POINT OF VIEW All valuable discoveries come in successive layers of evi-
dence relative to the level of awareness of the time. There were no microscopes, high-speed cameras or computers until the last 150 years, but those keen observers of equine life got it right without technological support. Captain Charles Raabe, for example, wrote extensively on the me- chanics of gaits. He defined 16 kinds of walks by pure vi- sual observation and film proved him to be right 90 percent of the time. The absence of technol-
General Decarpentry (1878–1956)
ogy was actually a help to those lifelong horsemen because they had to con- stantly exercise their fac- ulties of observation and deduction. Modern “equi- tation science,” dedicated to the study of the horse’s
behavior in relation to the rider’s demands, attempts to pro- vide guidance for training practice and ethics. It relies on the study of subjects deemed “provable” by the scientists. Regrettably, this work often tries to reinvent the wheel, revealing a philosophical agenda (which is not germane to scientific research) while skipping the study of the extremely practical works of the classics. The information in those books certainly needs to be updat- ed and clarified, but we should not ignore this immense trove of em- pirical and intuitive observations, often summarized in wise prin- ciples. To mention a few that have become maxims of modern riders
François Robichon de la Guérinière (1688–1751)
and trainers: “Calm, forward and straight,” “Ask often, be sat- isfied with little, reward lavishly” and “Try to train the intelli- gence of the horse, rather than his legs.”
Value of Early Writings These classic books were often written in antiquated lan- guage by the elite of the profession for readers who were al- ready competent trainers by the standard of the time. Print- ing started in the fifteenth century and Federico Grisone wrote the first riding book a century later: Gli ordini di cav- alcare (The Rules of Riding) which was translated into many languages and reprinted multiple times. Authors either summarized the knowledge of their time in a clearer man- ner than the oral teachers, attempted to better understand the current method or described an effective ‘shortcut’ they
72 January/February 2019
felt was a better way of training. Many of these shortcuts or terms or phrases became
commonly accepted, such as collection (the Iberian breeds revealed it); lunging; piaffe and passage (from Grisone and the Italian masters, inspired by the Iberian horse); double pillars (detailed in Antoine de Pluvinel’s The Maneige Royal); draw reins, discussed by William Cavendish Newcastle in A General System of Horsemanship and later by Louis Seeger; shoulder-in (La Guérinière); the short-branch curb and the control from the leg pressure that works with it (Cazaux de Nestier); the dropped noseband (Oeynhausen); flexions and the effect on the whole (Baucher); work-in-hand (Baucher, Raabe); the school of the spur (Raabe, Faverot); elevation of the neck for balance and the learning theory (Baucher); and the forward seat (Caprilli and later Danloux). Today, anybody who wants to train horses, or explore some new scientific understanding, needs to read these books, several times in fact and with close attention, in order to pierce some of the “substantial wisdom” they offer. The historical context of those books, the equipment used and the breeds in fashion at that time, as well as the economic, military and artistic purpose of that horsemanship, all have to be taken in consideration. What counts is that they were written by trainers with 30, 40 or 50 years of practical and successful experience that they were able to translate into an educational piece designed to help others train horses better than previously done. They have come up with impor- tant observations and often with valuable solutions that de- serve our attention. Reading the classics effectively asks us to acknowledge
that those authors were revolutionary in their time and cer- tainly not slaves to the tradition. Many of them only became “classics” long after their passing, when their ideas became more mainstream. The most important tribute we can of- fer those trainers is learn from what they found and inno- vate on top of it. Classicism at all costs (as the German Louis Seeger did) is no more productive than being an iconoclast at all costs (as François Baucher displayed in all his writings).
Importance of Why? My business motto is that 2 plus 2 makes 22, not 4. In other words, I try to implement the judicious association of sev- eral previous methods when appropriate: the refinement of old insights brought down to their foundational principle, the application of a method to another discipline (like clas- sical dressage technique to serve the cross-country needs of international eventing, as I did in the 80s), the devising of a totally new way to apply an old method (like lunging) and use it to balance horses by a fluid succession of inward and outward turns in a cadenced trot. My late friend Diogo de Bragança’s book, Dressage in the
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