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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: [3] "Mollia crura reponit," Virg. "Georg." iii. 76; Hom. "Hymn. ad
Merc."
How these desirable results are, in our opinion, to be produced, we
will now endeavour to explain. In the first place, then, you ought to
have at least two bits. One of these should be smooth, with discs of a
good size; the other should have heavy and flat discs[4] studded with
sharp spikes, so that when the horse seizes it and dislikes the
roughness he will drop it; then when the smooth is given him instead,
he is delighted with its smoothness, and whatever he has learnt before
upon the rough, he will perform with greater relish on the smooth. He
may certainly, out of contempt for its very smoothness, perpetually
On Horsemanship |
