pushed-down back:

Ideal Levade/ then Pesade with Gueriniere,

(the head-turn of the rider is depicted wrongly: artistic freedom of the painter)

For many years now I am trying to really straighten my horse (= getting it into a straight Straight) while using the one-handed leading of the reins. During all these years I only very seldom felt really successful and always only for short moments. Because in this way of rein-leading the place in the middle over the withers is occupied by the rein-hand, real symmetry of the rider's seat is impossible to achieve. The best one can achieve is a compensation of this asymmetrie (which of course is projected fully into the horse), as Eisenberg shows us in his pictures: In those the rider holds his hands on the same height adjacently when a right rein, for example the right cavesson rein is used (two-handed leading of the reins). With completely one-handed rein-leading, the rider often holds the switch-hand high up and almost in the middle over the withers. This way I, too, achieve my best results in aiming at a real straight Straight.

My new curb prototypes are ready: The first, a medium variant, which the old masters say should be used as the first bit after having the young horse accustomed to a straight curb, i call „normal“, the second I have derived from the Nestier etching, and the third has got longer lower branches and a high set coude departure (90°), which is supposed to produce a higher uprighting of the forehand.

Testing the normal variant for two weeks has been positive, because the horses accepted very well the mouthpiece (which is the same in every variant and is very mild), chewing in another way (more contentedly, I assume). But I could not really detect a higher uprighting, which should have occurred with the normal one; here I must remark, that from the old unbroken ones I‘m used to use them extremely cautiously and very often nearly contactless. Also the „Beizäumung“/“ramener“ was only the same as in my previous, straight snaffle-curb protoytype, with Picasso already wears since several months. But with an only somewhat stronger appuy Picasso with his longer and slimmer neck, sometimes shows a false kink in his neckline, which for the moment lets me abstain from it. .

Since three days now I‘m using the extremly short, and "behind the line" Nestier curb the difference at the first day was striking: Picasso wore his nose as high as if on an academic Hackamore, treading far out behind and not very comfortable to sit in trot (because of his steep hind leg pasterns). But at the beginning the chain hooks had been to short and the chain slid far to high up, away from their correct place. Today, with a better sitting curb chain and meanwhile a bit acclimatisation, it went much better: I sometimes dared to produce some more appuy; probably hereby occurred a higher uprighting of the forehand?

On the third day with the normal one already the new security mechanism had to prove its worth: while Picasso was drinking on the way home in the dusk in shallow water, I eyed suspiciously the long lower branches tilting backwards , but lost sight of the left rein on to which he promptly stepped: the security eye-bolt/splint sheared of as planned and neither horse nor rein or headpiece were damaged! For this case I had executed the rosette big enough to be able in case of emergency in the country, to strap in the rein.

My plan is, to use the Nestier-snafflecurb for 2 weeks, and if have then completely finished the production of the high uprighting snaffle curb, change to it directly from the weak one, to better feel the difference.

For those who want to build, or let build one of those snaffle curbs, I have put the specifications on the „snaffle curb“ page.

Should a more numerous interest develop, I would be interested to find someone, who will build them for us, as I imagine to test some behind the line and others.

Having experienced the astonishing effects of the Nestier curb, I have bent the new „normal“ one 1.8 cm backwards (= 2°) behind the line. This again had a pronounced effect on my horses today: both horses could take their noses a good deal further forwards, could walk much more freely with the forelegs and had a much more relevated canter! Thus I realized, that my old, unbroken ones, which pretend to be weak ones, because their lower branches are bent back, in reality are „on the line“ or possibly even harder! Because I never had been really satisfied with these, I had ridden two times for three months with an academic hackamore, which I had to give up, because one has to use to much force which damages the rider‘s seat and his shoulder joints, and it doesn‘t work sufficiently, too. So then I had to settle for riding with hanging-through reins most of the time with these unbroken bits.

But with the new ones, which are really behind the line, for the first time real riding is possible: now I can really choose the degree of the angle of the nose line (the ramene/Beizäumung)! In the country, going normally, I can leave it higher, in collection I can increase it more. This „more“ I can now get in fine variations and can adjust it to Paco‘s narrow Ganasche/ganache or the weak mouth of Picasso! Big improvements are looming!

Another involuntary curb-test!

