What is french classical equitation?

“in a world of isms and options,

French classical equitation finally answered the questions I was asking.”

Student at Blue River Farm

WHY DO WE CALL IT “FRENCH”?

The classical riding method that we teach is called French because whereas most competition riding today is influenced by German teaching, the lineage of historic master teachers that we study were French. They lived, rode and wrote their masterworks in France. Just as every country has its own culture, every region where trainers influenced one another has its own riding culture as well. French culture is known for its subtlety and savoring of flavor, French riding is known for its subtlety and sense of delicious connection, too. This form of work requires a rider to learn profound balance and real self discipline. It is not a pop culture method of riding, though it is a lot of fun. And the better you get at it, the more fun it becomes.

WHY DO WE CALL IT “CLASSICAL”?

This way of working the horse is called Classical because unlike the prevailing forms of riding, this is not a new form of work. The work was written about by the Greek general Xenophon 2,300 years ago, and one can see in images carved on stones and painted on walls in antiquity that the ideas were already being explored much earlier than that. While ‘Greek in origin’ is generally considered a necessary element in western thinking about what makes a thing classical, much of what is beautiful about this work can be found in ancient philosophy around the world. So it’s classical both because it has ties to ancient Greece, and because it has ties to other lineages of ancient thinking.

It’s ‘classical’ also because it wasn’t invented by one person, it’s not new, but rather has a recognized lineage of practitioners. It’s considered ‘classical’ as defined in the dictionary also because it produces a predictably masterful result in the student who pursues it, because it is based on the idea of a transcendent, universally recognized beauty, and because it is beneficial for both the horse and the rider.

How is it different from other forms?

In the prevailing approach trainers understand that a horse in their discipline carries itself in a specific way, so they train the horse to carry itself in that manner. The arched neck is desirable in some disciplines, the very low head carriage in others. A horse is trained to behave correctly for a reprise in a show, 10 to 20 minutes at a time. The horse learns to obey cues: when the rider’s leg is applied here the horse moves there. The rider as well holds herself in specific form, “heads up heels down” is the familiar litany. Trainers choose horses most suitable for their discipline, and through training they winnow out the lesser horses and find those few elite individuals that can rise to the highest form. Training is known to cause damage to the joints and often horses are started on joint injections as a precursor to beginning training in earnest. Most horses have between 6 to 9 years under saddle before they have to retire.

Contrast this with the French approach.

In French classical training historically trainers understood that, just like people, horses find their unique personal correct posture and balance through trial and error. Your parents did not send you to walking school at 13 months. If you played climbing and running and jumping games you have a more agile body than if you didn’t. The historic trainers in France developed a series of precise exercises that help the horse find his or her own right balance. It happens that balance is beautiful, but it is the balance that’s interesting- beauty is a lucky biproduct. A horse trained well in this manner will be able to perform any task set out for them, because they understand not ‘how you should always carry yourself’ but ‘how do I find my best posture to be effective, agile, and comfortable in this endeavor?’

The horse is trained to work with the rider as an interesting and engaging companion, worth listening to. The rider creates their authority over the horse by consistently answering questions in a useful way, thus developing its respect. A rider doesn’t insist on ‘respect’ by hurting the horse if it disobeys. A horse trained in this manner becomes more and more alive, more and more engaged, more and more an individual with a voice of its own. The trainer/horse connection develops a conversation that’s unique to the two animals in question: the horse and the rider.

French classical work improves the horses’ way of going from within, helps the horse to find its own best way of using its architecture: like great physical therapy, it retrains the horse to consider ease of motion and balance as its criteria, rather than momentum. So horses trained this way last longer under saddle, it’s not unusual to have a riding horse happily carrying riders for 20 years. Our beloved school horse, Strut, carried riders comfortably and happily from age seven well into his thirty-eighth year. This form of riding benefits the horse.

“Aids” are used in French work, not “cues”. An aid is based in the way physics works, it’s not a signal but the creation of a feeling of opening space that the horse yearns to fill. Aids are how a great dancer makes you feel like you always knew ballroom dancing, or a great conversationalist makes you feel at ease and at home in a conversation. There’s no force and there’s no confusion, nothing to learn for the horse other than to be willing to try what it seems to feel like you’re asking.

But… this requires that the rider is perfectly balanced, and that brings us to the rider’s side of the equation: we start with seatwork because balance on a horse is NOT the same as our presumption. And it takes serious training. Once established, the rider’s balance makes everything easier. It removes the underlying natural fear that comes from being ‘a bubble out of plumb’. And horses go easier when riders are no longer gripping to stay on. There’s no prescribed position for the rider, any more than for the horse: balance is beautiful, and through balance exercises the rider comes to a position that might be described in general terms- but it’s defined by the feeling of balance within, not by the instructor’s approval without.

It’s a beautiful way of working.

For centuries this was how noblemen were trained to ride all over Europe. One benefit of this older way of working is that it demonstrates the potential in leadership through listening to those we lead. Leadership in service of something greater than your own ego. Not an easy idea! But one that becomes quietly evident in the course of the work, and one that many riders find very welcome in their lives outside the arena as well.

Come ride with us.