The Property of the Pesade is to dispose and prepare a Horse for all sorts of Manages; for it is the Foundation of all the Airs: Great Caution, however, must be had not to teach your Horse to rise up or stand upon his Haunches, which is making a Pesade, if he is not quite exact and obedient to the Hand and Heel; for in this Case you would throw him into great Disorder, spoil his Mouth, and falsify the Apuy, would teach him to make Points, as they are called, and even make him become restive; inasmuch as the generality of Horses only rise up to resist their Rider, and because they will neither go forward nor turn. Your Horse then being so far advanced as to be fit to be tried and exercised in the Pesade, work him upon the Walk, the Trot, and Gallop; stop him in the Hand, keep him There are other Horses who are apt to rise of themselves, without being requir'd to do so; drive them forward in order to prevent them.—Some in making the Pesade, don't bend and gather up their Fore-legs, but stretch them out, paw, and cross them one over the other in the Air, resembling the Action of a Person's Hands who plays upon the Spinnet; to these Horses you mush apply the Switch, striking them briskly upon the Shoulders or Knees.—There are others, who in the Instant that you endeavour to make them rise, availing themselves of the Power which they have from being put together, in order to perform this Action, throw themselves forward in hopes of freeing themselves from all Subjection; the only Way to correct such Vices, is to make the Horse go backward the same Length If he throws himself to the Right, you must put him so as to have the Wall on the Right; you must support and pinch him with your Left-leg, and shorten your Right-rein by carrying your Hand to the Left.—I must however repeat it over and over, that in a Lesson of this kind, in which a Horse may find out Methods and Inventions to resist and defend himself; I say, in giving such Lessons, the Rider ought to be Master of the surest Judgment and most consummate Prudence. Moreover, you should take care not to fall into the Mistake of those who imagine that the higher a Horse rises, the more he is upon his Haunches.—In the Pesade, the Croupe is pushed back, and the Horse bends his Haunches; but if he rises too high, he no longer sits upon his Haunches, for from that Moment he becomes stiff, and stands strait Those Sort of Pesades, in which the Horse rises too high, and stiffens his Hocks, are call'd Goat-Pesades, as they resemble the Action of that Animal. The Aids that are to be given in Pesades are derived from those used to make a Horse go backward.—Place your Hand as if you intended to make your Horse go backward, but close your Legs at the same time, and he will rise.—For this reason nothing is more absurd than the Method which some Horsemen teach their Scholars, who oblige them, in order to make their Horses rise, to use only their Switch; they must certainly not know that the Hand confining the Fore-part, and the Rider's Legs driving the Hinder-parts forward, the Horse is compell'd, whether he will or no, to raise his Shoulders from the Ground, and to throw all the Weight of his Body upon his Haunches. |