This weeks's conclusion: the higher the head, the more vertical (or to interpret the Elgin marbles correctly beyond the vertical) the lower neck line, the lighter the neck. The less effort for back muscles to maintain the neck's uprightness. As the result the forehand rises and the hindquarters are liberated to do their job, be it to carry or to push forward. The exact same conclusion Etienne Beudant arrived at in the early 1900s.
I went ahead and rephrased Beudant's statement on how to go about training the horse (see below), adding my own view on how the distribution of the rider's weight (Nuno Oliveira speaks of this) and the rider's posture (this is my own research result, which these days in the stables is reconfirmed practically every day) can't be but the rider's first and major impact on the horse.
Both points are easy to see and understand. So, why do we not see horses move in Xenophone's style today? In any rate, this is the project. For the time being horses come up with all kind of reactions, both promising and discouraging and it will take the summer to sort out these reactions, while giving the horses some rest. It is hot these days, the grounds are like stone and there is not much grass in the fields, which will help some horses to finally gain their normal shape.
In the fall I will begin to look into the bit Xenophone used and try to figure out why it is as it is, and not different. I suspect it has something to do with functions of the tongue in equitation. We are in the process of settling the question which saddle to use that will permit both an easy, elegant upright seat with full contact to the horse's back and sides and all the same a quick change to the forward seat, if and as indicated.
How to train a horse
A. Actions
1. Place the horse correctly according to the task at hand. Teach it to do transitions smoothly.
2. Go very slow. Check each step. Make sure the horse is fully capable and confident in all it does.
3. Seek lessons, which are wholesome, instructive and never tiring.
4. Respond quickly to any nonsense action or reaction of the horse.
5. Permit the horse to work without constraint, believing it it be the master, while fully fulfilling the rider's will.
B. Foundations
1. Don't struggle with the horse. Struggles are not sure to produce the desired result. They surely always have a negative impact on the horse's mind, body and legs.
2. Give confidence. Act with utmost softness, while providing unwavering authority.
3. Be tactful. Do not insist when there are physical problems, but find ways to solve them. With disciplinary problems insist not with body language (which must remain unchanged) but with the tap of a small stick on the shoulder or corresponding body parts.
4. Speak simply. Demanding one thing at a time. Waiting for the proper response.
5. The quality of the rider's demand sets the tone for the quality of the horse's response.
6. In order for the horse to understand properly, the rider must speak the body language riding correctly. His proprioception must accord with his body's actual state, or he will not be aware of what he is saying. He may in fact be saying the exact opposite of what he means to say.
7. The rider impacts the horse with the distribution of his weight, the placement of his parts (his posture), and the actions (or absence of action) of his hands and/or legs.
8. The greatest limiting factor in training a horse is the rider's habit to accept and respond to effects rather than seeking their causes and origins to properly modify, suppress and/or exploit them according to the situation at hand.
9. The horse intuitively has a much greater understanding than the rider of its body, the placement of its parts and its locomotion. It knows how to respond properly to the laws of gravity and how to obey and/or use them.
10. Therefore, in the saddle act as little as possible and let the horse act as much as possible.
11. Observe, understand and correct your own posture. On the horse, when things don't work, don't suspect the horse's ill will or defects, but seek to remedy any incorrectness of posture and/or procedure you are committing.
12. Observe the horse at liberty and in the fields, interacting with other horses, in the stable by itself, in free-schooling on the flat and over jumps and gain insight into the horse's nature before setting out to train it.
