Kip Mistral

Equestrian Culture and Classical Traditions to Inspire the Modern Rider

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  • Book Review: “Dressage Principles and Techniques: A Blueprint for the Serious Rider” …

     Book Review: “Dressage Principles and Techniques: A Blueprint for the Serious Rider” by Miguel Tavora

  • Order in the Time of Chaos – Thoughts On the Beauty of Balance

     Order in the Time of Chaos – Thoughts On the Beauty of Balance

  • How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways…

     How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways…

  • Back in the Saddle

     Back in the Saddle

  • Moving Sabbatical!

     Moving Sabbatical!

  • Book Review: “Fragments from the Writings of Max Ritter von Weyrother, Austrian …

     Book Review: “Fragments from the Writings of Max Ritter von Weyrother, Austrian Imperial and Royal Oberbereiter” Vienna 1836

Book Review: “Fragments from the Writings of Max Ritter von Weyrother, Austrian Imperial and Royal Oberbereiter” Vienna 1836

Book Review: “Fragments from the Writings of Max Ritter von Weyrother, Austrian Imperial and Royal Oberbereiter” Vienna 1836

(© Kip Mistral 2019. “Fragments from the Writings of Max Ritter von Weyrother, Austrian Imperial and Royal Oberbereiter,” published by Xenophon Press, 2017. Images and quotations from within are used with permission of the publisher. Image detail from Courbette by Ludwig Koch 1866-1934)

Maximillian Ritter von Weyrother (1783–1833) was Chief Rider of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna from 1813, and Director from 1814 to 1833. And why should we care to read a book of his writing fragments, you might ask. Is he just one more riding master in the cavalcade of horses and riders through time who codified his personal embrace of equestrian art? The answer would be no.

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When Only a White Horse Will Do

When Only a White Horse Will Do

(© Kip Mistral 2019. Detail from the “Apotheosis of Kaiser Wilhem” by Ferdinand Keller, 1888. National Gallery, Berlin)

Everyone knows, on an archetypal level, that anyone riding a white horse in a movie is a good guy and anyone riding a black horse is a bad guy. Why is that? Why is Pegasus white and why is the Unicorn white? Why is the horse the King rides so often white? Well, white is the color identified with the qualities of purity and nobility, and also it just so happens that real white horses are extremely rare…literally, the pearl of great price.

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“DuPaty de Clam (1744-1782): A compass and ruler approach to equitation” by Frédéric Magnin

“DuPaty de Clam (1744-1782): A compass and ruler approach to equitation” by Frédéric Magnin

(Reprinted from ‘La Revue des Amis du Cadre Noir’ (Issue No. 89, 2016) with the permission of author Frédéric Magnin and the permission of M. Ludovic de Villèle, President of the Association Les Amis du Cadre Noir de Saumur. My deep gratitude for the opportunity to share this wonderful piece.)

Today it would seem that the history of French equitation can be written without mentioning Dupaty de Clam. Yet such an omission was unthinkable a short time ago, so great an influence did this “Ecuyer of the Enlightenment” have on equitation in parts of Europe right up to the 20th century. At times accused of being “a chamber écuyer”, at others considered to be one of our best equestrian writers, recognized in any event as “the first to write about Equitation, according to the principles of Physics”; put simply, he was “a thinking écuyer.”

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Being An Advocate for Your Horse: A Discussion with Friends

Being An Advocate for Your Horse: A Discussion with Friends

(“Orestes Pursued by the Furies” by John Singer Sargent. The Furies in Greek Mythology were creatures from the Other World who avenged wrong doing and were enforcers of the proper order of things. I have reproduced here a thoughtful discussion that some friends and I had on my Facebook page recently, as I think it is an important subject.)

Kip: This short piece by Jane Savoie (see the link at the end of this article) has been revived by Dressage Today from their archives, and such a revival could be done every day in my opinion. Twelve years ago, a British “classical riding” instructor spent a week doing a clinic at the equestrian facility where Val and I both lived for a time. As typical with western arenas, the footing was deep sand and very tiring for ridden horses. Val and I worked with her for 1/2 hour and he was flagging badly. He was exhausted and over-faced by the work she was giving us. She demanded to let her get on.

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“The Music Box”: A Short Film Featuring Michel and Catherine Henriquet 1994

“The Music Box”: A Short Film Featuring Michel and Catherine Henriquet 1994

(© 2019 Kip Mistral. Short film by Michel Kaplan, Beau Geste S.O.A.R. & On Tape Productions, 1994. With permission by the Kaplan family and Catherine Durand Henriquet. Photograph by Frédéric Chéhu.)

One day in France, long ago, a little film was made in a big hurry. Plans had been made to do the shooting for the film at the gardens of the nearby Château de Maisons-Lafitte, between Versailles and Paris, but before that could be scheduled, one of the two equine stars of the show (the Lusitano stallions Spartacus and Orphée) was being called away. Since Orphée had regained his status of 2nd French Dressage Horse and Free Style Champion, his breeders were claiming him to return to Portugal to do his job as a sire.

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