Being in the country with Picasso we met a dog-owner with two bull-terriers, roaming freely. As the dogs noticed us, they began running towards us. The owner might have been able to grab the bigger one at his collar, but she stopped her movement (maybe she was afraid to be bitten?). I quickly weighed my chances in the presence of two aggressive looking fight-dogs to gallop away: but on the right was a steep overgrown trench, on the the left a field with heavy soil, and the dog owner surely would have been outraged, if we had stormed in full gallop past her; also on every escape route we would come to a tarred road, which might make a slippery gallop... So I decided to stay and try to stop the dogs with shouting, but same as with the shouting of the owner, this didn't produce any reaction at all. Then I tried to impress the ever more approaching dogs with my riding switch, which unfortunately is very weak: no reaction at all again! Then I tried to reach and impress at least the smaller one on my left side, but holding the switch in my right hand, I had to bow very far to the left side and in this moment the dog charged to us, so that Picasso sidestepped to the right which heaved me out of the saddle. When I was down the dogs charged again for Picasso who ripped the reins out of my hand and galloped away, the dogs hunting him for half a kilometer. I don't dare to imagine what would have happened, if the bridge had been as slippery frozen as two days later!

Only at the next bridling up (Picasso had been received and saddled-down by friendly helpers at the stables, when arriving home alone) I noticed, that both lower branches had been bent considerably. I could bend them fairly easy with my hands back into an acceptable shape (which would suffice for a safe return home, if happening in the country), and reached the original shape completely in a bench vise.

My feeling is, that this bending in such a case of emergency will take at least a little pressure off the horse's mouth, so I will nor enforce the side parts/shanks of my snaffle-curb (for the normal, longitudinal pressure in normal riding these parts are sufficiently strong).

Since my new curbs have debunked all my former “backbended” ones as falsely constructed curbs it becomes increasingly clearer, that this has become the third great break in my striving to become a good rider. The first one had been the reading of Bents book “Akademische Reitkunst für den anspruchsvollen Freizeitreiter”, from this point on I knew:”This is right way of riding for me!”, the second the discovery of the many advantages of the Gueriniere-seat: from that time I dared to say: “Now I can really ride a horse!” Since my horses wear the new, really weak ones, I say: “Now my horses finally are able to move academically correct!” They lift their forelegs much higher and more spaciously, don‘t lie on the forehand anymore, Picasso‘s trot has become far more comfortable, the canter has improved drastically and the sideways has improved so dramtically, that Picaaso during hand-work with the Nestier-snafflecurb today lifted his outer foreleg in the same extremely high bow over his inner leg in exactly the same way as the etchings iog Gueriniere show us.also! Paco’s starting of the canter feels like the carriere of La Broue’s horse on the title-page of my translation. All in all they transmit the feeling to be „free horses“ much more than before. Often now I’m thinking: here the Spanish ancestry of my Knabstruppers comes to the light. I hope very much, that from now on a low Terre-A-Terre can develop, which I‘m convinced the old curbs had precluded!

Because of the far softer mouthpieces meanwhile I’m able to actually negotiate with the horse’s mouth, as not every pulling at the reins leads promptly to a defensive action any more, and there are many different grades of the appuy deployable now.

As my new snaffle-curbs now permit the lifting of of my horse‘s napes, and only the noses, but not the complete heads are going downwards, for the first time the question appears: how much elevating of the forehand/the nape do I want/ am I allowed to permit/ do I need? And when or in which lesson?

La Broue describes the two very wrong positions of the heads for the collection: firstly: when the horse holds his nose into the wind/ holds the nose on the same height as the ears; and secondly: when the horse has his chin on the breast. He wants the horses to „hold neck and head in their middle and most beautiful position“. At the moment I believe that in high collection in walk and trot the most beautiful position of both my horses lies in the region of 10-20° before the perpendicular (more of course when they elevate their forehand). This position occurs even with the very weak Nestier-snaffle-curb.

I want that a high elevation of the forehand gives the hind the possibility to tread further under the horse's belly. One should not permit a strong pressure on the horse‘s ear-salivary glands in the gap behind the ganaches-bones and has to adjust the shape of the curb accordingly, but also the way of using it to the anatomical conformation of the specific horse. For this reason I want to avoid a strong pulling at the lower branches of the curb: the horse shall take his posture freely and easily.

