HORSEMANSHIP  , the

art of managing the horse from his back and controlling his paces and the direction and speed of his movement . The ordinary procedure is dealt with in the articles on RIDING and cognate subjects (see also HORSE: section Management) . A special kind of skill is, however, needed in breaking, training, bitting and schooling horses for a game like polo, or for the evolutions of what is known as the haute ecole . It is with the latter, or " school " riding, that we deal here . The middle ages had seen chivalry developed into a social distinction, and horsemanship into a form of knightly prowess . The Renaissance introduced the cultivation of horsemanship as an art, with regular conditions and rules, instead of merely its skilful practice for utility and exercise . In Italy in the 16th century schools of horsemanship were established at Naples, Rome and other chief cities; thither flocked the nobility of France, Spain and Germany; and Henry VIII. of England and other monarchs of his time had Italians for their masters of the horse . The academy of Pignatelli at Naples was the most famous of the schools in the middle of the 16th century, but a score of other less renowned masters devoted themselves to teaching the riders and training the horses . Trappings of all sorts multiplied; the prescribed tricks, feats and postures involved considerable dexterity; they were fatiguing to both man and beast, and were really useless except for show . This elaborate art, enthusiastically followed among the Romance nations, was the parent of later developments of the haute 'tole, and of the circus-performances of modern days . In England, however, the continental style did not find favour for long . The duke of Newcastle's Methode nouvelle de dresser les chevaux (1648) was the leading text-book of the day, and in 1761 the earl of Pembroke published his Manual of Cavalry Horsemanship .

In France a simplification was introduced in the

early part of the 18th century by La Gueriniere (Ecole de cavalerie) and others . The French military school thus became the model for Europe, though the English style remained in opposition, forming a sort of compromise with the ordinary method of riding across country . In more modern times France again came to the front in regard to the haute 'tole, through the innovations of the vicomte d'Aure (1798-1863) and Francois Baucher (1796-1873) . Baucher was a circus-rider who became the greatest master of his art, and who had an elaborate theory of the principles involved in training a horse . His system was carried on, with modifications, by masters and theorists like Captain Raabe, M . Barroil and M . Fillis . In more recent times the style of the haute 'tole has also been cultivated by various masters in the United States, such as H . L. de Bussigny at Boston . See d'Aure, Trade d'equitation (1847); Hundersdorf, Equitation allemande (Bruxelles, 1843); Baucher, Passe-temps equestres (1840), Methode d' equitation (1867 ; Raabe, Methode de haute 'tole d' equitation (1863); Barroil, Art equestre; Fillis, Principes de dressage; Hayes, Riling on the flat, &c . (1882) .