My Auntie Mame Moment

The late 19th C. Sears catalog ad above shows a ladies' saddle with a "leaping horn." The old style, one-horned side saddle allowed European and American "ladies" to walk and even canter along slowly on highly trained "ladies" horses, but the Victorians revolutionized riding for "ladies" by installing a second horn beneath the standard one. Equipped with two-horned side saddle, equestriennes could now not only gallop at speed and join men in the hunt fields. They could even, if the were high arousal sorts aka adrenalin junkies, jump fences, BIG fences. How big? The 1915 photo below shows Esther Stace with a lovely light hand on the reins clearing six foot six inches. Before the mid-19th C., side saddles limited riding for women to staid, sedate gaits. Now, suddenly the sky was the limit.

 I found these new, improved side saddles fascinating, So back in the early 70s, I bought an old, single horn sidesaddle and rebuilt it. Adding the "leaping" horn proved easier than I expected. Although I needed some help from a smithy to install the hardware, I was most pleased with myself and, after finishing, I put it on my mare and rode around the big barn at Fort Leavenworth. Once.

By the time I got back to the main door, I was terrified. Nothing happened. In fact, my mare accepted the new saddle without question, walking calmly the whole time. One loop around the barn shook me because, after only a few steps, I fully realized WHY women like Esther Stace could do what they were doing. I felt STUCK on top of my horse, STUCK as in TRAPPED.

I felt like Auntie Mame in the eponymous 1958 movie.  I wonder how many people who watch this wonderful old movie understand the scene where Auntie Mame, having lied about being a crack rider, tries to get out of going fox hunting in the South by telling her hosts she only rides side saddle. The hosts obligingly haul a side saddle out of the attic and Mame takes her first ride ever on a crabby, bolting gelding in an open hunt field. Instead of being humiliated, Mame arouses awe in her hosts. Having no knowledge of the biomechanics of riding aside, they interpret her upright, rigid terror as a fine seat and her screaming as enthusiastic Rebel yells. For me, it's the funniest scene in a funny movie.  

It's hard enough to get on a modern side saddle without help from a ground crew. Dismounting alone can reach something close to Mission Impossible status, especially if the rider lacks total relaxation. Stiffen up a bit and the rider's legs clamp her onto her saddle. In other words, falling off becomes harder than staying on. It's easy to fall off the old sidesaddle that just drapes a rider's leg over the top and lets the other leg swing free, but that second horn, the Victorian improvement, lets a rider wedge a leg in place between stirrup and leaping horn.

Even without a stirrup shortened to a jumping length, I felt utterly trapped and helpless. As quickly as I could, I eased my right leg over to an astride position, freed my left leg from the leaping horn side, and slithered off with a total lack of grace. My feet hitting the ground never left better.

For the first time, I understood the criticism that met the leaping horn when it showed up in the hunt fields of England in the mid-1800s. Critics argued women whose horses fell in the hunt field would be seriously injured, even killed. I've never heard of predicted disasters happening although I'm sure many injuries occurred since "lady-like" women gained the ability to gallop and jump their horses. Of course, most side saddle enthusiasts were and are more athletic than I.

I unsaddled my mare and packed my newly rebuilt side saddle in my car. During the short drive home, I happily realized I was simply not athletic enough for "lady-like" riding. Once home, I immediately listed the saddle for sale. It sold in days.  The young woman who bought that saddle reported she found the saddle "thrilling."

Of course, she found it thrilling. She was, like many top women riders, a recognizable type-- amazonian adrenalin junkie. This fits most of the side saddle riders I've known. The first one I met was a daredevil foxhunter who'd come to find galloping across country astride a bit too sedate--"boring." Sidesaddle fox hunting put a bit of zip back into her sport.

Since then, I've crossed paths with only a couple of side saddle riders and those women rode in the show ring on the flat. I'm not sure they fall into the same class as the side saddle fox hunter "ladies." Consequently, I'm happy to know there's apparently The Side Saddle Revival.

Considering the number of adrenalin junkies in the world, I'm not surprised about the revival. I'm in total awe of those nice "lady-like" sidesaddle riders, the ones with bigger balls than most sky-divers.