Because I have my hands still full with the evaluation of the Nestier- and the „Normal“-snaffle-curb and am overjoyed about the „super“-uprighting by these already, I still haven‘t got to finish the „High Uprighting“ curb. And for now I actually can imagine, that variations of the Nestier-snaffle-curb will get to be the mainstream in the future for most of the academic riders: but who knows, what is still waiting for me to be found out?

During riding out yesterday I noticed a change in Paco’s collected canter while trying to get him into a Terre-A-Terre, and after halting him, I saw that at the right side of his Nestier-curb both (!) chains hung down loosely! This had occurred thus:

Paco is one of the horses which are so strong-backed (s. La Broue, Vol. II, Chap. 23), that they have to shudder themselves at the first canter strides for 3 or four times: he does this by elevating his forehand more and then wringing neck and head snake-like. Sometimes with this, he throws the right rein (or reins, if having a cavesson,too) over his head onto his left side, so the rider has both (resp. the four) reins on the left side of his neck, and none on the right side! With the old, too strong curbs often he even threw the lower branches up, leaving them standing upwards (!), the chain completely loose, and when the rider pulled at the reins, this led to a pulling upwards of nose and head, instead of downwards. Not seldom he achieves to bring the curb-chain out of the chain-hook, leaving it hanging down uselessly on the right side of the curb. This had happened yesterday again: and if the chain is not there anymore, the curb falls through, meaning, its lower branches wander back up, forming a straight line with the reins. Unfortunately some days before I had been testing some safety linchpins and had forgotten to replace the last, heavily tested one with a fresh one. Because now the direction of pull put the force directly onto the linchpins, this weakened one broke easily and the Kloben with the rein-ring attached slid out. The chainette, which is simply thrown over the Kloben in this prototype slid off and hung down on the right side also!

For riding on I then fastened the rein to the rosette, but luckily noticed after hooking in the curb-chain, that now the upper branches tended to fall inside to the teeth (the chainette, which’s purpose is to prevent just this, not being there). So I decided to take the curb chain off its hook again and ride home by using the mouthpiece just like a simple snaffle-curb.

Anyway this construction I have not found satisfactory already, as the Klobens rotate not smooth enough, because the chainette tends to get rotated on them, when the reins try to get untwisted.

For two weeks now I have in use the snaffle-curb with the long lower branches, which I had dubbed „High Elevating“. On this right from the start I had brought back the Klobenloch 2.5cm behind the line of the banquett, approximating 5°.

The first impression of a very comfortable, very calm leading of the reins has proved correct all the time the horses are more placid and steady-going, the curb feels gentle.

(A construction deficit is the positioning of the upper foam-chainette, which height I had to guess and which now lies very close to the mouth, which the horses don’t mind at all).

With this curb the horses collect themselves easier and better, without a pronounced tightening of the reins, and so it seems the term “higher uprighting” does not mean a pushing higher of the horse’s nape by the rotation of the coude, as I had assumed, but herewith occurs an increased treading under of the hind feet, together with a more forward and upwards movements of the forelegs , which results in a lightening in the forehand.

This one is by far my most liked snaffle-curb now! After some more some weeks I will bring the Klobenloch even further behind the line of the banquett, to ar. 5cm.

As I’m training the elevated Demi-Voltes (with demi-courbettes [=mezair] and courbettes) more and more, I gradually come to realize the importance of NOT to imagine them as turns on the hind legs: because only by explicitly demanding of the horse’s hind legs to go/jump sideways on a small circle, it will stay within the lesson, which means it will not fall out of the tact or out of the direction of the movement.

Having gained a correct sideways-walk on the Demi-Volte, sometimes it will fall of its own volition into one or more little canter strides or Terre-a-Terre jumps, which is to be welcomed very much as a preparation fpr the elevated sideways;  also afterwards it will much easier be able to do very tight voltes (ab. 1 – 2m diameter of the circle of the hind legs) in a very collected school-canter.

Because for many years I had equaled carrees and angled voltes, and had their corners imagined and demanded as turns on the hind legs on one spot , I now have to concentrate hard to leave this pattern in favor of this small circle of the hind feet and hold this.

