Page:Equitation.djvu/346

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make ample preparation, take plenty of time, be always moderate, calm, persevering, and patient. If in these four attacks you obtain any sort of small beginning of a leap from one diagonal biped to the other, rest satisfied for the time, and be generous of your recompense and caresses. But, for pity's sake, do not condemn your horse for a fault which is mostly your own. Be sure you are right before every demand; and do not form your opinion too soon.

Finally, be sure that the surface on which the horse practices the passage is properly soft and elastic, lest its feet become sore, to its discouragement. Stay as much as possible near the wall, and keep the horse straight. Change the hand sometimes, but not too often. Let the horse frequently stop and be free. Ask little; but ask well. Be satisfied if the first sign of the desired cadence is from one biped only. So far as possible, work alone in the manege. Catch your pupil's attention and hold it on yourself. In a word, make him enjoy his lessons at the passage. Success depends upon you and upon nobody else. Remember that you cannot buy the accomplishment. You have to create it for yourself.

There are, in addition, several more or less intelligent and progressive mechanical devices for obtaining the passage; but these are not accepted by the strictly scientific equitation.

Baucher and Fillis employed a logical progres-