CHAPTER VIII
THE REASONED EQUITATION
We owe the reasoned equitation largely to Baucher. Before his day, even in ancient times, men had, indeed, an idea of the need of the state of equilibrium on the part of the horse; and they had tried, unsuccessfully, to obtain this by various methods, often complicated, and involving series of movements and also mechanical devices. Baucher not only created a system for obtaining the state of equilibrium; in addition, in his L'Equitation Raisonnée, he set forth the principles on which the whole reasoned equitation is based.
These are in brief:
The state of equilibrium is not the result of any instincts of the horse; but, on the contrary, is imposed upon the horse by the rider, in the form of an increased muscular activity which the rider stimulates.
The horse, compelled to the state of equilibrium by the man, is itself in a state of complete submission, in which it cannot use its brute strength to resist its rider, but can nevertheless execute any natural movement with the least possible waste of energy.
The weight of the man, also in equilibrium upon