One of the causes for this mistake is Gueriniere’s unclear sketch: in the etching “Les Voltes” (normal voltes) on top we see the Carrees, which he executes really like a turn on the hind legs in the corners, in which the hind feet stay on the same spot. Though in the “voltes ordinaires” (the norrnal voltes) the positioning of the hind feet are depicted fairly well, this is not the case with the depiction of the line which the hind legs draw on the ground while stepping through the corner, which in reality has to be a small quarter-circle, matching the quarter-circle of the forelegs.

So it might be better not to call the “volte ordinaire” an “angular volte”, because its corners have to be distinctly rounded; better might be the name “volte with straight sides” or “quadratic volte” ( this would really be the “squaring of the circle” at last… )

If the rider has in mind Gueriniere’s flawed sketch of the volte ordinaire, he is rather “riding the figure”, but if he has in mind the correctly rounded corners, he rather will be “riding the lesson”.

If the horse falsifies this little circle of the hind legs in the (demi-)volte and crawls back into the direction of the turning on the hind feet, La Broue and his successors call this “acculer” ( tighten, diminish, narrow) for which I still haven’t found a German word, let alone an English one: so maybe we have to introduce it into our academic language? > “Don’t accule!”

To emphasize the importance of this small inner circle of the hind legs I think the term “basis circle” would be appropriate. Then we could say “ Don’t loose the basis!”

The snaffle-curb „high uprighting“ is built too weak, after some time the lower branches begin to bend, the stainless steel is too soft. Would one bend it back into the right shape too often, fatigue breakage will surely occur. I will have to augment them.

Possibly this snaffle-curb‘s name is only appropriate if used on horses with an ideal ganache. In his dictionnaire Garsault defines the ganache as „the groove, which is produced by the ganache bones, the extensions of the lower jaw ridges“. A horse would be the more unable to bridle towards the narrower the ganache is.

Have read here again, how the art rider is supposed to slacken the reins and finally followed this advice, which most old masters give: the rider seizes the end of the reins with the switch hand, lets off the reins in the rein hand and lets the swift hand sink onto the horses neck. With this there occurs a palpable relaxation in the longitudinal axis of the horse, whose body posture had been asymmetric before by the asymmetric seat of the rider‘s posture because of the one-handed leading of the reins. Which strengthens my belief, that I’M right in changing every day the seat: one day the right-hander seat, the next day the left-hander seat, for a more equal gymnasticication of both sides (of horse and rider).

Turning once in a while the switch-hand like the old Fritz did, with holding the switch downwards, gives the rider a good feeling for the correct forward advance of the rider’s pelvis and belly. After some weeks one has only to imagine this movement of the switch-hand to achieve the same effect with bearing the switch upwards also. At some point, while having his legs a little before the horse and holding the hands a little supinated and bent in the carpal joints a little, like Prizelius, one achieves the perfect seat: now the rider’s breastbone has approached his chin and his spine is standing in the correct way and the rider feels like an important person , just like they danced a menuet in those times, with a correspondent grave

emanation, also into his inner self, which produces a very high contentedness in him!

I hope I will learn to use this for me quite unusual seat in every horse-riding situation, as my normal body posture outside the saddle this is not; maybe this will change, too, for better?

The perfect seat I call for some weeks now "the proud seat", which I feel describes it very appropriately.

While using it the rider feels like expressing by it to himself, but also to his horse and the people he meets along the way, a special importance, purpose or social status which leads to the rider's feeling, that the horse riding itself becomes to be secondary or tertiary and is carried out casually by the way. He feels like sitting on a horse which takes him wherever he wants, in which gait he wants, by minimal aides and sometimes executing prestigiously an elevating of the forehand at the slightest demand. The emphasis here lies on the word "on", because now he lets himself carried stately, sitting almost "above" the horse, trusting it fully not do do something foolish, and even if, is confident that he will experience no harm.

In this the rider has to be careful not to overdo it and look affected, but to sit naturally as the old masters demand.

For this posture on the horse the rider needs a lot of trust in his horse, on the other hand this trust will be produced and enhanced by using this seat, the more frequently and in the more different riding situations he applies it.