I hilltopped a few times, but if anyone ever asks me to join a hunt field side saddle--or astride--I not afraid to just say no. Watching a rerun of Auntie Mame is close enough for me.

More great photos of side saddle riding here: http://sidesaddleciara.com/tag/jonah-wragg/

Lt.-Col. Maxwell Fielding McTaggart (1874-1936)

Some of the pithiest lines on horses--and men--came from Great Britain's Lt.-Col. M. F. McTaggart. I first read some of them in John Richard Young's still worthy books.

Now I'm finally getting around to ordering copies of McTaggart's books. From this snippet, I can say I'm truly looking forward to reading a good many of them.

Preface for Stable and Saddle (1930)

It is now nearly half a century since I bestrode my first pony, and consequently I think it may be said that I was brought up in an old-fashioned school. At any rate I absorbed whatever I was told, and accepted it as truth, and I practiced the principles of those days with enthusiasm. But as the years went on, I began to realize that all I had been told, and all that I had read, did not quite ring true. I found results so disappointing that I became determined to probe things for myself, to test theories, to examine statements, and to be satisfied with no replies that did not have a sound and logical line of reasoning to support them.

As I proceeded to take this detached line of thought; and to accept no convention until its utility had been ultimately proved, I found what a remarkable hold habit, custom, and imitation could have upon horse-owners.

To ask “Why?” was unpopular. Reasons were difficult to give, and “It has always been done that way” was a frequent reply.

Because someone has been successful in his schooling or management, it does not necessarily imply that his methods are so good that improvement is impossible.

I hold the view that change is the forerunner of progress, and that unless we are ready to examine new standpoints and to alter our views when reason justifies it, we are no longer mentally alert. Our minds must flow along in a living stream of new ideas, and not stagnate in the dark and murky pools of backwaters, or gyrate in eddies which take us nowhere but downwards.

In my investigations I have been surprised to find what influence stud-grooms and other such persons have with their employers, for no other reason than that they have been with horses all their lives.

Because a man happens to have held some view all his life, which possibly he was taught by his father, it does not mean that it is right, although it certainly may be. It can be worthy of acceptance only when supported by sound reasons.

In this short work, which I now submit to the public, I have attempted to give good reasons for every view I hold. They have all been tested by me, and are therefore not only the result of prolonged thought, but of practical experience. The book has been written in the hope that the knowledge that I have gained may help others to review their present customs, to break away where necessary from the iron conventions which surround the stable, the manege and the paddock, and to survey their own ideas and methods from a new angle.

M. F. McT.

Who Are You? -- Part Four

Antoine de Pluvinel (1552 - 1620)

Here’s another great master that I have yet to read.  Despite my ignorance though, a little research shows Antoine de Pluvinel to be a pivotal figure in the history of dressage.

Pluvinel studied under a protégé of Grisone, so one might expect him to have continued the practices of his masters, but he didn’t. In rejecting the theory of harsh punishments and returning to and expanding upon the principles of Xenophon, Pluvinel was in the first wave of the humanism that would soon sweep across Europe.

I’m not alone in this opinion. In a 1985 journal article, Hilda Nelson argues that the revival of classical horsemanship should not be credited to the Renaissance humanism of Grisone but to the classical humanism of the 17th Century. Following the ideas of Paul Benichou, Nelson presents a good argument for the 17th Century as the first wave of humanism leading to the era we know as the Enlightenment. This modern humanism emphasized rational thought and refinement of manner.

Here article is available here:  http://www.jstor.org/pss/392816

Since many good Web resources exist on Pluvinel, I’ll resort to copy and paste for much of this.

Margarethe de Clermont also has an excellent page. There, she says this: 

Pluvinel is most well-known for his kind, humane training methods, contrary to Pignatelli, who often used harsh methods to gain obedience from the horse, Pluvinel used praise, careful use of the aids, and softer bits (simple curb bits) to get the horse to work with him. He claimed that the use of the spur or the whip was a confession of failure. Pluvinel introduced a form of equestrian ballet known as a "carousel" in which groups of horses and riders perform intricate patterns to music. In one such instance, over a thousand horses and riders performed together.

