Another Horsemanship

By JEAN-CLAUDE RACINET

Jean-Claude Racinet has devoted his life to the vindication of "L'equitation de L'egerete" (riding in lightness) which fosters balance by relaxing the horse-more so his mouth-excluding force in the wielding of the aids. Also written by Racinet:Total Horsemanship, Racinet Explains Baucher This practical manual, describes the hor

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xenophon Press LLC
• Release date: Jun 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9780933316928

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INTRODUCTION

This being a short book — a practical manual — I have limited my talk to describing the horsemanship of French Tradition from a down-to-earth point of view. I, therefore, think I owe my readers some general considerations on the subject by way of an introduction.

The French style is characterized by lightness.

Of course, I do not pretend that the French have the monopoly on lightness, since there have been Frenchmen who did not abide by its philosophy (all the more so nowadays, when lightness does not feature as a condition for a good ranking in modern Dressage competitions), and since there have been many non-French riders who cherished lightness.

In the course of history, horsemanship has evolved much. Baroque riding, for instance (the 17th and 18th centuries), is not at all what well-intended idealists would like it to have been; horses were overly poised onto their hocks, they rarely were going straight (two track movements were the rule) and, even when they were going straight, they were kept in a pli (a lateral bending) that was supposed to be indispensable to any good presentation at the time. Flying changes of lead at a canter were, if not unheard of, at least considered as an uninteresting stunt; bits and spurs were still dreadful, etc.

François Baucher (1796-1873) reacted against these exaggeratedly restrained airs of the Baroque style, and we owe him our modern optic of horses performing in a more horizontal balance, allowing tempi flying changes up to flying changes of lead at every stride, which he is the first to have performed currently with all his horses.

For circumstantial reasons which would be too long to consider here, but have much more to do with politics and national pride than with technical necessities, the Germans have never acknowledged Baucher (although they have followed an evolution that he was the beacon of). They cling, verbally at least, to La Guérinière (another Frenchman, by the way).

François Robichon de La Guérinière (1688-1751) is considered as the best theorist of the baroque horsemanship, because of the importance and quality of his book Ecole de Cavalerie first published in 1731 (although many books were published in the 18th century by other very distinguished riders, who did not all adhere to La Guérinière’s way). As it happens, La Guérinière is the inventor of shoulder-in, a movement which has undergone many vicissitudes and is nowadays generally practiced and taught in a way quite different from La Guérinière’s.

La Guérinière is also the first to have described (and advocated as one of the most refined aids of horsemanship) the practice of release of the hand, by which a horse is left in liberty on parole after he has been set in the proper balance.

Baucher’s main book’s title, Methode d’équitation basée sur de nouveaux principes (Method of Horsemanship Based on New Principles, 1842) expresses his desire to be an innovator, but in a field like that of horsemanship, it is almost impossible to start from scratch. Half-halts are not his invention, nor is lateral work (two-track movements). His way to teach a horse how to back up resembles much to this of La Guérinière’s; and, although he had declared proudly that before him nobody had understood anything to the problem of collection, he ended up practicing a collection which evokes much that of the baroque era, but perfected since the rear end of the horse was no longer crushed and overly bent.

In the perspective view of History, it appears that the main discovery of Baucher’s is the seeking to lightness of the jaw as a prerequisite to any movement, through flexions of the jaw.

His philosophy, which can hardly be discarded, is that no movement whatsoever should be asked for as long as the conditions of balance required by its execution have not been realized. Hence, never ask at fast gaits what you cannot get at slow ones, and create first the balance by which means is the most appropriate, half-halt or yielding of the jaw (this latter generating an altogether state of relaxation with the horse).

Determining as they might have been, Baucher’s innovations appear more as improvements — very important ones — grafted onto classical knowledge, than as a denial of this very knowledge. And it appears to me that the evolution of the French riding is characterized by a constant seeking toward more lightness, with Baucher in his second style (1864) as its more exquisite theorist and practitioner. If, for instance, we limit ourselves to taking only one item from both great French equerries, the shoulder-in from La Guérinière and the yielding of the jaw from Baucher, we are already going to train our horses wonderfully and achieve magnificent results in High School riding. Let us note, incidentally, that neither of the two above mentioned items are present in the modern — German-like — Dressage riding; shoulder-in is reduced to some kind of subliminal lateral movement, with the bending exhibiting mainly — not to say merely — in the front end of the horse, and yielding of the jaw discarded as placing the horse behind the bit (an expression which has done much harm to horsemanship).