The academic ceding of the reins (see 13.April 19) has fitted in as an important measure into my riding units. If it is used on a straight cross country stretch, one can feel exactly, how the horse bends away from the rein-hand side over the straight stance into the switch-hand side bending (which is now additionally the new rein-side) the croup wanders from the rein-hand side to the switch-hand side; as the horse then walks with thrown-away reins, the croupe doesn’t come over as much as in collection

When I did this in canter on a slightly elevating stretch in the country for the first time, Picasso during the intermediate phase shot forwards for two canter strides, which felt like racing off out of control, and only when the switch hand reached its new place over the withers he cantered normal and calm again. This showed me very clearly, how much the croupe is held in subjection by the one-handed leading of the reins (as La Broue would express it). On a 40 minute ride cross-country this is a very long strain for joints and muscles! This explains,too, why the tambourine-swivel feels stronger to the rein-hand side than to the switch-hand side: to the rein-hand side it is already pre-swiveled 10°: if I add 15° more, these 25° are very clearly noticeable; on the rein-hand side but the croupe is -10° pre-swiveled: if I add 15°, the result is meagre 5°, a little bit more than putting the horse straight!

Meanwhile I’m riding so, that the rein-hand is used only while performing a lesson, and I cede the reins in the academic way afterwards. This way the contrary side of the horse in fact is not worked really as much, but at least the rein-hand side is relieved a good deal, nevertheless. Dependent of the energy-level of rider and/or horse for example while riding cross-country I use the rein-hand only in 30-50% of the time now.

Out of the change of sides of the croupe due to the academic way of giving the reins there arises an interesting question: If the horse in the left hand canter changes the croup more to the right side, we cannot call this outside-canter: we might have to invent a new word for this situation: “S-Canter”, maybe (because the horse’s spine then is s-shaped or snake-shaped)? And we have to find out, if this is harmful for the horse resp. the riding: for a longer time surely not!

Also the effect in the other gaits have to be considered: if one is riding with the rein-hand on the outside, the horse at least is somewhat less bent to the inside.

At the moment therefore I have the opinion, that an important reason for Gueriniere and Nestier to take the right rein with the switch hand is to straighten the croupe, ergo the prevention or at least diminishing of the s-form of the horse’s back by the now changed, somewhat more symmetric rider seat, which, if successful, leads to less weight on the left seat bone of the rider, which means to more weight on the right side, which in turn leads to the desired right-bending.For this the switch-hand has to be lowered considerably, as otherwise the right shoulder of the rider would lift high up.

When I used the one-handed leading of the reins for the first time, I was exhilarated by the “automatic” collection, but, as nice as it is, that while leading the reins one-handed the horse gets automatically a little collected, which dampens a to strong running away of the horse a little bit: for me in the past it had been still another drag-factor, in addition to my wrong seat on forehand with pronated hands, the rounded shoulders, often looking down, and the precarious seat by holding the legs behind the horse, and on top of all that the wrong curbs, which “pulled the horses’ heads between their legs”! No wonder, that I had developed a permanently working leg, otherwise the horse would surely have stopped!

All of these had been the main reasons for getting used to riding mostly with hanging-through reins, which is getting very hard to change now, when an uprighting of the horse is possible: though actually I had hoped, to be able to dispense with a real appuy, I am realizing now bitterly, that then the rein-aides are far too imprecise and vague for the higher lessons to be carried out neatly.

Finally a correct sideways is possible: until now I never had a mirror in the riding arena, and always the sure feeling, that my horses during the sideways were always falling outwards with the hindquarter, which induced additionally to the phase on two legs, a phase on three legs, thus being incorrect. For some days now I can see my mirror-image over a length of 10m, and am thus far better able to correct my horses. Together with the taking the switch-hand side rein, resp. using a deterrmined tambourin-swivel, finally after all theses months a uniformly correct sideways is emerging, wherein the horse never has three legs on the ground simultaneously!

Also the horse on his own volition elevates his forehand once after three or four steps in this correct sideways, which is wished for. Now it emerges, that one has to envoisage the sideways rather in an angle of 85°, that means between 80° and 90°, where the greater mistake is an angle of ,say, 70°!

This means that one still has to start the training of the sideways (if one needs the help of a wall) in the croup-au-mur after Gueriniere, but having shown the horse the principle of the movement, must turn it around vis-a-vis the mirror (= the wall), maintaining a distance to the wall of at least 1.5m (to avoid it stepping on its leg), as one is obliged to control the movement in a mirror!