Suite 101 has another good page . There, Elaine Walker says this:

While Grisone’s manual of 1550 accepts and even advocates extreme brutality for overcoming any resistance from the horse, Pluvinel chooses instead a courtly refinement. His return to the gentler methods favoured by Xenophon also completes the movement from the battlefield to the riding house. Pluvinel uses the exercises purely as a recreation through which the nobleman may develop physical skills alongside judgement, grace and self-control. This was seen to show the natural moral superiority of human over animal nature without any descent into violence or anger.

Here’s also a nice bit from a sporting art gallery, which, not coincidentally offers some fine prints:

Antoine de Pluvinel was born in France and taken to Italy to study horsemanship from the age of 10 to about 16, when he was taken in by M. de Sourdis, the premier ecuyer (first equerry) of King Charles IX. In his early 20s, Pluvinel was appointed first equerry to the king’s brother, who soon succeeded to the throne as Henri III. His reputation grew, and when Henri IV took the throne in 1589, Pluvinel remained as a member of the court. In 1594, Pluvinel realized his dream of founding a riding school. He was at work on his book Le Manege Royal when he died. A first, incomplete edition appeared in 1623, illustrated by Crispijn de Passe. A second version, illustrated by the same artist, with improved text was issued about two years later under the title L'Instruction du Roy, en L'Exercice de Monter a Cheval and this version was translated and reissued many times. The book shows the instruction of the young Louis XIII (1601-43) who was crowned in 1610 under the regency of his mother and reigned from 1617 onward. The text and illustrations explain Pluvinel’s principles of training horses in the form of a dialogue with the king, interspersed with commentaries by M. le Grand and other distinguished authorities. Pluvinel’s book was groundbreaking in its advocacy of humane training methods, a departure from the harsher practices commonplace at the time.

Drawing from these sources, it’s easy to state that, as a member of the court, riding teacher, and author, Pluvinel exerted considerable influence on the aristocracy in France.  For example, the controversial Richelieu, who would become Prime Minister for King Louis XIII, studied at Pluvinel’s Academie.

Pluvinel’s influence also came to England in the form of his student, William, Duke of Cavendish, the next master I’ll examine.

For now, mere snippets from the writings of Pluvinel are all I have to offer directly. But they reveal a marked shift, going well beyond the scope of Xenophon in attributing riding as the meeting of two minds. The recognition of an animal as having a mind is in itself remarkable for this era.

ArtisticDressage.com offers quotations with commentary from current dressage master Dr. Thomas Ritter.

http://www.artisticdressage.com/pluvinel-quotes.html

Another set of Pluvinel’s words appears here: 

http://www.equiworld.net/foundation.htm

It never fails that someone who does not work with consideration either destroys his horse's gentleness or teaches him incorrigible vices.

I concentrate mainly on exercising his mind and his memory, in such a way that I achieve what I want: so that it is the horse's mind which I work the most: the mind of the rider must work perpetually as well, in order to detect all kinds of opportunities to arrive at his goal, without letting any movement pass unnoticed, nor any opportunity unused.

But in so far as the perfection of an art lies in the knowledge of where to begin, I am very well advised in this regard, to teach the horse his first lessons, since he finds them the most difficult, in searching for a way in which to work his mind, rather than his thighs and shanks, while being careful not to annoy him, if possible, and not to rob him of his spirit: since it is to the horse as the blossom is to the fruit, which, once withered, never returns.

Next time, on to the Duke of Newcastle.

Who Are You? -- Part Three

FREDERICO GRISONE

Getting  my energy up to discuss the Italian nobleman Frederico Grisone is difficult.  First of all, his 1550 manual on horse training has yet to be translated into English although I've heard someone is working on it.  I'm not sure I care since, to me, the bit to the left pretty much says it all.  Grisone was a product of the Renaissance, a glorious time that glorified Man--specifically, the civilized Christian man doing God's work, i.e. dominating the world.  Lesser creatures--be they New World natives or horses--look out!

Did I mention that horses often had teeth pulled to accommodate this type of bit, which I believe weighed up to five pounds or so.

Here is another example of Grisone's methods. This one shows how to teach a horse to lead. I wanted to use another illustration, one with a man poking a horse with a vicious cat that's been bound to the end of a long stick, but I can't find it right now.  I suspect the less inventive illustration shown here is still vivid enough to make my point.

