François Robichon de La Guérinière was born in Essay, close to Alençon, in 1688. His father, Pierre Robichon, seigneur de La Guérinière, was an officer of the Duchess of Orleans and an advocat at the siege of Essay.
François spent his youth in Normandy. His older brother, Pierre des Brosses de La Guérinière was the director of the Académie d'équitation in Caen. Since the younger brother died childless, and since the older brother only had a daughter (who married another capable horseman, M. de La Pleignière), there are no direct descendants bearing one of the most famous names in equestrian history. But there are still the Robichon de La Guérinières, descendants of another branch of the family.
In 1715, having received his diploma as écuyer du roi, François de La Guérinière went to Paris in order to manage an equestrian academy. It was here during the following fifteen years that La Guérinière earned the reputation of being an unparalleled horseman and teacher, which led to his appointment in 1730 to the post of Directeur du Manège des Tuileries by the Grand écuyer de France, Prince Charles de Lorraine, comte d'Armagnac.
La Guérinière died on 2 July, 1751.
André Monteilhet writes that La Guérinière's book deserves to be made the topic of a thesis due to its content as well as its beautiful language.
La Guérinière has become famous for the invention of the shoulder-in that is generally attributed to him, because he was the first author who described it for posterity. There may have been others who practiced the movement, such as his teacher M. de Vendeuil, but if they did, they did not write about it.
The Spanish Riding School regards La Guérinière's "Ecole de Cavalerie" as the most important text, on which their daily training is based even today.
p. 78:
"Theory instructs us that we should work from a foundation of sound principles, and these principles, rather than going against nature, must serve to perfect it with the aid of art."
p. 75:
"All sciences and arts have principles and rules, by means of which one makes discoveries leading to their perfection. Horsemanship is the one art for which it seems one needs only practice. However, practice without true principles is nothing other than routine, the fruit of which is a strained and unsure execution, a false diamond which dazzles semi-connoisseurs often more impressed by the accomplishments of the horse than by the merits of the horseman. From this comes the small number of well-trained horses, and the paucity of ability one sees at present in the majority of those who call themselves horsemen."
p. 78:
"The opinion of those who give no importance to theory in the art of horsemanship will by no means prevent me from maintaining it to be one of the things most necessary for the attainment of perfection. Without theory, practical application always remains uncertain."
p. 113:
"M. de la Broue, and after him the Duke of Newcastle, say that in order to have a good hand, it must be light, gentle and firm. This state does not proceed solely from the action of the hand, but principally from the seat of the rider; for when the body is unbalanced or askew, the hand cannot be in its proper position, and the rider concerns himself primarily with keeping his seat. Furthermore, the legs must act in consonance with the hand, otherwise the effect thereof will never be correct; such consonance is called, in the terminology of the art, accord of hand and heel, which is the perfection of all aids."
p. 116:
"There are two ways of giving with the hand. The first, which is the more common and most frequently used, is to lower the bridle-hand, as we have indicated. The second way is to take the reins in the right hand, behind the left hand, and while slightly raising the reins in the left hand, pass control to the right hand, and finally, giving up control with the left hand completely, lower the right hand onto the neck of the horse, and hence the horse finds itself completely free from contact. This manner of giving with the hand is called descente de main: it is also performed by taking the ends of the reins with the right hand, held at the height of the rider's head, the arm straight out and free; but you must be quite sure of the horse's mouth and its readiness to obey, in order to use this method. Care must be take not to give with the hand or perform descente de main when the horse's weight is on its shoulders: the proper time to perform this movement is after a half-halt, and when you feel the horse coming back on its haunches, give with the hand or perform the descente de main. The proper moment, difficult to discern and seize, is one of the most subtle and useful aids of horsemanship; for the horse, bending its haunches just as contact is released, must necessarily remain light in hand, having no other support for the head."
p. 122:
"Finally, it can well be said that sparing use of the aids and chastisements is one of the most desirable traits of the rider."
pp. 136-140:
"The Duke of Newcastle, whose preferred exercise was the circle, himself admits the problems involved with it when he states that in the circle, when the horse's head is to the inside and the croup is to the outside, the forehand is under greater strain and constraint than the hindquarters, and the horse is thrown upon the forehand.
"This observation, which experience confirms, proves evident the fact that the circle is not the best means of suppling the shoulders, since a thing constrained and under its own weight cannot be light: but a great truth revealed by this illustrious author is the fact that the shoulder cannot be rendered supple if the inside hind leg is not advanced closely to the outside hind leg during the exercise, and it is this judicious remark which caused me to seek and to find the lesson of the shoulder-in of which we shall now give an explanation.
"When a horse can trot freely, then, in both directions in a circle and on a straight line; when it can walk those same figures with a quiet and even step; and when it has become accustomed to executing halts and half-halts, and to carrying the head to the inside, it must then be taken at a slow and relatively extended gait along the wall and placed so that the haunches delineate one line and the shoulders another. The line of the haunches should be near the wall, and that of the shoulders about one and a half to two feet away from the wall, while the horse is turned towards the rein on which it travels. That is, to put it in more familiar terms, rather than holding the horse along the wall in a single line from haunches to shoulders, its head and shoulders must be turned somewhat towards the centre of the manège, as if it were desired to turn in this direction, and when it is in this oblique, curved position, it must be made to move along the wall, aided with the inside rein and leg, which action it cannot possibly perform without crossing the inside foreleg over the outside foreleg, and in like manner the hind legs, ...