Since I had been able to control for several times, how a real sideways is producible, I feel like Fiaschi, who in 1556 felt that this lesson is so important, that he put it before the second volume, which describes the riding lessons:

It is the fundamental lesson for educating a really turnable horse and therefore for the academic art of riding, which, among other things, is built on this turnability. Meanwhile it became clear, that the angle of the horse cannot be stable at exactly 85°, as by the different movements of shoulders and haunches it always oscillates: 80° to 95° seem to be acceptable without loosing the two-beated rhythm.

Though I’m still not able to feel and define the exact times, my impression now is, that Cavendish might actually be right in his observation: “If in this lesson the forehand is wide, this is a terre-a-terre of the forehand; if on the contrary the hindlegs are wide, this then is a terre-a-terre of the hindlegs”, as the horse sometimes after three or four sideways-steps lifts its forehand, which naturally is only possible by the simultaneous support of both hindlegs.

Meanwhile I get a foreboding of what La Broue in chapter 37 of his second volume might mean when he writes: “The art-rider can appreciate the real value of the walk only after having trained all the other lessons in this second volume”. Though I’m still far away from having tried or even trained everything successfully, already still it is thus, that the sideways-walk (if the horse in full willingness to perform) operates like a toggle: as soon as one has, shortly after beginning a riding-unit, done only some steps in the sideways-walk in both directions, be it straight or on an academic volte =volte in sideways-walk), possibly one or two times triggered one beat of terre-a-terre or mezair) the horse goes like by itself and much more collected and cadenced at everything I want from him, and it actually feels as if this voluntariness “comes out of the horse’s heart” as La Broue describes it. Here the lightness La Broue speaks about so often really seems to be starting, and the absence of coercion.

Slowly now differences are emerging between types of the sideways Fiaschi and La Broue (renaissance-riding) practice and that of Gueriniere (baroque-riding) , whereas Cavendish’s lies somewhere in between. Gueriniere rides the sideways at a lower angle of 60° to 80°, and he abstains from demanding a two-beated gait, where the horse never has three feet on the ground simultaneously, also he recommends his sideways in the trot, and he bends the horse during the execution. He warns explicitly against letting the hind legs lead/overtake ("entabler", from the ital."intavolare"), as this ruined the hocks.

As the sideways in walk at an angle lower 80° often leads to a dragging of the outer hind leg, the gymnastic value seems to me reduced, at least for the hindquarter: possibly the value of this type was only achieved during execution in the trot or passage ? (which I still haven’t tried, and La Broue nearly never recommends).

Possibly Gueriniere's instruction: ”A not bent horse is not proper in a riding arena”, if he himself, too, saw it as a dogma, led him to recommend a disregarding of La Broue’s recommendation to keep rump and neck straight? (The reverse conclusion actually of his “dogma” would mean a prohibition of any straightening of the horse inside a riding-arena!). Though for a rider, who constantly adheres to the wall, this “bending-obligation” in most cases is quite sensible, but not anymore, after he has succeeded to release himself from the wall, when it will be on the contrary very useful, trying to achieve a straight Straight, which in leading one-handed (resp. 3:1) is not easily to arrive at.

Cavendish’s lies between both types of the sideways: He speaks of the two-beated walk, during which never three feet of the horse are on the ground simultaneously (which according to experiences is only possible with an angle over 80°), but he bends the horses instead of holding their rump and neck straight as his predecessors demanded. Unfortunately the depictions of the riders in his book are mistake-prone, so we only have one quite reliable sketch, which shows a 85° degree angle on the volte, just as with La Broue.

So possibly for the moment it might be the best to follow the recommendations of each respective master exactly: If one wants to train a renaissance-sideways (as I do at the moment) one should in all points listen to La Broue; if it shall be a baroque-sideways, then in all points to Gueriniere.

My feeling is, that an occasional, single step overtaking of the croupe as the preparation for a terre-a-terre beat doesn’t create difficulties for the horse, if one resumes afterwards the normal 85° angle, and hock problems hereby will not occur (always provided, the horse is fully grown up and undamaged!).

