The most certain Method to unite and assemble together the Strength of a Horse, in order to give him a good Mouth, to fix and place his Head, as well as to regulate his Shoulders, to make him light in the Hand, and capable of performing all Sorts of Airs, depends entirely upon the Perfection and Exactness of the Stop.

In order to mark or form the Stop justly, you must quicken him a little, and in the Instant that he begins to go faster than the usual Cadence or Time of his Pace, approach the Calves of your Legs, and immediately afterwards fling back your Shoulders; always holding your Bridle more and more tight, till the Stop is made, aiding the Horse with the Calves of your Legs, in order to make him bend and play his Haunches.

By varying the Times of making your Stops, and the Places where you make them, you will teach your Horse to obey exactly the Hand and Heel; which is the End that every one should propose to attain in every Kind of Exercise of the Manege.

With a raw and young Horse make but very few Stops, and when you make them, do it by degrees, very gently, and not all at once, because nothing so much strains and weakens the Hocks of a stiff and aukward Horse, as a sudden and rude Stop.

It is agreed by every Body, that nothing so much shews the Vigour and Obedience of a Horse as his making a beautiful and firm Stop, at the End of a swift and violent Career. There are however many Horses that have a good deal of Vigour and Agility, who can't stop without feeling Pain, while there are others who are not so strong and active, who stop very easily; the Reason of this is plain.

In the first place, the Facility of stopping depends upon the natural Aptness and Consent of the Horse; in the next place, his Make, and the Proportions which the different Parts of his Body have to each other, must be consider'd: Therefore we must measure the Merit of a Stop by the Strength and Temper of the Horse, by the Steadiness of his Head and Neck, and the Condition of his Mouth and Haunches.

It will be in vain to look for the Justness and Perfection of the Stop in a Horse that is any ways defective, the Bars being too delicate, or too hard, a thick Tongue, the Channel of his Mouth narrow, the Thropple confin'd, Neck short, Fore-hand heavy, or too low, weak Loins, or too stiff, too much Heat, or too much Flegm in his Temper, or Sluggishness; here are a Number of Faults not easily to be corrected. A Horse, though he is strong in his Shoulders, in his Legs and Loins, yet if he is low before, will have much Difficulty to collect himself upon his Haunches, so as to make a good Stop; on the contrary, if his Shoulders and Neck are high and raised, he will have the greater Part of the Qualities requisite to it.

A Horse who is long in the Back generally stops very aukwardly, and without keeping his Head steady; a Horse that is short and truss'd, with a thick Neck, generally stops upon his Shoulders. The first finds too much Difficulty to collect his Strength so suddenly, in order to put himself upon his Haunches, and the other is not able to call it out, and distribute it with Vigour through his Limbs.—In effect, when a Horse gallops, the Strength of his Loins, of his Haunches and Hocks, is all employed in pushing the whole Machine forwards, and that of his Shoulders and Fore-legs, to support the Action: Now the Force of his hinder Parts being thus violently agitated, and approaching too near that which lies in the fore Parts, a short-body'd Horse can't find all at once, that Counterpoise, that just Equilibre which characterizes a beautiful Stop.

A Horse which can't stop readily, misemploys very often his Strength in running; examine him, and you will find that he abandons himself entirely upon his Shoulders; consider likewise the Proportions of his Neck and his Thropple, the Condition of his Feet, the Make of his Loins and Hocks; in short, apply yourself to the Discovery of his Temper, Character and Humour.—That Horse whose Neck is hollow, or Ewe-neck'd, instead of ballancing himself upon his Haunches, will arm himself against his Chest, and will thereby make his Stops harsh and disagreeable: Weak Feet, or Hocks that give him Pain, will make him hate the Stop.—He will either endeavour to avoid it, or will make it with Fear, so that he will be totally abandon'd upon the Apuy. If he carries his Nose high, and is hollow-back'd at the same time, it will be impossible for him to unite and put himself together, so as to be ready, and to present his Front, if I may be allow'd the Word, to the Stop; because the Strength of the Nape of the Neck depends upon the Chine; and his Powers being thus disunited and broken, he will make his Stop upon his Shoulders.

There is another Sort of Horses, who in hopes of avoiding the Constraint of stopping upon their Haunches, plant themselves upon their two Hind-legs; yield the Hand to them, in the Instant, and press them forward, you will insensibly correct them of their Defence, which happens only in Cases, where you stop them upon declining or uneven Ground.