This Who Are You topic is not simply to condemn Grisone. I consider his horse torture reprehensible, but it is important to understand the underlying assumptions or beliefs that led to this type of approach.

Most horsemen are products of their time.  A few rise above their day, but most do not.  Perhaps Xenophon was just lucky and reflected the most enlightened atmosphere of ancient Greece. Perhaps Grisone was trapped by unfortunate elements of the Italian Renaissance and hence became a different type of trainer. As Sylvia Loch points out in Dressage: The Art of Classical Riding "sixteenth century Italian thinking was concerned as much with creating a grand illusion, as with seeking the truth. In drama, literature, art, and politics, rhetoric and spectacle abounded." That's the key to Grisone's methods and his time: "A grand illusion."

Unsurprisingly, Grisone was a contemporary of Nicolo Machiavelli, author of The Prince, the ultimate guide for leaders who want to retain power without having to be ethical or even particularly competent. The advice found in The Prince contends that the ends justify the means and that appearance trumps reality.  

So, with Grisone the central issues of Who Are You arise. For horsemen perhaps we can simply ask this:  Who was closer to the truth:  Xenophon or Grisone?  Which is better: democractic cooperation or totalitarian coercion?

I'd like to think the answer is simple, but it isn't.  Both nature and nurture are at play.  Our eras may pull us in one direction while our natural inclinations may pull us in another.  Few of us think or intuit our way out of cultural givens.  And in this case, Grisone succumbed to the standard assumptions of his culture and resorted to force, still an easy path for all too many people.
 
Let’s face it. Force can work IF the ends justify the means. Grisone solved disagreements between horse and rider not through the patient coaxing advised by Xenophon but through force, brutal force if necessary. For example, Grisone actually used something not unlike waterboarding on horses that feared crossing water, and anyone familiar with the work of psychologist Martin Seligman knows that relentless torture produces a sort of resigned compliance, “learned helplessness.”

This however leads to a more central issue of the governance of a horse: Do the ends indeed justify the means? Grisone's results were probably quite pleasing to the eyes of most. Only a few, undoubtedly those with both knowledge of and an innate sympathy for the horse, would see the underlying truth of Grisone's methods: a master-slave relationship.

The concept of master-slave then leads to a still deeper question. Isn’t that what all horse-rider relationships are? Is partnership possible with a lesser being? Are horses indeed lesser beings?

These are questions that people I deem real horseman answer in ways that most people, including many top riders, do not. Unfortunately, I still know people who heartily approve of the master-slave relationship between horse and rider. They apply draw reins and tie-downs and scoff at what’s now called natural horsemanship.

Reading Xenophon or just looking at the illustrations of Grisone's work should prompt a person to ask  "Who am I? Do I  seek CONTROL or COOPERATION?" These are central issues, not just for horsemen but for humanity. Who rules? How? And why?

Luckily for many generations of well-bred horses, Grisone's harsh methods quickly fell from favor--if not always from practice--at least at the upper levels of riding.  But this leads to yet another question.  Why then is Grisone often still referred to as the father of modern dressage?

From what I see, Grisone's importance lies not so much in what he wrote but that that he wrote SOMETHING.  The printing press was invented in 1440 and a century later books were becoming much more common among the wealthy.  So the printing press allowed Grisone's then fashionable method to spread rapidly.  Indeed, his work was printed, reprinted, translated, and spread around much of Europe. As a writing instructor, I know that it's much easier to rewrite or even rip apart a text or one's own draft than it is to sit down and come up with original ideas while staring at a blank page.

What's true for reading and writing is also true for actual experience, and the Italian riding schools attracted Europe's aristocracy.  So Grisone and his proteges gave other noble horsemen a framework to refine, retool, and rebel against.  And they did. The ideas of others prompt us to respond. So we have to give Grisone credit for giving later, more humane horseman some starting points and a choice.  In this case, most went back to Xenophon. 

As proof of the evolution of horsemanship in Europe, here's an illustration from a fine German site showing the progressive changes to dressage bits that occurred as other horseman started reworking what Grisone began. Click on the picture to make it larger.

