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Piaffe in the Pillars. Painting by Ludwig Koch. |
Tapestry depicts horse and rider in the Capriole. |
Pirouette by George Hamilton c. 1700. |
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Mary Stuart in the Piaffe, Sidesaddle. |
Capriole in the Pillars, 1890. |
William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle |
Equestrian Portrait of Henry IV (1555-1610). King of France before the Walls of Paris, 1594. |
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Queen Isabel of France by Velasquez |
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The Dressage Blog
March 09, 2009
On the Bit 8.0
©Thomas Ritter 2009
Otto v.Monteton (1899, translation: TR).
“Those who teach like this feel very frustrated when nowadays only the dogma of the unconditional poll flexion is applied, and nobody sees how irregular the gait still is, for which the vertical nose is so detrimental. However, it is so convenient and does not require any thinking, because it is so easy for the teacher, the student, and the inspecting officer, and any child can convince himself of the discovered truth, when someone says: the nose is not vertical yet. This dogma has done infinite harm, because horses are forced into this position instead of waiting patiently for them to assume it themselves. It is only through studying the individuality that science and art begin in horsemanship.”
This certainly rings a bell. Apparently, not much has changed in the last century. Monteton complains that people judge what they see by a simplistic dogma, because they don’t want to have to think and differentiate. Then as now, the vertical nose was often used as the only criterion in evaluating the training. If the nose is vertical, everything is thought to be good, even if the horse has been forced into this frame, the neck is short, the back is dead, and the haunches are not flexing. If the nose is not vertical, the training is considered to be wrong, even if the back is swinging, the hind legs are engaged and flexed, and the aids go through. Even the most uneducated person can see whether the nose is vertical or not. But it takes an educated eye to see whether the frame is real or fake, whether the horse is in balance or not, whether the hind legs are flexing in all their joints, or just from the hock down, and where the horse is still storing resistance. It takes thoughtful consideration to see what frame is appropriate for the horse’s conformation, age, and training level. This tendency to oversimplify still haunts dressage today. I could not agree more when Monteton says that dressage can only become artistic when you study the individuality of each horse to find the posture that is best suited to the conformation, training stage, and current objective. You could even go one step further and say that if someone does not select the horse’s posture based on gymnastic principles, he is not really doing dressage, but rather some form of trick training.
Otto v.Monteton (1899, translation: TR).
“The greatest control over the horse lies not in the vertical position of nose, but five to ten degrees in front of it. When the horse yields his nose into the vertical position at the halt, with the poll at the highest point, and the rider elevates him again slowly out of the lowered position, then the half halts will go through all the way to the fetlock of the hind leg. It is only this oblique angle of the nose, on the bit, that has been elevated out of a lowered position that guarantees the joyful impulsion under the control of rider. The uninterrupted, vertical position of the nose, which cannot be elevated seamlessly, causes a choppy gait even at the walk, as I have often been able to observe. One can consequently say that those horses are stuck in the training with their vertical head position and have become wobbly in their joints.”
Unlike many of the other authors, Monteton ventures to suggest a specific head position which he considers to be most effective for the transmission of the aids. He finds that the half halts go through most smoothly, when the nose is 5-10 degrees in front of the vertical. He says that he has seen many horses whose gaits had been destroyed by riders who tried to get the head into a vertical position at all costs. This is typically what happens when a rider confuses form and function. If the head is held or forced into a mechanical headset without taking his conformation and training stage into consideration and without adjusting the pelvis, the shoulders, and the spine, then the gait, and ultimately the horse’s soundness, will suffer.
To be continued…
Feel free to e-mail me with questions and comments.
Thomas Ritter
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