The signal for a fast pace should be given only with the heels.
With respect to breed, we find in the first line in this book, the cry of my heart : " I break only thorough-breds."[1] I unhesitatingly put thorough-breds above all others, whether for hacking or for high school riding. They are pre-eminently the best for all kinds of work. Besides, a man who has got into the habit of riding thorough-breds, will not care to ride any other horses.
For me the ruling qualities of the thorough-bred are the lightness, the elasticity of the fine steel spring which puts them into action, and the suppleness which will be developed by breaking. If we listen from afar off, for the sound of his foot-falls, we shall hardly hear them on account of the light-
I wrote this book at the time when I made my début at the Hippodrome with Germinal and Markir. Remarks were made on the apparent contradiction between my statement that I broke only thorough-breds and the fact that I had carried the breaking of the half-bred Markir as far as with any other horse, no matter what his breed might be.
The truth is that I bought Markir, not only on account of his good points, but also for his strength and activity, which I greatly admired. While breaking him, I often asked myself if he would do all I expected, and I frequently feared that his abilities would not come up to my requirements, which he amply fulfilled to my great surprise, and to such an extent that I determined to find out if the pedigree he had been given was correct. I therefore wrote to my friend Lenoble du Theil at the Haras du Pin, and told him that Markir had been sold to me as being out of the thorough-bred mare Thérésine by the Norfolk half-bred Weighton Merrylegs, and I begged him to see if this was right. Imagine my surprise and joy on receiving the following answer : " The thorough-bred mare Thérésine was put to Merrylegs, but did not hold, and was covered two months later by Cyrus, which is a thorough-bred Anglo-Arab, and the sire of Markir."
Markir is therefore thorough-bred. The curious thing about this matter is that it was proved by practical experiment before any investigations had been made. ↩︎