A big step forward again: Having achieved a little improvement of my seat for some weeks now by imagining my body-/hand stance to be somewhat similar to a ballet dancer's, holding her hands circular forwards-downwards, with fingertips nearly touching themselves, I now have found a key information in the 3rd volume of the „L‘Arte del Cavallo“, written by Luigi di Santa-Paulina in 1696, who says that with the rein fist „the first finger-joints under the nails [= DIP-joints] shall point to the rider‘s belly and the second joints [= PIP-joints] of both fists shall point to each other. This is actually a clarification of the stance Prizelius will show later in his picture. Holding the hands this way brings automatically the rider’s shoulder-joints slightly, but distinctively backwards; his arms lift themselves a bit, and a little tensioning on the ulnar side of his lower arm, rim of the hand and of his little finger occurs. The rider‘s belly automatically comes forward a bit and keeps this position effortlessly and automatically; and a slight, but distinctive reclining of the rider‘s upper body occurs, which can be maintained with little effort. Now the balls of the rider’s feet hold contact to the stirrup’s plates much more steadily.The horse snorts freely and moves relaxedly and joyfully! One actually sits like the riders on many pictures in Gueriniére‘s book!

The Santa-Paulina positioning of the hands, which from now on I will call “old academic hand-positioning” proves its value more and more: finest movements of the rider’s hands create prompt reactions: the Pinky-Push, the Pinky-Pull, the outwards rotation of the thumb for turning the horse: evrythings goes lightly as a feather, but therefore must be dosed very carefully: “millimetre-fine riding”!

Having trained this for some time, as a pedestrian one can reconstruct perfectly how this is working on the horse’s back: if I walk like a Roman with a toga over my bent in a 90° angle right lower arm, producing a fist and letting the middle joint of the middle finger point to the left side like an arrow-point, the muscles at my thoracic spine tighten and my walk gets floating (on horseback this means that I would be sitting perfectly in the middle between forehand and hind, in equilibrium).

If now I do the Pinky-Push, i.e. tilt the fist so, taht the little finger gets pushed forwards, I feel “falling” slightly forwards, my belly comes forward a bit and my steps are becoming longer (the horse would make longer steps, too, and get faster).

If in the contrary I do the Pinky-Pull, i.e rotate my fist so, that the little finger gets pulled backwards to my body, my steps are shortening, because my equilibrium relocates backwards a bit and my belly retracts (the horse’s steps would shorten, too: it becomes more collected).

(On a horse one can think the Pinky-Pull in another way, too: as a pointing of the finger end-joints to the rider’s breast, while holding the hands low).

If I rotate the fist so, that the thumb points to the right, as a pedestrian I feel a surprisingly strong relocating of my equilibrium to the left, and vice versa by rotating it to the left.

In the saddle additionally a slight supination of the rein-hand is necessary, too (which I mirror with the switch-hand for a more symmetrical seat). The supination is necessary because it is impossible to hold the rein-hand exactly over the withers, and deviations always tend to the rein-hand side. Therefore the switch-side rein always must be relaxed a bit, and the other one tensed a bit.

Really difficult for me (probably because of slight torsion of my spine) is riding in the left-hander’s seat: in this case my right-hand is the rein-hand, and it is quite difficult for me to let my middle-finger middle-joint point 90° to the left like an arrow-point; but if I concentrate hard on it, my horse always thanks me with many snortings!

The velocity of the horse now can be regulated with a higher or lower postioning of the rider’s hands over the withers: a very low position plus Pinky-Push means a maximum of forward-going (the rider’s belly comes forward) accompanied by a more deeper positioning of the horse’s head.

A very high position of the rider’s hands together with a Pinky-Pull results in maximal collection with a higher head of the horse (s. statuette of Henry IV.)

For now I’m still using “kissing PIPs”, i.e. holding both fists so near to each other, that the middle-finger’s middle-joints are touching and supporting each other.

The Santa-Paulina way of holding the hands makes the horse so wonderfully balanced and free in the forehand, that I often I’m not able to accompany the horse’s movements. Very much fun at the moment gives me the carriere: CORRECTION: I start it by giving the calf-aides for a levade on the same spot four times in succession: the first two with a slight pinky-Pull, and the third already with a pronounced pinky-push as soon as the horse lifts its forefeet from the ground: this results still in a third levade, but then, at the fourth request, the horse shoots forwards with such force, that often I bend the rear gallery, being happy that it is there, because otherwise I might be sliding behind the saddle: so powerful is the starting! Unfortunately not seldom I’m surprised so much, that I fall the horse into the mouth: for that reason I will try in future to do the levades and the following carriere with hanging-through reins.