There are many People, who imagining they can unite their Horses by the means of making a great Number of precipitate Stops, take little heed whether the Creature which they undertake is too weak, or has Strength sufficient for his Task.—The Horse, who, though strong, has suffer'd in his Chine, in making the first Stop, will meditate a Defence in his second or third; this will be to prevent the Rider in his Design: And being alarm'd at the slightest Motion of the Hand he will stop all at once, leaning with all his Force upon his Shoulders, and lifting up his Croupe; which is a capital Fault, and not easy to be remedied.

Thus it may happen, that a Horse may make his Stops very defectively, either from some natural or accidental Faults in the different Parts of his Body; or it may be owing to the Unskilfulness and Ignorance of the Rider, or the Effect of Faults and bad Lessons all together. Principles that are true and just will assist and reform Nature, but a bad School gives birth to Vice and Defences that are often not to be conquer'd. It behoves us then to follow with Exactness those Lessons which are capable of bringing a Horse to form a perfect Stop; that is to say, to such a Point as to be able to make his Stop short, firm, and in one time; and in which he collects and throws his Strength equally upon his Haunches and Hocks, widening and anchoring, if I may so say, his two Hind-feet exactly even on the Ground, in such a Manner that one does not stand before the other, but both are in a Line.

It would be a Proof of great Ignorance to undertake to reduce a Horse to the Justness of the Stop, before he had been work'd and push'd out in the Trot and Gallop to both Hands, or before he was so ready as never to refuse to launch out immediately into a full Gallop; for if he should happen to be restiff, should disobey the Spurs, or refuse to turn to either Hand, the Means that then must be used to fix his Head, would contribute towards confirming him in one or other of these Vices.

If your Horse has not readily obey'd in making his Stops, make him go backwards, it is a proper Punishment for the Fault. If in stopping he tosses up his Nose, or forces the Hand, in this Case keep your Bridle-hand low and firm, and your Reins quite equal; give him no Liberty, press upon his Neck with your Right-hand, till he has brought down his Nose, and then immediately give him all his Bridle; this is the surest Method to bring him into the Hand.

To compel a Horse to stop upon his Haunches, nothing is so efficacious as Ground that is a little sloping; this is of service to exercise such Horses upon as are naturally too loose in their Paces, who are heavy and apt to abandon themselves upon the Hand, by this means they become light before; you must nevertheless examine if his Feet, his Loins, his Shoulders and Legs are sufficiently able to bear it, for otherwise your Horse would soon be spoil'd: The whole therefore depends in this Case, as in all others, upon the Sagacity and Experience of the Horseman.

When a Horseman puts his Horse to the Stop, in such a Place as I have mentioned, he should put the Stress of his Aids rather in his Thighs and Knees, than in his Stirrups; one of the most trying Lessons a Horse can be put to, is to stop him, and make him go backwards up Hill; therefore upon these Occasions you must ease the fore Part of the Horse as much as you can, and throw your whole Weight upon the hinder. We have already said, that there are some Horses, which from Weakness in their Make, can never be brought to form a just and beautiful Stop. There are others likewise, who are apt to stop too suddenly and short upon their Shoulders, tho' otherwise naturally too much raised before, and too light. These employ all their Power in order to stop all at once, in hopes either of putting an end to the Pain they feel, from the Rudeness of the Stop; or else perhaps that some Defect of Sight makes them apprehend they are near something that they fear, for almost all Horses, blind of one Eye, or of both, stop with the greatest Readiness: take care never to make this sort of Horses go backward; on the contrary, stop them slowly and by degrees, in order to embolden them, remembring never to force, or keep them in too great a degree of Subjection.

I have thus shown, that a Stop that is made with Ease, Steadiness, and according to the Rules, will contribute a great deal towards putting a Horse upon his Haunches, and giving him that firm, equal, and light Apuy, which we always desire to gain; because a just Stop makes a Horse bend and sink his hinder Parts; I have made it likewise appear, that a sudden and ill-executed Stop raises the fore Parts too much, stiffens the Hocks, and rather takes a Horse off his Haunches, than sets him upon them. Let us now proceed to the Lesson of teaching a Horse to go backward.