"This exercise has so many benefits that I regard it as the alpha and omega of all exercises for the horse which are intended to develop complete suppleness and perfect agility in all its parts. This is so true that a horse trained according to this principle and spoiled afterwards either in the school or by some ignorant person can be restored to full agility if a horseman puts it for few days back into this exercise.
"(1) In the first place, the exercise supples the shoulders, because the inside foreleg, crossing with each step the horse takes in this position in front of the outside leg and coming to rest on its other side, and in the same track, obliges the shoulder to follow that motion and activates the muscles of that part, which is already apparent.
"(2) The shoulder-in prepares a horse to be put on its haunches, because with each step taken in this posture it carries the inside hind leg forwards under the belly and brings it over to the outside hind leg, which it can do only by lowering the haunch: it is thus always on one haunch in one direction, and on the other haunch in the other direction, and learns in consequence to bend its hocks under itself; this is what is called being on the haunches.
"(3) This same exercise disposes a horse to move away from the leg, because with each movement, being obliged to cross the legs one over the other, both fore and hind, it acquires facility in crossing both fore and hind legs on both reins, which it must be able to do in order to move sideways with ease. Hence, when taking a horse in shoulder-in on the right rein, one prepares it to move away from the leg to the left, because it is the right shoulder which is made supple in this posture; and when it is put in shoulder-in on the left rein, the left shoulder is made supple and the horse is prepared to cross over the left leg to move away from the leg to the right.
"To change rein in the shoulder-in exercise, e.g. from right to left, the curve of the head and neck must be maintained, and while moving away from the wall the horse must move in an oblique line with straight shoulders and haunches until it has arrived at the opposite wall; and then its head must be placed to the left and the shoulder to the inside away from the wall, so that it crosses its inside legs on this rein over the outside legs, travelling along the wall and in the same manner we have just explained for the right rein.
"Since the horse will make errors in the first lessons of the shoulder-in exercise, be it by placing the croup too far towards the inside or, contrariwise, by turning the shoulders too far to the inside and leaving the line of the wall to avoid crossing its legs in a posture which keeps all its muscles in continual contraction, which causes it discomfort when it is unaccustomed to do so, the circle should prove to be a remedy for these problems. Take the horse in a shortened gait on a large circle, and then occasionally steal in a few crossings of the inside legs over the outside legs; such that as the circle is enlarged more and more, the horse arrives at the line of the wall by imperceptible degrees and there finds itself in the posture of the shoulder-in; in this stance take it a few steps forwards along the wall; then halt it, curve its head and neck while activating the bit with the inside rein, praise it and end the lesson.
"Should it happen that a horse resists out of malice, refusing to submit to the discipline of this exercise, leave it for a time and return to the extended, brisk trot, both on the straight line and the circle; and when the horse obeys, return to the shoulder-in on the line of the wall; and if it performs a few steps well, stop, praise the animal, and dismount.
"When the horse begins to obey on both reins in the shoulder-in exercise, it should be taught to turn corners well, which is the most difficult part of this lesson. To this end, the horse's shoulders must at each corner, i.e. at the end of each straight line, enter the corner while the placement of the head towards the inside is maintained; and at the moment the shoulders turn on to the other line, the haunches must move into the corner through which the shoulders have just passed. The inside rein and leg are used to urge the horse forward into the corners; but then one turns on to the other line, it must be signalled with the outside rein, while holding the hand to the inside at the moment when the horse's inside leg is raised and about to be put down again, so that in turning the hand at that moment the outside shoulder can pass around the inside one; and since the turn is a type of half-halt, the calves should be used to urge the horse forward while turning the hand. If the horse refuses to pass the croup through the corner by swinging it wide and hanging on the inside leg (the most common reaction of horses), use the inside spur at the moment of turning the shoulders on to the new line. That is, to my understanding, what is called passing through the corners, and not as is done by most riders, who are content to have the head and shoulders pass through the corner and neglect the croup; so that the horse turns in a single movement rather than by turning the haunches after the shoulders. The horse gains suppleness in this passage of shoulder and haunch not only in those two parts, but also in its sides, the suppleness of which greatly augments the agility of the rest of the body."
p. 161f.:
"It is a principle to which all experienced masters subscribe that a horse should never be galloped before having been suppled with the trot so that it neither bears on the hand nor pulls at the reins. One must wait, then, until the horse is supple in its entire body, trained to the shoulder-in and the croup to the wall, and is accomplished in the piaffe between the pillars; and as soon as it has reached this point of development, it will perform the gallop willingly without much coaxing."
p. 162:
"The horse should gallop in the posture of the shoulder-in, not only to render it more supple and obedient, but also to prevent the bad habit, shown by nearly all horses, of galloping with the inside hind leg outside of the line of the inside foreleg. This fault is not inconsiderable, for it gives the rider an uneasy seat, as can easily be seen in the case of most gallops, e.g. on the right leg, which is the way hunting and weak horses gallop. You will notice that they nearly all have the left shoulder drawn back, and they incline somewhat to the left. The reason is not far to seek: the horse, while galloping with the right hind leg swinging away from the left, jostles the rider towards the outside. For this reason the horse must gallop shoulder-in, to teach it to keep the hind legs close to one another and to lower the hindquarters."