For still more information, there is a good discussion here:  Federigo Grisone's Gli Ordini di Cavalcare

I'll post more on these later folks in Part 4, whenever I get around to it.

"Stop Pulling! Stop Pulling!!"

I just watched this video of a bolting horse and I felt like I was channeling this rider's instructor, mouthing her words, feeling her concern.

Although I can't quite tell what started the bolt on this video, it's quite common for beginner riders to go off balance and tip forward after even a small jump. In fact, it's an inevitable part of learning, but more serious problems then arise because a horse understands leaning forward as a request for more speed. English riding instructor Heather Moffett, cleverly and appropriately, calls this curled position the "fatal crouch." The situation typically becomes even worse when the rider tries to slow down the horse by pulling. Again, it's a natural response. People instinctively want to bend forward to protect their soft bellies and to use their hands to force a stop. Unfortunately, this clashes with the horses' instincts to go faster when humans tip forward and to flee in terror when people grab and pull at their mouths. So, if a rider wants a recipe for a bolt here it is: Lean forward and pull.

Anyone wanting to see how experienced riders slow a horse down has only to watch a televised horse race. After the finish line, how do jockeys slow and stop their horses? Do they crouch and hang on tight? Hardly. That's what they did to get their mounts to try to break the sound barrier. To slow and stop, they stand straight up and slowly lengthen the reins.

Going back to the video, it also shows how pulling can also cause a horse to rear. This far more dangerous situation is from seconds 30 through 38 on the video. The horse had stopped, but the rider's adrenalized tension and lack of experience likely caused her to pull when the horse fidgeted. Luckily, this rider respected her instructor enough to follow her instruction to "stop pulling." Almost anyone who's ever taken a riding lesson understands how much bravery and discipline it takes to surrender to instruction and respond appropriately when the body is screaming clutch the reins and hang on for dear life.

Learning to disregard instincts is among the most difficult challenges for a rider. This is one reason my students typically spend months and months on the longe. And even when they go off the longe line, they ride in bosal hackamores or natural horsemanship halters for a long time before their introduction to the snaffle. A beginner can do enough damage with even a halter, but my no-bits-for-beginners policy helps keep my horses sane and,in turn, keeps my students safer. Meanwhile, they learn that even riding with a halter means working on lightness.

It takes a couple of years to develop a good seat, but it's generally a lot longer before a rider grasps--pun intended--the limited role of hands in good riding.

Who Are You? -- Part One

The English have this proverb: "Show me your horse and I will tell you who you are." Still one of the best lines I've ever heard, it deserves several posts on the history, psychology, politics, ethics, and meditative aspects of horsemanship.

I'll start with a personal story. My husband grew up in a wealthy Southern enclave, a place where women wore gloves and hats to shop and not just on Sunday. He once described his hometown as a place where people could live long, full lives without ever knowing what others thought of them. This most likely describes the ideal of a community where gatherings were superficial or politely guarded to promote a tolerant yet non-intimate type of social harmony. Such an ideal is, alas, far less likely between those brought up in less proper communities, and almost impossible between horse and rider where the horse will be direct and honest even if the rider isn't. In other words, the intimate relationship between horse and rider reveals the inner self whether the rider knows it or not. Aside from basic horsemanship skills, this relationship shows our ability to communicate, our basic assumptions on the use of force, fairness, reciprocity, and a whole bunch of other things. In short, it shows much about our personalities and even our politics.

Of course a few riders of extreme patience and skill avoid too many awkward and intimate revelations of their flaws and those of their horses. These few make themselves and their mounts look good no matter what problems they’ve encountered. I’ve seen some examples. A local woman regularly exhibits a Shire at the local county fair. In his early years, she rode him as both a dressage horse and a western reining horse. And now, showing him as an exhibition horse, she still makes a member of the coldest of the cold breeds look light and easy! On the international level, Many years ago, I watched a televised interview with veteran eventer J. Michael Plumb where he complained how dull and uninterestingly unpleasant his Olympic mount Bluestone was. I was surprised. Watching him on the cross-country course, I would have sworn they were a happy, harmonious pair. Those who have been lucky enough to see Reiner Klimke's victory lap with the heralded seventy-five consecutive flying changes on the once notoriously difficult Ahlerich will know what I mean. Such tactful, persistent skill in riders is rare indeed. At the very least, it shows a nearly miraculous connection with a horse. At best, it may well show the most noble, patient aspects of a human being.