This French-like horsemanship grafting the Baucherist procedures (lateral and direct flexions of the neck and poll from the ground and, when mounted, at slow paces; maintenance of a permanent yielding of the jaw in action; effet d’ensemble followed with a total release of the aids; sophistication in the use of the spurs; work in place; importance bestowed upon the movement of rein back...) to the classical progression of La Guérinière (circle; shoulder-in, croup to the wall) is, as it happens, the horsemanship practiced in a very recent past by the unforgettable Portuguese Master, Nuno Oliveira.

Then in full possession of his Art, Oliveira was first spotted by a group of French riders touring Portugal in the 1950’s. Amazed by his Maestria, they asked, What kind of horsemanship is this marvelous one that you practice? And, equally stunned, Oliveira stuttered, But...yours, of course; the Traditional French Horsemanship.

For it is another tragedy of our time that even the French have forsaken their own heritage.

But let us, for a moment, forget France and Germany, La Guérinière and Baucher, the present and the past, Dressage competitive riding and High School artistic riding.

The gist of the question lies in a simple choice:

On the one hand, a permanent, simultaneous and often forceful wielding of the aids, in order to make the horse accept a rather firm contact with the bit.

On the other hand, the seeking to lightness through an alternate, delicate wielding of the aids, meant at leaving the horse as soon and as often as possible in liberty on parole.

The first way offers an undisputable advantage: you won’t fall from the horse, since reins rarely break. But you will obtain only a mediocre balance and, even with the best of horses, your performances will look heavy, your pirouettes will be lazy, your passage miserable. And, at a piaffe, you will happen to piaffe yourself more than your horse.

The second will give you undescribable joy, and will allow you to teach any horse some High School movements.

The author, Tunis, 1956.

PART ONE

Change Your Riding Habits

I. Quit Pushing Onto the Bit

When one pushes a horse with the legs, he goes forward, and so does the bit. So, not much should happen as concerns the coming onto the bit of the horse, unless one pushes and pulls at the same time.

Now, if you push and pull together you give your horse two opposite orders: don’t go, and he can only be confused by the contradiction. Most of the time, he will choose to obey only one of these two orders--the one that fits best his character. All you’re going to get is a dull horse who will respond with less and less generosity to your legs’ orders. Or, if the horse decides to obey your legs, he will have to put up with your hands’ traction and will become heavier and heavier on the bit.

Or both.

II. Hand Without Legs, Legs Without Hand

(Separation of the aids)

Legs Without Hand

If, by contrast, you systematically open your fingers as you give an impulsive order with your legs, your horse will feel free, and will be more inclined to obey. This suppresses a major obstacle to impulsion.

This does not mean that you are going to abandon your horse on the forehand, for as soon as he will have started, you are justified in controlling his pace with your hands, if necessary. It just means that, as you started, you did not press down two pedals together--the accelerator and the brake.

It is better to open your fingers than to move your hand forward. By opening your fingers, you kind of drop the reins, though they still remain in your hands, so at any time, you can clench your fingers on them in order to control the movement, if necessary. There should be no opposition whatsoever to the horse’s stretching his neck as he starts the movement. If he feels you are going to restrict him, he won’t go freely. Horses are very sensitive; they know if your fingers are going to be permissive or not.

Most riders establish their balance off the reins, not only for lack of a good seat, but also out of an unconscious fear. Now, if you content yourself with moving your hands forward when you yield, you kind of cheat, for you are loath to release your grip on the reins, and the horse knows it. So, do open the fingers. Ask a friend to check on you in the beginning. Old reflexes (of clenching the reins as one uses the legs) are stubborn.

Exercises

1) Halt. Drop the reins completely (don’t even touch them). Ask for a walk with your legs, and grab and adjust your reins as soon as you