Compiled by Martin Diggle

This book explores the enormous value of the trot in schooling and suppling the horse and explains how the natural trot of a recently backed horse is developed into the working gait, which will later form the basis for collection and extension. Trot is the gait at which much of a horse"s general schooling is carried out; it is most suited to this purpose since it is more impulsive than walk and less complex than canter.

If the trot is to fulfill its role as the training gait, it must be of good quality, and should improve and develop as training progresses. Of course, this improvement and development go far beyond the bounds of the working trot, to spectacular extensions and the ultimate levels of collection, as seen in piaffe and passage, however, this treatise focuses on the thoughts of the great masters concerning the development of the working trot and its role as the foundation of training.

(hardcover, photos, illustrations, 160 pgs.)

Excerpt from the book:

The Value of the Trot
[Note from the compiler: An important point recognized by the Masters of equitation is that the gaits themselves have a role beyond mere locomotion - correctly employed, they have a key role in the training process. Writing in the early years of the eighteenth century, the great French Master, de la Gueriniere, explained the training value of trot with typical clarity. (The M. de la Broue referred to initially is Solomon de le Broue, one of the founder figures of the French School.)]

M. de la Broue cannot define a well-trained horse other than by saying that such a horse is supple, obedient, and precise: for if a horse is not entirely free and supple, it cannot obey the will of the rider with ease and grace, and suppleness necessarily produces docility, because the horse then has no difficulty in executing what is commanded. These are, then, the three essential qualities of what is called a dressed horse.

The first of these qualities is acquired solely by means of the trot. This is a common belief among all experienced horsemen, of the past as well as the present, and if among them any have rejected the trot without good reason and sought this fundamental suppleness and freedom of movement in a smaller, shorter gait [presumably a reference to archaic forms of over-collection, not simply to walk] they were mistaken; for these qualities be imparted to the horse only by bringing into broad movement all its muscles.