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The
Natural Horse Group was established in 2001.
It aims to provide
information that enables people to explore ways of keeping and managing
equines that enhance wellbeing and encourage a natural lifestyle
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Articles
Classical Riding – Nothing Forced Can Be Beautiful
By Susan McBane
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With many things in the horse world, once something becomes popular many people want to get involved, either from a business/making money viewpoint, or because they want to try it to see if it’s any better than what they have been doing already. This applies to natural horsemanship, classical riding, new ideas about feeding, footcare, saddlery and so on. Unfortunately, a lot of people say that they train and ride classically, but do not.
Classical riding may have an image of being very advanced, difficult and beyond our reach, with highly collected, prancing horses, statuesque riders and levels of skill that we feel we could never reach. This is only one view of it, though, and, at its best, illustrates the results which can be achieved with practice, application and a certain amount of aptitude on the part of horse and rider.
What many people do not realise is that classical principles apply right down to ‘grass roots’ level. I started riding at the age of four and was taught classical principles from the beginning (the Weedon/Saumur method). I have a video of the son of a man I trained with in the 1980s performing, at 12 years of age, basic paces in a beautiful, quiet, still way on his nice but perfectly ordinary pony, and also passage and piaffe, just because he had been taught correctly.
An Ethos
Classical riding is more of an ethos than a technique, although correct principles produce better results in practice than forceful, bullying methods which are so often seen today. It should be spiritually uplifting and inspiring for both onlooker and participant, and that includes the horse. The aim is to produce a horse working in a lightly and strongly held posture of the kind which makes it safe to carry the weight of a rider and to do so in
self-balance and carriage on the weight of the rein.
The classical idea of correct posture is to enhance the natural upward vertebral bow of the spine. The vertebrae form a natural slight upward arch in any case. Any engineer will tell you that this is a safe structure for carrying weight. In the case of the horse, the weight he carries naturally is that of his heavy intestines which are slung by membranes from the underside of the spine and the tops of the ribs. When the weight of a rider is added, the back sinks a little which puts some strain on it and flattens it.
Classical training aims to get the horse to go initially with ‘the middle up and both ends down’. The abdominal muscles help to support the back and are aided by the hindquarter muscles in bringing the hindquarters and legs slightly under (flexing the lumbo-sacral joint at the croup). In the forehand, early training is aimed at getting the horse to stretch the neck forward and down
without falling onto the forehand which is bad for the balance and
forelegs.
Later, the horse is encouraged to carry his and the rider’s weight a little further back and to stretch his withers and neck up from underneath (forehand lift) and to stretch the neck forward along the topline. The head is carried with the poll as the highest point (except in cresty stallions), the front of the face on, or more usually just in front of, the vertical, and going with a swinging back and flowing, relaxed gaits. Clearly, this posture is not what is often seen today.
‘Nothing Forced Can be Beautiful’
That is a quotation from Nuno Oliveira, probably the greatest classical rider of the 20th century and the teacher of my own teacher of the 1980s who taught a slightly different and even lighter system than my childhood teacher. This clearly means that, in classicism, there can be no forcing the horse’s head in from the front end or forcing the horse up to a harsh hand, both serious and common faults today. The misuse of training aids or gadgets is another counterproductive practice, as is purposely causing the horse to go overbent or behind the bit.
Plausible-sounding excuses are usually given for these practices but they are not classical in ethos and do not produce the safe, strong, independent posture necessary for the horse to carry weight relatively effortlessly and to do so for a long working lifetime – like the stallions of The Spanish Riding School to mention only one classical establishment.
At the opposite end of the scale are the ‘washing line’ brigade – riders who give the horse no idea of how to carry himself under weight so that he will almost certainly end up going like a plank with a flattened back and dropped belly.
Independence for Horse and Rider
The horse must – at all levels of training – learn to carry and balance himself and carry the rider. Another meaningful quotation is ‘a rider should not be allowed to do anything until he is capable of doing nothing’ – in other words, nothing to interfere with the horse’s natural élan and way of going. Here is another sobering quotation: ‘the most difficult thing to do on a horse is nothing’ – the right kind of nothing, that is.
The rider’s responsibility is to acquire an independent, balanced seat. Only then can he or she actually start to help and school the horse as opposed to simply staying on or, worse, adversely affecting his movements by trying to stay in balance.
No matter which country one lives in or what breed of horse or pony one rides, classical riding is determined by pleasure, strength, lightness, harmony, ease and self-discipline of both horse and rider, not only by stunning advanced movements and airs above the ground.
This may all sound like a counsel of perfection but, believe me, with practice and the right attitude it is far from an impossible dream. If members would like more information on practical classical techniques, I should be happy to go further into the subject.
The Classical Riding Club, Eden Hall, Kelso, TD5 7QD,
crc@classicalriding.co.uk, www.classicalriding.co.uk, fax: 01890 830667
Susan McBane s available for lessons - phone: 01254 705 847
100 Ways to Improve your Riding by Susan McBane, David & Charles, 2004 |
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