POINT OF VIEW
lightness of contact as well as reducing one-sidedness.]. He added: ‘It will be for you like for me. After trying all the difficulties of the art, you will find your greatest pleasure in the perfect lightness, however simple the exercise.’ And my master's prediction was correct. I have reached this point many years ago.” “When the horse’s joints don’t resist any more [by re-
fusing to flex or engage] nor stay inert under our demand, [lose their forward push], when all his parts can be put into play, be animated and vibrate [the word used by the French and the Portuguese to describe the intense and con- trolled energy of the collected horse] from the simple ca- ress of our aids, [I am completely satisfied that] there is no further need to seek complicated [dressage] movements in order to feel infinite pleasures.” “Those pleasures can be found instead in the refined
feeling experienced by the rider. They originate in the elastic and soft flexibility of all the joints, animated by impulsion, within the harmony of the movement creat- ed by the correct use of the aids. In fact, they come from the lightness that is derived from it. [Lightness] is what stamps academic equitation and gives the trainer who practices it, the true character of his talent.”
LIGHTNESS IS RELATIVE L’Hotte recognizes that different horses may require dif- ferent training strategies. “By whatever method lightness can be achieved, it cannot be entirely maintained when
we try a movement that the horse has not yet learned. The lightness will be altered without exception because many extraneous forces will first be put into play and it is only little-by-little that we will manage to extinguish them in order for the sole useful effort to subsist,” he wrote. Lightness is in fact relative to each situation: new
techniques, new exercises, new surroundings, new equipment, etc. will alter lightness for a time. It is a fre- quently heard dressage fallacy that the dressage of a given horse will be achieved in total lightness from be- ginning to end. Even the greatest lightness advocate rec- ognizes this as impossible.
APPLYING HISTORICAL WISDOM L’Hotte’s teacher, Baucher, warned him that, “when com- plete lightness is obtained walking in straight lines, the pleasure resulting from the harmony [the marvelous light- ness of the horse] felt by the rider is such that we could hesitate to progress to [faster or more complicated] move- ments that may unsettle this perfect equilibrium.” Light- ness is addictive and generations of Baucher admirers suffered from the temptation to search endlessly for per- fection of equilibrium in short gaits at the risk of losing impulsion. More active gaits are often needed for the progres-
sion to remain effective, at the risk of an eventual loss of balance. The reality of horse training is that “no omelet is made without breaking eggs” and perfection must be
The author’s assistant trainer Cedar Potts demonstrates lightness on two different horses. At left she rides Zorro, a 9-year-old Luso-Spanish breeding stallion (Hipogrifo x Adonia by Istoso), bred and owned by Baroque Farms USA (author's farm), trained by Cedar for five years. At right Cedar rides her own Majestic Lad, a retired race horse bred by Jonmil farm, after a year of train- ing. The pair competed in the 2016 Retired Racehorse Project's TB Makeover placing second in Freestyle and 12th in Dressage.
58 July/August 2017
Photos by Kim Taylor
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