What do you mean by french classical riding?
Classical Equitation can refer to many different approaches to the art of riding. When I speak of “French Classical Equitation” I’m speaking of a way of working horses that is not military in nature, unlike modern dressage and unlike Classical military riding.
Rather it is based in work developed in the Renaissance that was created to support the well being of the horse so that your horse will be willing, able and ready to engage in any work needed when the call arises. This work is based in the development of a true connection between horse and rider.
The lineage I follow is called “Classical” for a bunch of etymological reasons too— the French methodology has ancient Greek (and pre-Greek) roots and has been practiced for thousands of years. It is based in the work of a documented lineage of authorities, masters that can be traced across time. It is recognizably beneficial to both participants (horse and rider), and has a quality to it that is transcendent— an observer doesn’t have to know what they’re looking at when they first see this work practiced well, and still people tend to have a good feeling about what they’re seeing. And finally, while being based in ‘feel’ it can, nonetheless, consistently be taught through time-tested, horse and rider proven methods.
These are all definitions found in English dictionaries to define “classical”.
The methodology I follow is called “French” because the lineage of masters that I studied came from France, and French culture with its sense of artistic expression, of joie de vivre and savoring life: that special French je ne sais quoi is at the root of the work. Whereas most modern dressage, what you’ll see in competition, is based on German training.
French training finds what’s special and unique in each horse, and in each rider too.
This is a way of working with any horse, not just the elite or ‘bred to it’ breeds, and with any rider, not just the ones that appear on the cover of competition magazines.
So… where did it come from?
The first references to the work in writing are from the Greek writer Xenophon, writing 300 years before the current era began. Xenophon references the written work of someone named Simon of Athens, but his work has been lost to time. Much earlier images from other cultures show horses who are presenting themselves in the posture of a horse that has been invited to explore their best balance, and that suggests that people were working horses this way before writing was common.
Equitation has always been driven by the forces that define the rider’s need for the horse. Military demands, the need to put meat on the table, herding and moving cattle, travel, and self expression have all been the requirements that influenced training styles. The horse’s habitual posture, gait, and temperament all lent themselves— or did not lend themselves- to the work required. The trainer’s task was to help the horse to listen to the handler, and to carry itself and behave in ways that supported the work that it would be doing. A riding horse needed to position itself to bear weight, a carriage horse to lean into the traces, a racer needed to be on the forehand, a swordsman’s mount needed to be comfortable on its haunches. There wasn’t “one right posture” but rather a sense of developing each horse’s athletic and intellectual and temperamental facility with the work they’d be asked to do.
Today the driving force guiding training is competition, and what makes a competitor successful is standing out in the eyes of the judge and the audience. Breeding is pushing the limits of the horse’s physical nature, the desire for flashiness is pushing the limits of the horse’s temperamental nature, and the horse’s intellect is rarely even a consideration.
It makes me sad.
What is the alternative?
What training used to be was something very different, and it’s still useful today: if you’re looking for a great riding horse, a wonderful trail horse, a delightful companion— this old French work brings you all of that. It also happens that this work done well develops horses that will exhibit beautifully in the various disciplines in competition, but the rider tends to begin to listen to their own heart, and to their horse’s response, as the only authority worth considering in the work they do together. Showing becomes something to do just for fun, not to prove anything.
And this makes me happy!
In the Golden Age in France horses were trained for whatever application they seemed most suited to accomplish. Dressage - which is simply the French word for “Training” was the basic physical and mental therapy that helped calm the horse, develop its focus, and give it a healthy body that could move without impediment in any direction.
The work has basic principles. “Calm, Forward, and Straight were General Alexis L’Hotte’s famous words— and he went on to say “And the order matters.”
The most important element, the element that must underlay all of the rest… is calm. For both the horse and the rider. Then with calmness in both, we’re free to be forward— which in French translates to curious and engaged. With both calmness and engagement in place, we can consider straightness— which is suppleness in all directions, honesty, ease.
To me, this just sounds so much fun. And it’s good for the horse, and it’s good for the rider!