Mr. Baucher - on seat p.2

Salve,
continuing with Mr. Baucher on seat nad exercise
Just let us use a chart from Mr. Littauer:

ad rem, the exercies as advocated by Mr. Baucher

Flexion of the legs.

The instructor will watch that the knees always preserve their perfect adherence to the saddle. The legs will be swung backward and forward like the pendulum of a clock ; that is, the pupil will raise them so as to touch the cantle of the saddle with his heels. The repetition of these flexions will soon render the legs supple, pliable, and independent of the thighs.

The flexions of the legs and thighs will be continued for four days (eight lessons). To make each of these movements more correct and easy, eight days (or sixteen lessons) will be devoted to them. The fifteen days (thirty lessons), which remain to complete the month, will continue to be occupied by the exercise of stationary supplings; but, in order that the pupil may learn to combine the strength of his arms, and that of his loins, he will be made to hold at arm s length, progressively, weights of from ten to forty pounds. This exercise will be commenced in the least fatiguing position, the arm being bent, and the hand near the shoulder, and this flexion will be continued to the full extent of the arm. The chest should not be affected by this exercise, but be kept steady in the same position. 

Of the knees.

The strength of pressure of the knees will be judged of, and even obtained, by the aid of the following method : this, which at first sight will perhaps appear of slight importance, will, nevertheless, bring about great results. The instructor will take a narrow piece of leather about twenty inches long; he will place one end of this strap between the pupil s knee and the side of the saddle. The pupil will make use of the force of his knees to prevent its slipping, while the instructor will draw it towards him slowly and progress lively. This process will serve as a dynamometer to judge of the increase of power. The strictest watch must be kept that each force which acts separately does not put other forces in action, that is to say, that the movement of the arms does not influence the shoulders ; it should be the same with the thighs, with respect to the body ; the legs, with respect to the thighs, etc . The displacement and suppling of each part separately being obtained, the chest and seat will be temporarily displaced, in order to teach the rider to recover his proper position without assistance. This will be done as follows : the instructor, being placed on one side, will push the pupil s hip, so that his seat will be moved out of the seat of the saddle. The instructor will then allow him to get back into the saddle, being careful to watch that, in regaining his seat, he makes use of his hips and knees only, in order to make him use only those parts nearest to his seat. In fact, the aid of the shoulders would soon affect the hand, and this the horse ; the assistance of the legs would have still worse results. In a word, in ail the displacements, the pupil must be taught not to have recourse, in order to direct the horse, to the means which keep him in his seat, and vice versa, not to employ, in order to keep his seat, those means which direct the horse.

Here but a month has elapsed, and these equestrian gymnastics have made a rider of a person, who at first may have appeared the most unfit for it. Having mastered the preliminary trials, he will impatiently await the first movements of the horse, to give himself up to them with the ease of an experienced rider.

enjoy
ps
Baucher belongs to the period of the 2nd Empire - when Napoleon III ruled France and her dominions, and I included two paintings from the famous war when the French gave the final push for the Italian freedom and liberation of the Peninsula from the Austrian Empire and thus allowed the creation of the modern Italian state... right, 'Italy' is only 157 years old - :) while Germany even younger (135 years old)..