Those who are kind enough to be familiar with my work over the last 20 years will know that I am very interested in the traditions of classical training and the benefits of it to the horse and rider.
But becoming a really good horseman and rider is a long journey and mine has been no different. It’s interesting and even a little ironic to me, when I look back, that I found my way to classical riding through the couple of western riders who had been trained in it.
The first exposure to the classical methods came through a clinic given by Roy Yates, who had been a student of Charles Owen Williamson (author of “Breaking and Training the Stock Horse: And Teaching Basic Principles of Dressage”). I have articles about them both on my site here so I won’t go into the details now.
But my impression was amazement, that one minute Yates’ champion distance sliding stop stallion (Tidy’s Chirp with a record of 67 feet) could do that in a western saddle and the next minute, could come out of the barn in a dressage saddle, passaging back to the same arena where Tidy and Roy did a dressage exhibition in perfect balance and exquisite lightness. My little head exploded.
Ten years later, I had graduated from problematic horses given to me to fix, to the financially challenging purchase of a two-year old Andalusian stallion, who you might know as my now 25-year old Val. I could see in his young eyes that he had hundreds of years of training, knowledge and wisdom in his DNA that I did not share. I wanted to bring to him what he deserved, so I had some learning to do. Unfortunately, like many then and today, I was on my own to do this as I have never lived near a teacher that fit the bill and was close enough in distance. I mostly had to make do with books from which to be inspired and learn.
In 2002, because I happened to be a writer, I was asked to write a review about a clinic I attended for a California equestrian magazine, and that led to a whole avocation I had never expected. Suddenly I had a journalistic audience for my explorations into the history and usefulness of classical training and instructional methods. I spent all my funds traveling to Europe to meet the important trainers with whom I connected and see things for myself that I could never see in the U.S. I saw my first piaffe in Denmark, which remarkably looked very much like the passage I’d seen a decade earlier with Roy Yates and Tidy’s Chirp. Ah…that’s what “collection” is!
But my critical meeting was in 2003 with Michel Henriquet himself. I sat in his living room as he explained to me the importance of the School of Versailles, created at the courts of the Kings Louis just a few miles away from the venerable old estate shared with his wife Catherine where we sat. An article about this meeting and the day I spent there waits for you elsewhere on this site.
His talk about the School of Versailles changed my life, because it also reminded me in a deep, awakening kind of way of what I already knew. (But that’s another story.)
He described the School of Versailles as the zenith of horsemanship, with the best trainers, instructors and horses, a destination highly coveted by important people all over Europe, but denied to all but a few outside students. This is because the School of Versailles was created and perpetuated through centuries for the ecuyers and cavalry officers of the Kings in a very structured program where the staff was the best anywhere and they were permanent. Period.
I’ve spent my time ever since trying to understand the School of Versailles and what of its value can be mapped to our modern epoch.
So, I have planned a four-book series that explores two masters the School of Versailles and two other leaders of the 18th century equestrian culture. This is important because, in terms of legacy, if these masters represented the zenith of classical equestrian expertise at that time, all we have to do is pay attention and follow their guidelines.
Please watch this space. Due to health concerns, I will have to be retiring soon from this work and these final projects will be my Magnum Opus!