Most of us can expect our horses to tell the world—at least the world of horsemen—exactly who we are. Non-horseman may argue with this. In fact, one of my daily vocabulary emails arrived just now with this as the daily quotation:

         The animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older
         and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete,
         gifted with extension of the senses we have lost or never
         attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not
         brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught
         with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of
         the splendor and travail of the earth.
                        -Henry Beston, naturalist and author (1888-1968).

With the horse, Beston was wrong. While most of the elements Beston describes are true, the horse did not arrive “finished and complete.” Man selected and shaped the horse, and, for better or worse, that selection and shaping of the species and finally the development of specific breeds, for work, for war, and for display, allowed man to spread across the world and dominate the earth. This shaping and developing also reveals much about the people who changed horses and horsemanship

That's what I want to talk about over the next series of posts.

Kendell's Leg

Kendell was just trotting around on my OTTB when I snapped these. Most are fuzzy, but as I sifted through them, I realized how consistently lovely Kendell's leg position is. As her instructor, I'm taking total credit for this.

Relaxed Riders

Kendell on Red after a ride



Erica on Razz during a dramatic strikeoff

A Rant Moved from My Farm Site to This Obscure Blog

"Lessons? Why? It's Just Like Sittin' in a Chair, Isn't It?"

Do you train people to ride horses or horses to be ridden? If so, how do you react when someone who has revealed an ignorance of ANY type or school of equitation says, "Can I ride your horse?"

Are you a casual rider with little or no formal schooling? Have you ever asked someone who lives and breathes horses, "Can I ride your horse?" Ever get an evasive or downright hostile response?

For the trainers, I suggest this line by long dead British horseman Colonel M. F. McTaggart: "I can guarantee that a horse is perfectly schooled. I cannot guarantee that anyone else can ride him."

For the casual riders, I suggest pondering another McTaggart gem: "Most people do not ride; they are conveyed."

The suggestion of LESSONS leaves many non-horsemen perplexed. While otherwise informed and intelligent, too many are totally unaware of the spectrum of aids and cues, theories and schools, all of which focus on how to get horses to do as we wish.

Many tell me they don't want lessons because they "just" want to ride my horses for "fun." As if I ride because it makes me miserable?

Typically, these folks just don't know that experienced riders use subtle aids and cues. Furthermore, they simply don't know what could happen if they were to make the wrong moves. For example, lean forward and clutch the reins on Lion. He's a model trail horse for those with a basic dressage or western seat, but he also raced for five years. Consider jockey position, then guess what he might do if someone went into a crouch and took a strong hold on the reins. He still LOVES to run and would probably hit 35 miles an hour within a couple of strides.

How could that lean and clutch happen? When something unexpected happens--for example when a horse spooks at a piece of plastic--instinct curls surprised, frightened people into the fetal position to protect their bellies. Unfortunately, this's a good way to invoke a runaway even on a horse that wasn't a professional racer. British riding instructor Heather Moffett refers to this reaction as the "fatal crouch."

Instincts do not make us good horsemen. For most of us, it's learning to override our instincts that makes us good horsemen. We learn to relax and stay with the moment and the movement. Easily said, not easily done.

Horses are prey animals and hence prone to sudden defensive movements. Hot-blooded horses like Arabs and Thoroughbreds can turn this into an art form. I still remember Razz suddenly lurching about fifty feet down a hill when I was on a trail ride. To my surprise, when I finally pulled myself upright--with my abs, NOT the reins--he immediately dropped back to a walk. He trusted my assessment that whatever frightened him didn't frighten me, so he relaxed.

So my conclusion is that most people who ask "Can I ride your horse?" have simply never ridden a hot or highly trained horse. In short, many think lessons are unnecessary because have "ridden" dull-sided, dead-mouthed automatons, the type found on dude strings. Others have been lucky enough to have been hauled around by someone's saintly packer. Or maybe they once put a quarter in the mechanical horse outside K-Mart.

