My
New Method
in the Education of Horses for the High Schools of Equitation
by Dr. Daniel Ahlwes, Hipponoos
15 years ago a 82-year old patient came into my practice and declared, from now on to stop horse-riding: the day before he had slid out of the saddle while trying to drive wild-pigs out of a field of turnips (!!).
This opened for me the prospect possibly also to be able and ride far into old age, and so from then on my benchmark was set to 82 years, too.
As over the last 9 years I had auto didactically rediscovered many things which had been buried into oblivion, for some time already I had fancied to once again train another young horse completely from the first steps up to the High Schools of Equitation.
On the other hand I felt I might not trust myself any more to ride in a new horse at an age over maybe 72 years. So when in April 2024, at the age of 67, I got the chance to buy Paco’s youngest son Poco Baio, I seized it instantly.
All the years since I had translated the Cavalerice Francois (written by Salomon de la Broue), for the first ever time into German, and the different versions of the „Nouvelle Methode/New Method“ by William Cavendish and Solleysel also comparingly translated anew, I have learned very much additionally, and think now that I have reached a halfway decent rider’s seat in the sense of the old masters: so a new horse should become an even better educated horse than my now 16 year old Picasso vom Schimmerwald. What if even a genuine Pirouette, very high and on one hind-leg only might be achievable?
A cavecon I’ll never again use for riding, to avoid lapsing into pulling at the reins with ruining my seat again (see research on: www.schimmerwald.de/31.html Update 01.06.2023) as has been warned against by Francois R. de la Gueriniére and William Cavendish and also by Salomon de la Broue with his words “The cavecon is only there to show the horse the workings of the curb-reins!”, meaning “never to be used as surrogate for mouth bit”.
Because also the use of a snaffle-bit will induce horse and rider to pull on the reins, and thus ruin the postures of rider and horse, I strongly oppose the opinion of Solleysel, who deemed it acceptable for the first education of a young horse (which he ascribes Cavendish wrongly in his book!).
The same is true for me regarding Bosal and neck-ring (what I will do very much later, after the horse has been educated completely, and possibly will perform these lessons even in free-work, is a different kettle of fish).
The education schedule of the old masters LaBroue, Cavendish and Gueriniére demands for a young horse (4 -5 years old) to be given as the first bridle long, straight curb, possibly a little bit behind the line.
But as the time came I actually diverged from this over many years hedged plan, because I hadn’t found a producer for a snaffle-curb with long an straight beams (also a little bit because I didn’t feel absolutely confident about it…) and decide to use instead my Nestier-snaffle-curb with the very short beams, in the hope that the etching of Nestier should also mean, that this bit could also be used well for the beginning.
To be on the safe side I strapped in a semi-cavecon, but then haven’t used it, neither in Handwork nor in the saddle.
My very good substitute for the use of the cavecon-reins both in hand-work and while riding is an extremely variable use of the switch to restrict and direct the horse’s head- and head position so that it will move more or less into the desired direction, if it doesn’t listen to the curb-reins sufficiently. Poco Baio accepts this most times promptly and very well. THIS NEW METHOD prevents completely the pulling at the reins and thus the loose of the rider’s independent seat (my aim still is a seat near to the one of the old Duke of Brunswick on the rider-monument in front of the Brunswick castle).
With Poco Baio though I have to take care not to position the switch to near his head as otherwise he will grab it to animate me to play with him!
By my new method the horse from the start is trained with the curb and will never have to switch to another bridling. The curbs I have been using now for 9 years are snaffle-curbs (“simple canons”) built according to the pictures and descriptions of the old masters of riding.
For three months after Poco Baio’s arrival I trained him with longeing and work from the ground with a French cavecon, even in longeing limiting his coming into the circle with the switch, held horizontally against his head; after two months changed to the Nestier-curb plus the switch aides, doing hand-work with the curb-reins in one hand over/near the withers. Having for over 9 years now never used another bridling, I got fairly proficient after some weeks already in this way to lead the horse from the ground, and Poco trotted easily and calmly at the hand around me in fairly tight circles and straight forwards.
The applied curb-aids are: the signal for going forwards is a short backward-pull at the curb-reins
while the rein-hand is standing low, which produces the reflex of craning his neck forwards which shifts more weight on to the forehand, and thus starts/accelerates the forward movement of the horse.
The aid for a stopping/decelerating is a lift of the rein-hand to tighten the curb-chain, which produces a elevation of neck and head, thus shifting more weight to the horse’s hindquarters.
Further aids are the shoving in, resp. out, the horse’s neck by one rein, while the other one is shortened and played at to produce a bending of the horse’s neck to the inside.
Hand working a horse bridled with a curb from the ground is possible and useful only by leading the horse one-handedly, with the rein-hand positioned over/near the withers! Also leading a horse bridled solely with a curb should not be done at one rein, but only by the cheek-strap of the headpiece!
Six months after the start (2 months before his 5th birthday) the first mounting: sitting 30s on the saddle; next time 2 steps forwards, third time 6 steps, after one week 5 trot-steps on both hands.
Always the direction of movement and of bending demanding by the curb-reins, assisted in 60-80% of the time by the switch parallel to the horse’s head, which he knew well and accepted from the months before.
Here I’m greatly helped by the fact, that I haven’t been using spurs for over 9 years now, and thus had to learn a good, very flexible and sometimes unorthodox use of the switch! (Of course you should not position the switch too near the horse’s head: otherwise Poco instantly will fetch it with his mouth, to animate me for playing with him!).
