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I touch my horse on the right and on the left, but almost simultaneously.[1] My right spur brings the off hind under the animal's body, which causes the near fore to be raised ; and my left spur, acting in its turn at the exact moment when the left diagonal is in the air, produces a similar effect on the right diagonal. I thus obtain the two first times of the piaffer ; but at the beginning these two times ought to follow each other so closely as to form, so to speak, a single time,[2] exactly like in fencing, when the swordsman makes " one, two " very close together.[3]
It often happens that the horse will plunge on feeling the first hurried touches of the spurs. If he bounds forward, not much harm will result, and we will learn that we have used the spurs too strongly. We should therefore employ them more lightly when we begin again.
If at this period of the breaking we often repeat these two first times of the piaffer, the horse will quickly understand
In fact, if I exclusively attack one side without immediately receiving the horse on the opposite leg, I will succeed only in sending his haunches to the side. ↩︎
If I allow an interval between them, there will be an alternate separation of the legs to the right and to the left, as in a kind of rocking. ↩︎
It follows, from what I have said, that these two first times are necessarily those of a hurried piaffer. When we begin the piaffer, we cannot foretell what will happen. As a rule, the horse will try to hurry it, on account of the spurs making him impatient. Besides, the hurried piaffer being lower than the higher piaffer, will require less exertion. Having obtained the piaffer of any kind, it needs regulating, which will test the skill of the breaker. The difficulty is to prevent the hurried piaffer occurring, or, rather, to change it into the slow piaffer, by giving it height brought on by the rassembler. The more the rassembler, the greater the height. The slow and high piaffer is obtained by energetic action of the legs, lightness of hand, and, above all things, delicate tact in combining the "aids." In the hurried piaffer, the legs are kept stiff, on account of their being raised but little off the ground. In the high piaffer, the biped, which is in the air, is greatly bent, while gaining height, and the fetlocks of the biped which is on the ground almost touch it (Fig. 61), so as to be able, in their turn, to raise the body by their spring.
When we go from the passage to the piaffer by shortening the passage, we can regulate the times of the piaffer more easily on account of the cadence already obtained ; but the tact of the rider is not the less necessary. ↩︎