This is the continuation of Felix Bürkner’s account of his time with Captain von Wrangel. When everybody else left the school for the weekend on Saturday afternoons, Wrangel often kept Bürkner behind to work correction horses that belonged to other officers and that were too difficult for their owners. Bürkner was so dedicated and so talented that all his teachers quickly took a liking to him and gave him extra privileges. In the old German tradition, it is customary to reward the best students by giving them additional learning opportunities by including them in the training of young horses and correction horses in order to expose them to problems and training solutions that they would not encounter on the well trained school horses.
“Wrangel was always waiting outside the arena door. The groom appeared with the noble, leggy bay mare who had a neck like a board that went on forever and was completely impenetrable for the aids. I mounted. The stirrups were crossed over. He sat down on the jump in the middle of the arena – and off we went.
"It’s no good! ... It’s still no good! ... No. Not good! ...“, for hours on end.
Rarely a correction, - never a break ...
Noodle trot ... noodle trot ... noodle trot ... Sometimes good moments, then he was quiet. Bad moments again, then he said very quietly: „No, not good!“
Until the penny finally dropped on the easier side.
Break ...
Walk on a long rein ...
Then the right rein, the more difficult side, in the same tempo.
I remember this noble but infinitely difficult horse very well. I can still feel the first sparse signs of an honest yielding ...
Then – suddenly ... success, victory.
Later on, I always used to start with the difficult side. Once I had worked my way through it, the battle was won – the easier side was addressed only for short moments in between.
Thus these Sunday morning lessons were extremely instructive, and I soon succeeded in absorbing Wrangel’s system so completely that it took me only a few minutes later on to bring any horse onto the foundation. I was only allowed to ride on a single track around the whole school, with a straight horse and the finest, even rein contact, which was permitted to receive only that amount of weight in milligrams that the horse offered, never a milligram more or less. Therein lay the secret to the success, as well as in the steady driving. And it lay the foundation to the good reputation of the rider which spread more and more.
Excellency von Pakisch died young, and under his successor, excellency von Alten, seat mistakes were not tolerated, either. Especially for him, no knee was deep enough, and when he went through the ranks of the riders, he corrected mainly the seat, particularly among the yearlings, but also among the remount groups of the older students.
Just consider that the old army kept a whole barn full of correctly trained school horses (6 to 10 years old) exclusively for the purpose of teaching the seat, the rein contact, and the correct execution of the arena patterns to hand picked older second and first lieutenants, all of whom were better than the average cavalry and field artillery officers, and not beginners by any means. They learned under the strictest supervision of the riding teachers that the institute’s commander-in-chief, a lieutenant general or cavalry general, had selected. This clearly illustrates the A and O of the entire equestrian training.
The training over fences and cross country went hand in hand with this. Individual jumps of up to 4‘8“ were demanded on a daily basis. Also on a daily basis, the horses and riders were schooled cross country – on at least one horse a day – except in the dead of winter. Twice a week in the spring and fall – until the hard frost set in – we rode in hunts to the hounds on our own horses or our chargers. “
These descriptions of the daily training at the Military Riding Institute are very interesting – and valuable for today’s riders to read. The education of the students was quite comprehensive: dressage, jumping up to 4’8”, cross country riding, and fox hunting. That places very high demands on the physical fitness and the courage of the riders. Von Wrangel’s teaching style was also a challenge, since he didn’t really explain how to do anything. He only let the student know if he was doing a good job or a bad job. That essentially weeds out all but the most talented and most serious students. It would be impossible for him to survive as a self-employed riding instructor today, because he would not have any students. But a century ago, being a part of the famous Military Riding Institute in Hannover was a huge honor, and the selected students were willing to do anything, to endure any physical hardship and emotional frustration, for the distinction of being there.
One could debate whether the method that von Wrangel used in his private lessons with Bürkner to correct the retraining projects was the most efficient one. I suspect that one could find quicker, more effective ways by including more exercises, as well as longeing and work in hand. Von Wrangel basically had Bürkner correct the horses through seat adjustments only, without relying on arena patterns or movements/exercises. He was certainly successful with it, and in the process Bürkner acquired a seat that was both extremely effective and elegant. As you will see in the next installment of the series, each teacher in Hannover had his own method and his own pet peeves. By riding very intensively with each teacher for a period of time, the students learned to understand and to apply the different methods. This works very well when all the teachers come from the same training tradition. Then there are no contradictions between them, and they complement each other by teaching different aspects of the same system. On the other hand, if a student rides with teachers from divergent backgrounds early on, it can lead to confusion, because there will inevitably be contradictions that the student cannot resolve, because he still lacks the necessary knowledge.
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Thomas Ritter
