rider ceases to impel the horse forward. The reins are loose. The contact is broken. The horse stops, not knowing where to go.
But if this state of contact between hand and mouth is important for the ordinary equitation, it is a great deal more necessary for the scientific, since this is founded upon the principles of equilibrium, collection, the assemblage of forces continually united in the medial plane and establishing the center of gravity.
From the earliest days of equitation, every rider has studied the "in hand" by means more or less rational. But so many mistakes have been made that I must try to explain the precise nature of the first element of the "in hand," the contact. It is, however, a difficult matter to explain a feeling in words, and though comparisons are useful to illustrate a point, I shall have to ask the indulgence of reader and student.
I touch elsewhere upon assemblage and collection.
FORWARD OF THE HAND
A HORSE is forward of the hand, if, on its own initiative, it goes forward against the bit, according to its own will, disposition, or temperament, instead of conforming to the impulsion of the rider's legs. If this exuberance is not the result of unsoundness, viciousness, bad conformation, or bad habit, it is more a merit than a defect in a saddle horse, since it
