"General L'Hotte wrote about the character of the continual creation, which left certain students confused who did not possess the mental flexibility nor the talent to surpass a certain stage in which they were stuck: 'Baucher explored the art down to its last secrets, pushed back the frontiers, and conducted incessant research, leading to an uninterrupted succession of discoveries that have made him an innovator of unparalleled productiveness.'
"One can only subscribe to this judgement wholeheartedly. But one has to remark that the research into the pursuit of the ideal was not exclusively dedicated to this progressive evolution. On the one hand, trying to make the application of the method easier for riders with modest capabilities and ambitions, and on the other hand, Baucher's inability to apply the aids with the same strength after his accident, certainly both contributed to the modification of the means he used.
"For it was merely a modification of the means. The entire core of the method, its principles, its spirit, remained intact in the 'second manner'. The core of the method is the 'mise en main' and the 'effet d'ensemble' which remained at the heart of the system in 1864 just as much as in 1842. But the means of obtaining them were modified as far as their nature, their application, and their intensity were concerned.
"For the mise en main, the lightening of the front, which had hitherto been accomplished exclusively by the ramener, is now achieved by lifting the neck first, which also causes a weight shift towards the back, like the ramener. With the elevated neck and a relaxed jaw the same degree of lightness is obtained almost without ramener, or at least with a much less pronounced ramener than if the latter had to achieve the shortening of the lever arm of the neck and the resulting lightening of the forehand by itself.
"Now, the raising of the neck is much more easily and quickly obtained than the ramener. This new procedure enables the rider with much less effort and time than the first manner to obtain a position of his horse which guarantees a balance that is quite sufficient for the requirements of practical equitation.
"The ramener remains indispensable as soon as the rider wants to augment his control, be it to ride a difficult horse, or be it to embark on artistic equitation. To obtain this control, Baucher now rejects pulling the horse's nose slowly towards his chest, like he used to do in his first flexions. Instead, it is the horse's body that advances step by step towards his head which is fixed by the rider in this new manner, and that gradually increases the poll flexion and the verticality of the head as a byproduct of the increased suppleness. Gained this way, the ramener ceases to be independent of the posture of the entire horse. It is, on the contrary, tied to the beginning of the rassembler, always at risk of getting lost again in the direction of the initial shift of the mass which produced it: towards the front.
"For the effet d'ensemble, the means of obtaining it are only modified by a refinement of the precautions in familiarizing the horse with the pressure of the legs and the spurs, and by the use eventually of the cavesson for suppressing the defenses during this progression.
"But the effet d'ensemble, which had constituted the normal and habitual means of re-establishing lightness in the first manner, is now used only in exceptional cases, when the resistance is of a "moral" nature, and turns into defensiveness. Even in these cases, the effet d'ensemble remains within the limits that have been assigned to it from now on: it is the ultimate means of domination.
"It is the hand who is alone in charge of re-establishing lightness in the new manner, and Baucher distinguishes two ways of using it for this purpose: the half halt to relieve the excess load on the forehand, and the vibration to 'melt' the muscular tensions.
"The essential feature of the new manner is precisely the systematic rejection of the permanently simultaneous use of the hand and the legs. Hence the formula: 'Hand without legs, legs without hand.'
"Now, the coordination of the aids in their simultaneous use constitutes the greatest difficulty in horsemanship. If the harmony is disturbed by an excessive use of the hand, e.g., it can seemingly be restored by an action of the legs, but only seemingly. In the best case scenario, the rider has provoked an ill-timed rassembler which does not correspond to his first intentions, he modifies the balance of his mount without wanting it, and it becomes a new source of difficulties on account of its mismatch with the work that is demanded of the horse.
"Also, the 'support' of the aids leads him too often, according to Baucher, 'to pay with one aid for the mistakes of the other', to the detriment of the balance and the order.
"By suppressing this mutual support and prescribing, on the contrary, the application of the formula 'legs without hand, hand without legs', the second manner at the same time suppresses the all too frequent occasions of their interference.
"While the hand alone assumes the regulation and the distribution of the action, the legs alone are in charge of producing impulsion, and, in order to ensure that this is the case even in the effet d'ensemble, each of these effects must be terminated, once the submission is obtained. As soon as the hand drops its barrier, the horse must depart freely, if the legs continue their pressure or if they increase it, even supplemented by an attack in case of a hesitation or laziness.
"This is an improvement of the greatest importance, which makes the pitfall disappear into which so many students of the first manner had fallen: this tendency of the horse to 'fall asleep on the spur' after the effet d'ensemble, which had been mentioned by General L'Hotte in his 'portrait du cheval bauchérisé en 1849'.
"For the practical horseman, the application of the new formula thus constitutes a simplification and a guarantee of considerable extent.
"For the écuyer, the advantages of the second manner are even more important. In all of the School work that does not contain the rassembler, and in which the precision of the movements constitutes the essential form of the art, the isolated use of one aid bluntly illuminates any mistake it may commit, whereas in the coordination of several aids this mistake would be 'drowned' out in the confusion of their actions and effects. If this same aid is applied by itself, and if it is alone responsible for an eventual disorder, it is only by correcting its own action that the disorder can be repaired, in order to avoid it in the future, depending on the experience and the progress in the skills of the rider.
"In order to trace, e.g. a perfectly round volte, exactly placed and measured, with the aids of only one rein, one needs a correctness, finesse, and dexterity in the actions of the hand, which the simultaneous use of both reins and both legs in the system of compensations and compromises does not permit to discover, and even less to acquire.
"When the research of the rassembler makes it necessary in the following to use both legs and the hand, the refinement of their actions that was acquired previously in the course of their isolated application now places a gamut of nuances in their effects at the rider's disposal which allows him not only to avoid all dischord, but to obtain perfect harmony.
"Drafted in the 12th edition of his method, in 1864, the new manner was refined in the 13th edition in 1867. It is detailed with the entire development it had undergone by 1870 for all the branches of horsemanship in the 'Derniers enseignements de Baucher', published by General Faverot de Kerbrech. In this admirable work, which is as clear as it is precise, but which did not appear until 1891, it is legitimate to think that, in spite of the student's adherence to the instruction of his teacher, the personal experience of the General after 20 years of practicing the new manner did not fail to contribute to the perfection of this brilliant description of Baucher's last thoughts.
"The reduced and simplified progression of the new procedures which sufficed for the preparation of the horse with respect to the campaign school was also described by General de Kerbrech in a pamphlet that appeared in 1907 under the title 'Dressage du cheval de dehors.' Before him, Lenoble du Teil had treated the same subject, but with less details. Finally, it is necessary to remark that Rul, published a booklet in 1870 entitled 'Progression méthodique du dressage à l'aide d'un simple filet de tous les cheveaux de la Cavalerie'. That was a very succinct description of the new manner. It is above all interesting that it was bought from its author by the Minister of War, although Baucher's method had been banned and was never admitted."
Last Update: January 13, 2007