There is a complicated detour we submit our horses to. In need of security we forbid emotion and indicate regular, dependable work. Hoping for excellence and enlightenment we add dressage. If needed we limit the parameter, speak ride in the school only. However, motion and emotion are inextricable. The approach we indicate for safety's sake not only contradicts the horse's very being. It as well contradicts our own hopes and dreams.
In the fields we observe horses in a varity of movements, all done in lightness. The very same horses, under saddle, in riding mood, lack mobility and ease. Obviously the key to lightness and submission is to speak the horse's language. On the ground the language of the herd; in the saddle body language, which happens to completely coincide in the human and the horse; despite essential differences. And then learn to respect the position a horse may choose to fulfill the rider's will. It will be the very same it applies in the field to facilitate movements.
It remains to mention the modern horse's warps and resultant physical damages. And the wide-spread lack of uprightness and flexibility in the rider. When the horse is not well and/or the rider not in balance the horse can't read the rider. And -, when the primordial contract written in the flesh is broken, the horse is left to its own devices. These in many cases may not coincide with the rider's will or wishes and add a risk factor to riding. And then only the authority first established on the ground plus confirmed habits of obedience may help.
Hence, in any school of modern equitation horses must be well. Riders must be flexible and in balance. The rider must provide the horse with leadership. He must respect the horse's means. He must have time. And then learn to advance with the horse in mobility and ease to do any feat he may desire.
Curriculum:
1. The horse's two natures, as the member of a group in the field or as an individual in the stable and under saddle.
2. Body work and movement lessons for the rider.
3. The horse's Bewegungsapparat taught in theory (text and film), experienced on horseback (in monitored seat lessons) and observed in the fields.
4. Human/equine body language on the ground (basic motions) and in the saddle (basic motions).
5. Progressions of getting and developing together.
The school will provide a basis for the research parallels in the release of human and equine core energy, which make for comfort, ease and safety.
