Mei (ãã, ã¡ã¤) is a feminine Japanese given name. The section History and Origin of this page contains content from the copyrighted Wikipedia article Mei (given name); that content is used under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL).
Dear Julie, My understanding is that spurs are to be used to back up a request if the horse is not responding or to make a cue more clear as in lateral work. It is hard for me to picture how to not have the spur contact the horse, especially in the most forward position when cueing with one's leg.
They were used to spur on the horse. This is to encourage it to go, go faster, go left, go right or jump. If your horse was as mad as a fish and unused to carrying someone around it was thought to be cool to damage it by stabbing it in the ribs or guts with foot mounted stabbing things - namely spurs.