Indigo
Seems to me Western is much like Classical in that there are a lot of different styles that fall under it, the Cowboys of the Great Basin with the Vaquero tradition have been known to have a pretty good Classical seat (But which one
) but then it traces back to Spain so hardly surprising.
Yea the idea is similar to that in western where you give a leg aid and the horse keeps going till you give it another and the concept of the horse following the riders pelvic movement rather that the rider following the horse which a few guys in the US are doing.
Yea that type of riding is micro managing the horse foot fall by foot fall, its’ one of the reasons they say Baucher didn’t ride outside the Menage, he had spent his life working to control the horse to that level, he couldn’t give the horse more freedom as you normally do when riding outside.
I think it’s like driving a car, when you learn you are thinking about what you are doing but end up doing it all subconsciously, turning the wheel just enough for the corner, applying the brake just enough to slow down for the corner etc, I think that’s what riding is about making it second nature, no need for cognitive thought in the main.
Heather
Correct me if I’m mistaken but you seem to be intimating there is only one Classical seat and it’s ear/shoulder/hip and heel alignment.
I find that’s difficult to accept, Xenophon stipulates the leg below the knee should hang straight down as depicted in this Frieze.
William Cavendish different again.
Baucher is criticised by Seeger for exclusively using the 3 point (Fork) Seat as opposed to the Classical 2 point seat.
Nolan is very much like Xenophon.
If ear is included then Fillis doesn’t fit this definition either.
I can’t remember reading anything about shoulder/hip and heel alignment in any of the period texts I’ve read, it seems to be a product of the 20th century.
I though we were talking about Classical riding, I’m not sure what Teaching has to do with that, but to answer your question I have never and have no intention to ever teach, as a trainer? I’m not sure what you exactly mean by that but I can tell some of the experiences/influences I have had.
Normal BHS establishments, I’ve ridden with Gaucho’s in Argentina, Huaso in Chile, in the US, Mark Rashid, Ray Hunt and a few others, done a bit of riding in Spain, France etc.
Interestingly I gained a lot of invaluable information form spending time with horsemen who speak a different language making verbal communication impossible or horsemen who are not particularly articulate with people but are with horses.
I have a friend who is an Equine Chiropractor who lecture on the subject part time at one of the Colleges in the states to post graduate Vets and qualified Chiropractor starting out on with Equines, what he and the other Dr’s and Prof’s in his faculty don’t know about the horses exo-muscular system and movement isn’t worth knowing imo, I’ve been fortunate to spend quite a bit of time with him and have acquired some invaluable knowledge.
Plans I have for the future other than a couple of road trips are to ride with Catherine and Michel Henriquet, Rodrigo Matos, Dominique Barbier and John Saint Ryan. Of course this is liable to change and doesn’t include people I’d love to ride with but don’t teach or cultural horsemanship I am interested in from different parts of the world.
Horse’s I’ve owned/ridden include Tb, DWB, Hanoverian, PRE, QH, Florida Cracker, Morgan, Cleveland Bay, Welsh Section D, Gypsy Cob, Dartmoor.
Not sure if that’s the sort of thing you were after or not, but I don’t see it’s relevance, I could have been terrible during those experiences and was for most of the time, I’m not much better now but at least I am a bit.
Seems to me if those horses obtained record scores for the European Championships that is what Dressage is in 2011, if you think it’s wrong or don’t like it then you don’t like dressage in 2011.
You don’t go to a gun fight with a knife and expect to win or complain that a gun isn’t as sharp as a knife.
But I really don’t see it changing, far too much money invested, didn’t that guy just pay £8,000,000 for Totilas?