by Hilda Nelson

Franois Baucher (1796-1873) was the center of one of the most famous controversies in the development of modern equitation. Baucher introduced the one-tempo flying change at the canter, but in nineteenth-century France his circus performances and his methods of haute-cole training were attacked. Attempts to introduce his theories to the French cavalry were blocked, although he is now recognized as an outstanding horseman and exponent of Classical dressage.

This important work combines a translation of two of Baucher's publication, "New method of horsemanship" and "Dialogues on equitation, " with a scholarly study of the arguments which surrounded them. Professor Nelson produces a fascinating insight into an important theory of horsemanship.

(hardcover, photos, illustrations, 187 pgs.)

Excerpt from the book:

Of the forces of the horse
The horse, like all organized beings, is possessed of a weight and a force peculiar to himself. The weight inherent to the material of which the animal is composed, renders the mass inert, and tends to fix it to the ground. The force, on the contrary, by the faculty it gives him of the moving this weight, of dividing it, of transferring it from one of his parts to anther, communicates movement to his whole being, determines his equilibrium, speed and direction.

To make this truth more evident, let us suppose a horse in repose. His body will be in perfect equilibrium, if each of its members supports exactly that part of the weight which devolves upon it in this position. If he wishes to move forward at a walk, he must first transfer that part of the weight resting on the leg he moves first to those that will remain fixed to the ground. It will be the same thing in other paces, the transfer acting from one diagonal to the other in the trot, from the front to the rear, and reciprocally in the gallop.

We must not then confound the weight with the force; the latter determines, the former is subordinate to it. It is by carrying the weight from one extremity to the other that the force puts them in motion, or makes them stationary. The slowness or quickness of the transfers fixes the different paces, which are correct or false, even or uneven, according as these transfers are executed with correctness or irregularity.