PREFACE
It was when hunting and fighting other men, hunted and fought by other men, on horseback night and day, that I came to realize the truth of the formula, that seat is the rider's sine qua non.
In the army, for the cavalryman to be able to ride is all that the manual asks, since the discipline is unalterable when moving in troop. But, for the individual, the French army protects and encourages studies of the different methods of the various masters of the equestrian art. Before I entered the army, while still at the college, I followed a course of instruction under Baucher, who was then teaching in the school at Collin, Maneye du Rhone.
Although Baucher's method was never adopted by the French army, his ideas have very deeply affected cavalry traditions, because of the great number of officers who have been sent to Saumur and Lunéville to study and report upon his system. Several of these officers were my instructors after I entered the cavalry; and my studies of the art continued under their very able direction.
Experiment with different methods is, however, nearly impossible in the army; so that it was only after I came to the United States in 1872, and, as a civilian, became proprietor of riding-schools, manager of schools and riding-clubs, head instructor in New York and Boston, that I was able to develop certain principles, certain means, certain effects, which had before not been clear in my mind.
Equitation is the sixth branch of horsemanship;
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