“Caprioles is a leap, that when the horse is at the full height of his leap he yerks, or strikes out his hinder legs, as near and as even together, and as far out as ever he can stretch them, which the French call _nouër l’aiguilette_, which is, to tie the point.”
It is a pity that the Duke does not inform his readers which of the “four several airs” of “the leaping-horse” are respectively most suitable for the negotiation of oxers, bulfinches and brooks.
In training the horse to make demi-pirouettes, demi-voltes, etc., not content with the powerful curb, the caveson with its reins fastened to the pommel of the saddle, and having the horse’s head tied by a rope to a pole fixed in the ground, Newcastle would have his rider wear terrible spurs on his heels and carry a _poinson_, which was a “short stick with an iron point at one end of it,” in his hand. And, as if even all this were not enough, he would have two men on foot to “help” the horse, one with a switch in his hand and the other with a “Scourge”. By these gentle means, he tells us, horses may acquire “airs built only of art”.
Let us next learn something about curvets.[158]
“To work a horse in Curvets backwards upon the Voltes.
“The pillar being on the right side, to the right you must advance your breast and pull in your belly, your bridle-hand on the contrary side, putting it very much out and back each time, and helping at the same time with the opposite leg. This is to make him go in a circle; but all the aids must be given in the right time. The rein and contrary leg here works the horse’s croupe, and his shoulders are at liberty.”
Here we have a highly scientific description of “Curvets upon the Voltes, sideways”.[159]
“The horse’s hind-legs that are out ought to follow the fore-legs that are in, neither more in nor more out; the fore-legs however are within the lines of the hind ones, since they are narrower. The pillar or center is without the head of the horse when you work the croupe out, for which reason his fore-legs describe the smallest circles, and those behind the largest. The fore-leg within the volte describes the least of the two smaller, and the other fore-leg the largest of them. The hind-leg within the volte describes the least of the larger circles, and the other without the volte the greatest.”