For whatever reasons, all too many people think that riding a horse is simpler than riding a bicycle. After all, on a bicycle, a person has to pedal, while on a horse all a person has to do is sit there. It's just like sitting in a chair, right?

Uh, no. It's not. But how do you tell someone who's never really RIDDEN a horse?

I keep trying to find the perfect analogy. So far, this is the best I've found for the "Can I ride your horse" question:

"I've flown United, Southwest, and many other airlines. I love to fly. Can I take up your Cessna (or Stearman or Tomcat)? I mean, flying, how hard can it be?"

Imagine photo of ambulances and/or flaming wreckage here.


HERE ARE SOME RESPONSES I'VE GOTTEN AFTER SUGGESTING RIDING LESSONS.

Please bear in mind, most of these people have graduate degrees and otherwise show sense, intelligence, and reason.

"How hard can it be? You keep one leg on each side, kick to go, and pull to stop."

"Oh, I took some lessons when I was a teenager [thirty years ago], so I don't need any more."

"I assure you, I connect well with animals. We'll get along fine."

"When I was a kid, I rode every summer at my uncle's ranch. I know horses."

"The counselor at my Girl Scout camp [maybe twenty years ago] said I was a natural."

"I only want to go on a little trail ride. That's not asking much, is it?"

"Jay Leno said the idea of riding lessons was ridiculous." [Leno did. I watched the program.]



SOMETIMES PEOPLE GET IT

One of these "How hard can it be?" people visted me on the weekend of the Rocky Mountain Dressage Championships. After arriving, she went with me to view the upper level championships. I was sighing at the level of expertise, but she, knowing nothing, was bored. I mean, circles and some funny slow trotting, how hard can it be?

The next morning, I put her on a longe horse. Within minutes, she was gasping at the difficulty of balance and timing at the trot. That night, we went back to the dressage championships where the lower levels were being judged. After one longe session, my visitor was clutching my arm, saying, "How are they doing that?! That's IMPOSSIBLE!"

I facetiously told her it was done with mirrors. Inside joke. Horses indeed mirror their owners and riders, but this is beyond the scope of this rant.

MY WORST EXPERIENCE AS A RIDING INSTRUCTOR

In the early 1980s, shortly after I first started taking on students who weren't friends or neighbors, I got a phone call from a mother who wanted riding lessons for her daughter. Her daughter, she said, was "an expert western rider" who now wanted to learn English as well.

I probably should have been concerned when the woman showed up with a seventeen year old girl, not a twelve year old, but I wasn't. I prepared my longe horse and from the ground did a basic safety orientation with the young woman. Everything seemed OK.

Then she mounted the horse. Within seconds, I could see she was a total beginner and shortened the longe rein. The poor girl looked fit enough but was incredibly clumsy even with the horse at a slow walk. With the mother hovering at the fence, I asked the girl where she'd ridden. She said she'd had two whole weeks at a dude camp a year before.

I gulped and continued a beginner-beginner lesson. After a few minutes, I thought things were going a bit better, so I asked the girl to grasp the neck rope and try to balance in two-point/galloping position. With my horse barely moving, the girl lost her balance and fell backward, crashing onto his croup, causing him to flinch forward about two feet. The girl slid off his rear and landed hard on her back.

Luckily, she was not injured. But her mother started ranting that this was my fault because her daughter was "an expert western rider"--she actually said this again--and if she "had the reins, this wouldn't have happened." I thought to myself that if she'd had reins, the horse might well have gone over on her even though he was bitless, but merely said that I didn't think I was a good fit as a teacher for her daughter.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief when they pulled out of the driveway, and I went into the house to make a list of things to ask potential students in the future.

A DELIGHTFUL SUCCESS

Around the same time that the "expert western rider" showed up, a young man came down our lane on a borrowed horse, a Half Arab gelding belonging to my first student. (The student's brother had without permission loaned his friend her horse, but that's another story.) This young man was extremely frustrated because he couldn't get the gelding to go where he wanted. Knowing the pony had become utterly pushbutton, I asked him what cues he was using. The young man looked at me and said, "Cues?"