In this way I have been able since to keep a good seat easily, without any pulling at the reins, without rolling in my shoulders, my gaze always up and straight forwards between the horse’s ears (for a turning always putting at first the horse’s head to the side so that my gaze between its ears look onto the intended path), just as the old masters had recommended.
The first times under the saddle Poco Baio had still received psychological assurance by a longe, after that two times by a known person simply standing in the arena, after that going alone with rider; a little bit later that getting assurance by having Paco with rider in the arena, whom he knew from walks at the hand in the country.
A second change of plan became necessary: since I hadn’t used the cavecon-reins even once, which I had anyway put on only as a precaution, I strapped out the semi-cavecon. Regrettably Poco Baio, who constantly plays with his mouth and tongue could now open his mouth so wide that he could pull in the slobber-chain, which in a Nestier-snaffle-curb hangs very near to the horse’s mouth. Immediately the slobber-chain got hooked behind his lower front-teeth, from where he could not unlock it, which caused him much stress and anxiety. This then showed me the semi-cavecon had worked like a normal nose-band and prevented a too wide open mouth.
So then I put on the snaffle-curb of medium length, which otherwise I probably would have done much later. In this one the slobber-chain hangs much farther away from the lips, so the horse cannot grab it. It has got medium strong angle of 45°.
Nestier also uses a nose-band in the etching, and a nose-band is seen on roughly half the depictions from that era 16. -18. century.
The most important benefit of long beams is that the horse notices very early a tightening of the curb-reins and is able to prepare for the probably coming stronger pull (that’s why a curb with short beams is called a “signal-bridle, by which only short signal rein-pulls are useful; a permanent, for the horse comfortable attachment to the rider’s hand is not possible with this type of curb, as the rein-way is far to short to absorb perturbing movements) .
Right from the start with this medium-long curb I was able to induce smoothly the decelerating and then the halting of the horse, and the same was true under the saddle, which proved that all my fearful reservations about using a long curb in the training of a young horse had been superfluously.
However, for the horse the lure to take a beam into its mouth is great, which results not seldom in a beam hooked on the teeth of the lower jaw, where the horse often cannot unlock it by itself, which produces concern and anxiety in the horse similar to that above mentioned.
So now with this bridle, too, I have to ensure the horse cannot open its mouth too far by using a nose-band. (This has always been necessary with Picasso, too, for the same reason, contrary to Paco, who never needed it).
By the way: this lodging onto the lower teeth is another reason to avoid hand-working a horse from the ground at one curb-rein only!
To steadily improve his listening to my aids regarding the direction of movement, I intend to never ride on the first hoof-beat along the wall, which naturally will afford far more concentration in rider and horse than having automatically the wall (which is the strongest aid) exerting its influence. This enhances the quality of education immensely, and eventually will even speeding it up. Aim and basis of the art of riding is "the horse is between hand and heels", but on he first hoof-beat it is "between wall and heel (the arena-inside one)": this is not art, but to the contrary, it spoils horse and rider!
The first ride in the country 4 weeks after the first mounting (40min accompanied by Paco, whom he knows from former outside walks at the hand) was pleasingly calm: the angle grinder suddenly screaming from a roof at the roadside, the suddenly booming steam jet in the garden next to the road, the baby carriage upon the bridge, and an eerily silent Biker, shooting suddenly through the midst of our horses didn’t faze him at all; only when an equally silent biker shot out of a copse from the left, passing three meters in front of us, he made a little jump sideways. Fortunately I have trained him always to put his hind legs to his centre of gravity and never away from it, so he was able to take his rider smoothly sideways, without horse or rider loosing their equilibrium.
Also my for many years trained reflex to instantly grab the horse’s mane in case of emergency, and never to hang on to the reins, paid off in this situation!
Schimmerwald, 28. March 2025
Update 25.05.25
Another deviation from my education-plan: La Broue recommends for the first canter with a rider not to use the curb-chain. But I have always been a very cautious guy (that’s the reason I have chosen this way of riding and this type of horse) and so I let the the curb-chain in place nevertheless: security is always the priority!
I had somewhat whitewashed this decision by telling myself that La Broue had used a much sharper curb-chain with a far smaller number of chain-links, which where also much more edged than the much smoother ones I use, which nearly could be called chain-bands. Also I assume that the curb-chains in those times would probably have been fastened tighter than I do it.
Because Poco Baio is my first ride-in-horse after 14 years, I had to find out again first, that one cannot attack a young horse with the normal aides for the canter, but has to let it fall into canter by itself after speeding up the trot more and more.
My impatience let me forget this some times which resulted two times in the “arming himself” (as La Broue called it) by “swallowing” the mouth-bit (i.e. pulling it up into the space between his molars, where he can block it by biting on it). This he did two times with yanking up his head, but cantered already smoothly and regularly from the next canter-jump on.
Only one day later I discovered a new bite-mark in the bit and also a right side bent of a lower branch (the thin stainless-steel my snaffle-curbs are made of is very soft and bendable): so maybe it was luck that I hadn’t been able to get the planned straight one, which’s hollow mouthpiece I possibly would have had enforced with thicker steel, and possibly also the lower beams, as the current ones always have to get hot-bended after 6-10 weeks to get them into the right shape again, for which the bends must be made glowing-red-hot, to avoid a fatigue-breakage.
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