alternate change from side to side still continuing, then the horse will trot backward. The hand has nothing to do with the action, except to maintain the equilibrium, by means of the fingering.
When once the piaffer is obtained, the backward trot follows without much difficulty; but the movement needs moderation, and should begin with a few steps at first, the number increasing with practice. (Figure 38.)
The speed of the backward trot is not the test of its execution. A three-inch step, taken equally by each diagonal biped, and with the same cadence, tempo, and elevation as for the piaffer, is proof of a better equilibrium and a better training, than is any precipitate rush rearward in which the horse avoids the state of equilibrium by moving as it pleases. The air should always seem to be executed without exertion and without compulsion. The horse balances itself with an easy action of the limbs in diagonal, moves backward, returns to the piaffer, changes into the passage, returns to the piaffer, takes the backward trot. The rider's hands are immobile. The position of his body, as it swings like a pendulum into the correct place, is the force which actuates the mechanism.
With this animal mechanism, the backward trot is in perfect accord. The movement is entirely natural, when it is done in equilibrium from the piaffer. But if it is obtained by severity of hand, spurs, or whip, it becomes precisely contrary to the
