Get the facts, or the facts will get you. Dr. Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732
Equitation today: Jumping, dressage, cross-country and endurance competitions. Racing for gallopers and trotters. Working equitation. Bull-fighting. Gaited horse performances, among them a South American variety of smallest, fastest steps. Classical schools including Baroque riding. Horses that carry archers, gymnasts, acrobats, beginners, polo players and horse-ball enthusiasts. And a remnant of simple, straight-forward transport.
Horses no longer serve in battle. Armies and police forces use them for surveillance. A small number of riding schools persists; challenged by a new form of instruction. The clinic. Clinicians come and go. They bring enlightenment to all who attend and pay. As recently as the 1980s observations of horses in the wild have produced a natural horseman-ship. It is primarily practiced in the U.S. on progeny of old world breeds, such as the Lusitano. Practicing essentially old world riding styles it claims to hold the key to understanding the horse as such. Today classical and new guardianships of the truth unite.
There are several good reasons to begin the introduction to a new modern equitation with this panoramic view. It is a reminder of equitation's roots and manifests current developments. It illustrates that most equitation today is done in non-natural habitats. It hints at a vast diversity, multiplicity and plurality of ideas and practices involved in an activity that only fifty years ago was considered no longer timely.
Is it presumptuous, in light of this diversity, to introduce a new modern equitation, which - in a not so distant future - will guide all who mount horses. I don't think so. Because despite the overwhelming manifestation of equitation at the beginning of the twenty-first century there exists close to no basic knowledge of what rules bodies and movement. However, research is evolving and new knowledge is coming forth. As it blossoms and as it becomes available to ever growing circles of interested laymen, this knowledge - in my humble opinion - will radically change human views of how to ride and think about horses.
