order, and take first the piaffer, than the passage, finally the Spanish walk and trot.
My reasons for this unusual procedure are these. Neither the Spanish walk nor trot can be obtained until after the horse has been completely established in its collection, assemblage, and equilibrium, so that all the progressive movements which precede the Spanish walk are executed without disturbing the state. But the highest possible manifestation of the state of assemblage is the piaffer. No assemblage, no piaffer, is almost an equestrian proverb. When, therefore, I have the piaffer, I have also the proof of the maximum of assemblage. The center of gravity is fixed exactly below my own vertebral column, while the equilibrium is so perfect that shifting my weight to my right or my left ischium raises alternately the diagonal bipeds of the horse, and passing the load slightly forward causes the horse, without losing cadence or equilibrium, slightly to gain ground forward, and thus change to the passage.
In order to obtain the piaffer, I place the horse's head perpendicular to the ground, but with its neck not quite so high as for the ordinary trot. For if the head and neck are high, the two muscles of the neck, rhomboideus and mastoido-humeralis, by their fixed point at the atlas region, are equally in contact with my hand. This is precisely what I do not want. The rhomboideus will raise shoulder, scapula, and leg; but the mastoido-humeralis will extend the
