Literature of Dressage
With Max Gahwyler
Thursday, December 12, 2002
Much of the old literature has been written in German and in French, though more recently, English translations have become available.
Xenophon was an unpopular philosopher that was forced into exile out of Athens, and who began to write books. Much of his original work was lost and what we know of him was written into Latin by his student, Simon. This is what survives today. He left us with many great truths that we would do well to remember:
- Build muscles before you begin training by trail riding or hacking. You cannot teach lateral movement before you have given the horse adequate muscling.
- The horse turns better after a period of going straight. Xenophon did not like 20 meter circles. Our first movements from the First Level tests are straight from Xenophon and are 2 1/2 thousand years old!
Subsequent transalations into Latin (with embellishments for the Cavalry) were written by Flavius Arrienus, 96 – 170 AD. He oversaw the breeding of Andalusians and the administration of the Roman Cavalry in an area that is no Turkey and Iraq. Ann Hayland has translated his works into modern books on this era. The Roman Empire was huge at this time, and the horse was critical to its success, both for communication and for war. At war, shoulder-in was the basic formation. The horse behind was protected by the shield of the man in front, and the horse was placed at a 45° angle, with the rider weight to the outside. The rider rode without stirrups in a specially constructed saddle to support and stabilize the rider.
Dressage maneuvers were used to protect the horse/rider in battle and to entertain visiting dignitaries. (Yes, quadrilles originated way back then, and were far more intricate than those we do today, with patterns existed involving as many as 533 horses!!!)
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, dressage entered the Dark Ages and we don’t read or hear much about it until the Middle Ages and the Crusades. Even then, much of what we learn is through art. Paintings consistently depict knights riding bridleless horses, from which one infers that this was a matter of safety, since control of the horse would mean control of and subsequent death to the heavily armored (and poorly mobile) knight.
During the Renaissance, with the explosion of freedom of thinking, harmony and individualism, and return to classical ideals, riding schools were forming throughout Europe. Grisone formed the School of Naples; Blendeville, the Duke of Newcastle, the school in England, and Galliberti started a novel school in which he started all of his horses in a hackamore. He trained all his horses this way and did not even use a snaffle until his horses were made. He rode his horses entirely from the seat and leg.
The Spanish Riding School began in the 15th Century. Robichon de la Guérinière began the French School in 1733. He is credited with reinventing the shoulder-in, inventing a new saddle with the forward seat, developing the traditional half-halt, and describing riding without the hands. He stated that the shoulder-in was a flexion of the haunches with a stepping under of the hind legs so that freedom and lightness were developed in the front legs allowing freedom in the shoulders. De la Guérinière also said that to be used correctly, the whip should be help pointed upwards and held so as to ask the horse to move away from it.
When the French Revolution destroyed the French Riding School, some riders and horses escaped to Vienna, bringing an infusion of talent and knowledge to the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.
Baucher was at about this time. He challenged the old school with new ideas including the need to understand the horse before trying to teach the horse anything. It is very difficult to read the work of the time and to make sense of it, because so many of the articles are political in nature (either for or against the man) and not about the horse. It is also important to understand that the role of the horse in the world was changing dramatically. Up until that time, the horse had been central to war, but with Napoleon and the use of artillery, horses changed from a fighting force to a means of transportation.
With the destruction of the French and German Armies, the role of the horse and the future of dressage were in question and after the war, there was a bitter debate regarding the role of dressage and the education of the horse (and rider) in Europe. The remaining riding teachers were at the Spanish Riding School under Baucher, but the Germans felt that “Airs Above the Ground” and high school movements were frivolous and impractical, and preferred the military style of riding, and thus began the schism between the German and French schools—one cavalry-based, the other classical. Even today, our FEI tests favor the cavalry-based over the classical, although there is more of a balance.
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