I explained the basic principles and he looked like he'd been hit by lightning. He'd ridden broncs for fun in high school and had wrangled at dude ranches. But he still had no idea that horses could be TRAINED to respond to subtleties.

I got on the pony, cantered a figure-eight with a simple change, halted, and backed a couple of steps--all on a loose rein. At this point, the young man wanted to know HOW I was doing this.

All instructors should have a student like this at least once. He was incredibly athletic. As a former bronc rider, sitting a horse was no problem at all. He just wanted the basics of equitation and some theory, so he took only about six lessons from me, but by then he looked better than many riders ever do.

But that's not the best part of this story.

Quite a while later, I ran into him again, and he told me he and a friend had visited the ranch of a Paso Fino breeder and he'd asked--you guessed it--"Can I ride one of your horses?"

When the breeder said no, he responded with "Oh, I understand. Your horses probably work off totally different cues than the ones I know." Hearing the magic words, she smiled, told him her cues, and put him up on one of her horses. He said he had a wonderful ride.

A wonderful ride. On a horse trained in a different school. This is still one of the best things I've ever heard.

Then there are those of us who have worked at riding and realize we are still limited. A long time ago, I had a delightful conversation with a gaited horse trainer. Since I knew little about training gaited horses and he knew little about dressage theory, we ended up explaining our systems.

When I explained how I used my legs, seat, shoulders, and abs to stop a horse, he said, "Do that on one of mine, and it'll bolt."

When he explained his method of using his hands, I said, "Do that on one of mine, and you'll probably have ears in your teeth."

He ended up giving me a brief lesson on one of his horses. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I fretted the whole time, trying to keep my legs away and my hands in a position they'd never occupied before. The horse was beautifully schooled for saddle seat. I wasn't.

In short, there's no one "right" way to signal a horse to do something. Aids--natural pressures from hand, leg, seat or artificial pressures from whip and spurs--inspire universal responses, but these can be blunted or extinguished when a rider fails to reward the the horse. Cues, the conditioned responses, can be anything, but they need to be understood by both horse and rider. For example, I love telling my students about the highly individualized anti-theft cues installed by the Bedouins. For example, an individual mare might be conditioned to put forth her best speed only when the rider touched her right ear and yelled, "Allah be praised!!"

So my recommendation to anyone who wants to ride someone else's horse is to describe the type riding you've done and and then follow the lead of that young bronc rider and weave "What cues do you use?" into your request to ride.

If the horse owner is a good horseman, this question shows a level of awareness that could start a dialog that'll eventually get you on a horse. On the other hand, it might be a good idea to back away slowly if the horse owner says, "Cues?" If there's anything more worrisome than an untrained rider, it's an untrained horse owner.

For Riding Instructors

Anyone who reaches riding using the principles of dressage would do well to read both Lounging the Rider for a Perfect Seat: A How-To Guide for Riders, Instructors, and Longeurs by Benedik
Learning to Ride As an Adult: A New Training Method for First-Time Riders by Prockl.

Benedik doesn't believe anyone has a perfect seat, of course, so the title is a bit misleading.

In a way, Prockl's title is also misleading. And I would argue that her thesis is a bit iffy too. She contends that children are relaxed and natural on horses. This has not been my experience. I've started several girls under ten and found them to be among the most fearful and tense creatures I've ever met. I don't have any students under ten right now, but I suspect the exercises Prockl suggests adults do on a yoga ball would be of great benefit to a great many child riders too. So I wish Prockl had used a title that suggests the main topic of her book: learning to sit well through the use of an exercise ball.

Current Reading List

I'm just getting started here, and I just realized that I neglected a primary portion of my life when I didn't list "reading" as an interest.

Of course, I don't consider reading an interest. It's a necessity, a joy, the gateway to everything else.

Here's what I'm currently reading that's horse-related:

Carriage Driving: A Logical Approach through Dressage Training by Bean and Blanchard


The Circle of Trust: Reflections on the Essence of Horses and Horsemanship by Zettl


Lounging the Rider for a Perfect Seat: A How-To Guide for Riders, Instructors, and Longeurs by Benedik


Learning to Ride As an Adult: A New Training Method for First-Time Riders by Prockl


The Truth about Horses: A Guide to Understanding and Training Your Horse by McLean