Kip Mistral

Equestrian Culture and Classical Traditions to Inspire the Modern Rider

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  • This is a School for Princes

     This is a School for Princes

  • “Oliveira Shows His Art of Riding: An Insight into Training Methods” Horse …

     “Oliveira Shows His Art of Riding: An Insight into Training Methods” Horse and Hound 1987

  • Language, Literacy and Other Ideals…

     Language, Literacy and Other Ideals…

  • 1952 Performance of the Spanish Riding School: Quadrille led by Alois Podhajsky

     1952 Performance of the Spanish Riding School: Quadrille led by Alois Podhajsky

  • UNCUT: The Vanishing Point of the Eighth Art; 2005 Interview with Michel Henriquet

     UNCUT: The Vanishing Point of the Eighth Art; 2005 Interview with Michel Henriquet

  • I Know You By the Horse You Ride: In Search of the …

     I Know You By the Horse You Ride: In Search of the Golden Bridle

Book Review: Friedrich Wilhelm Baron Reis von Eisenberg and “The Art of Riding a Horse”

Book Review: Friedrich Wilhelm Baron Reis von Eisenberg and “The Art of Riding a Horse”

(© Kip Mistral 2017. First published in the United States Lipizzan Federation quarterly NEWS publication for Winter 2018. Feature image is Painting #26: Gallop leading with near fore, from “The Classical Riding Master”. Subsequent illustration credits inline.)

The great horsemen of the European baroque and romantic eras were undeniably aristocrats. After all, making a great horseman and a great horse—in those days—was expected to take a lifetime in the first case, and many years in the second case. Only aristocrats and nobility had the time and the money to acquire fine horses and undertake the deep study that in these times made becoming a graceful, elegant rider an important character-building experience. The German-born Friedrich Wilhelm Baron Reis von Eisenberg (1685-1764)1 was such a lucky one.

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Artist or Artisan?

Artist or Artisan?

In your Horsemanship… Are you an Artist or Artisan? (Thanks to Merriam-Webster Dictionary for the definitions.)

1) Artist: a: one who professes and practices an imaginative art, b: a person skilled in one of the fine arts, c: a skilled performer

2) Artisan: a worker who practices a trade or handicraft

All comments and discussion welcome!

Apprenticed to Transformation: “Dressage in the Fourth Dimension” with Sherry Ackerman

Apprenticed to Transformation: “Dressage in the Fourth Dimension” with Sherry Ackerman

(© Kip Mistral 2003. Two part interview article first published in California Riding Magazine. Detail from “The Prince Riding in the Moonlight” by John Bauer, 1914.)

“I remember one day after several years of study, during which I thought I was progressing quite nicely, my teacher said, ‘Riding dressage is not like playing tennis. You can make your body learn the techniques and make your head learn the movements, but the dressage comes from inside of you. You really need to develop your inner life.’ This was a turning point in my life, a quantum leap in my conscious process. I began to understand that people rode the way they were, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and that was why horses performed differently for different riders. As we open ourselves up to transformation, our riding improves.” ~ Dressage in the Fourth Dimension

Sherry Ackerman is a Mount Shasta, California based, European-trained classical rider and trainer who, incidentally, holds a PhD in Philosophy. Her fascinating book Dressage in the Fourth Dimension explores her ultimate ideal for riding and the horse/human relationship. She calls it the Fourth Dimension, essentially the merging of two entities in a higher plane of spirit that moves outside their individual existences.

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Where Did the Wild Things Go?

Where Did the Wild Things Go?

(© Kip Mistral 2018. “Water Sprite” by Theodor Kittelsen)

Almost all of us riders met the horse first in our childhood imaginations. We took our seats on the gleaming black stallions, or the feisty red mares, or even the luminous winged white horse, and they carried us to…wherever we wanted to go. And we flew together with them in a gallop so fast that we conquered space and time.

Some of us children were so lucky to find our way to the horse in the real flesh. We learned to love that wonderful smell of their coats and their sweet hay-scented breath. We groomed them until they shone. We sat on their patient backs for hours while we talked to our friends in the barn aisle. We rode freely out in the country, perhaps, with no rules except to be home by dark. We were unconscious of anything except the moment, the freedom and its joy. We—and I am one of these fortunate ones—know now how extremely lucky we were to have this gift of innocent time with the horse. We could be Wild Things together.

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Now for Your Cherishings – Gervase Markham 1676

Now for Your Cherishings – Gervase Markham 1676

(Peter Paul Rubens – Detail from Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma – The Collection – Museo Nacional del Prado)

“Now for your Cherishings, they are those which I formerly spake of;

Only they must be used at no time but when your Horse doth well,

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