Gaspard de Saunier (1663-1748) was the son of the veterinarian at the Royal Stables, Jean de Saunier. In 1681, at the age of 18, he took lessons from Bournonville and Duplessis, écuyers ordinaires at the Royal Stables, just as De La Guérinière's teacher, M. de Vendeuil, had done 15 years earlier.
In 1688, Gaspard de Saunier was appointed écuyer to the Duc de Bourbon, and followed him on two campaigns to Palatia. In recognition of his services, he was appointed manager of the royal stud farm at Saint-Léger by Montfort-l"Amaury in 1690. A few years later he went to war as the écuyer to the Comte de Montchevreuil, who was killed at Neerwinden in 1693 and whose body de Saunier saved from the enemy's hands. He retired from military service after the peace treaty of Ryswick in 1697. He organized the stud farm of Montmirel-en-Brie for his new employer, the Marquis de Courtanvaux, before becoming a member of the Royal Stables.
In 1702, Gaspard de Saunier participated in three campaigns as the écuyer for lieutenant general Comte de Médavi. In 1706, he killed the father of Madame de Maintenon, whom he owed some money, in a duel. He fled, first to Cologne, then to The Hague in 1710. He finally established himself at Leyden where he founded an equestrian academy, which made him famous. As he became older, he progressively handed his academy over to his student Godefroy Boyer. He died on August 10, 1748, at the age of 85.
Gaspard de Saunier wrote three books:
- La Parfaite Connaissance des Chevaux - The Hague 1734.
- Les Vrais Principes de la Cavalerie, Amsterdam 1749 (published posthumously).
- L'Art de la Cavalerie, ou la maniere de devenir bon ecuyer, Amsterdam and Berlin 1756 (published posthumously).
His seat closely resembles De La Guérinière's. He was familiar with the shoulder-in, the invention of which is usually attributed to De La Guérinière or to his teacher, M. de Vendeuil, who had the same teachers as Gaspard de Saunier.
The following excerpts are taken from Gaspard de Saunier's last book which is available in a facsimile edition from Florilege 1988.
When the rider has begun to be able to guide his horse with a steady and light hand, placed opposite his buttons, one removes the longe line, so that he can guide his horse himself, after having shown him how to ride well on a rectangle, whether it be at the walk or at the trot. For every rider who can ride his horse through the four corners of the arena is able to ride everything else as well.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 3f., translation: TR).
I do not disapprove of letting the rider ride circles in the arena, because it gives him a certain balance. But of all the patterns one can ride, I prefer those that are done on straight lines and squares, for the horses always try to steal ground, as it is easier for them to go on circles than on rectangles.
Every rider who guides his horse well on straight lines, will also guide him well in the corners, so that the horse can bend the neck and body a little to enter the corner. For everybody who dances the menuet well can easily learn the other dances. It is the same for the rider, as I just said.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 4, translation: TR).
One also has to take care that the horse looks into the volte, because otherwise he is also in danger of falling down. I have seen this happen to several ignorant riders, who did not understand this exercise and who blamed the mistake on the horse to cover up their own ignorance. For if a horse, who is in a volte to the right, looks to the left, blocking himself, he will inevitably pass one leg on top of the other, which is called "interlacing". This way, the horse must necessarily fall, even if he were worth a thousand pistols.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 9, translation: TR).
Some people, who do not know that arena work is necessary in horsemanship, say: ‘Do I have to do all these movements? I only want my horse to serve me well, to walk and canter in a way that I am comfortable.’ These good people, who know nothing about riding, have no idea that when a horse is well trained and when he understands the rein hand and the aids well, he is most comfortable in anything one may ask of him. That is what a rider must strive for.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 10, translation: TR).
For any short-tempered and impatient rider who gets angry with his horse will never be able to teach him anything, and he will never become a good rider.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 10, translation: TR).
I want the rider who is on a young horse that he is going to train to have the cavesson reins that are attached to the horse’s nose, and the two bridle reins separated in both hands, i.e. two reins in each hand, one cavesson rein and one bridle rein. But the curb reins have to be more slack than the cavesson reins, because the horse is not yet familiar with the bit.
To the degree that the horse can be guided without the longe line that the trainer on the ground is holding, one removes the longe line altogether, so that the rider controls the horse himself with the cavesson and the bridle. He lets him taste the bit of the bridle more and more, without, however, dropping the cavesson reins, for fear of spoiling the mouth that is not yet accustomed to the bit. As I have said, the rider must have a tactful hand, and when he begins to feel that the horse obeys the bridle alone, he has to use it.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 12, translation: TR).
Each student who starts to rides with the cavesson spoils his hand, without saving the horses’ mouths. The horse’s nose is less sensitive, as I have already remarked. Consequently, the student has to hold the cavesson reins more firmly than those of the bridle. He therefore makes his hand hard. When he mounts a horse that does not have a cavesson on his nose, and he has to use the bridle reins, he will never be able to ride with a light hand with the bridle reins, to which he is not accustomed, since he is used to pulling on the cavesson reins with force.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 35f., translation: TR).
If the object is to bend the horse, as in times past, I agree that the cavesson is still the best tool for bending the horse’s neck, so that the head comes close to the rider’s boot, which is otherwise difficult to accomplish with the bridle. But today it is not necessary to bend the neck in order to put a horse well onto his haunches. Rather, the end of the nose should point only a little bit in the direction of the rein on which the rider is working, i.e. if he is working on the right rein, the horse should look to the right, and if he is working on the left rein, the horse should look to the left, without bending his neck in an arc, as our forbears used to ride. In a nutshell, in order to find a horse firmly on his haunches, he does not need to bend his neck very much, in order to avoid the danger of falling over.
I myself am quite content to see the horse looking a little to the right, when I am working on the right rein, and to see him looking a little to the left, when I am working on the left rein. It is sufficient for me to see his inside eye, for that way I always find the entire horse firmly on his legs, at least as long as I am not dealing with a real nag.
If, on the other hand, a good horse has his neck bent very much, so that his head approaches his shoulder, he will always be in danger of falling down, whichever rein he may be working on, right or left. What is more, in making a somersault, the horse puts his rider at risk of getting killed or injured. This shows you the result of wanting to bend the horses’ necks too much, whether it is with the cavesson or with the bridle.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 37f., translation: TR).
I remember one of the foremost princes of France, who took his son to M. Duplessis, who was already the most distinguished of the famous ecuyers that I have mentioned. I remember, I said, how the prince told him as he approached him: 'I am not bringing you my son to make him an ecuyer. I simply want you to teach him to coordinate his legs and hands with the thought in mind of what he wants his horse to do.' M. Duplessis answered him in my presence, as I had the honor of being one of his disciples: 'Sire, it has been around sixty years that I have been working towards learning what you have given me the honor of telling me. And here you want me to teach him all that I hope to accomplish myself.'
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 50f., translation: TR).
It is true that this horse had a very ugly to look at, since he had a completely wrong neck. At its base, close to the withers, it had a big dip. He furthermore had jowls that were too round to flex his poll and carry his head well. I started riding him nonetheless, more out of curiosity than out of the opinion that I would be able to make anything good out of him. But since I found him to be of good disposition, I thought I would be able to make him a very enjoyable horse. So I started riding him and called him Fidèle. I had the pleasure of seeing him develop into one of the nicest horses one could ride in the manège. I want to say: as long as he was ridden by a good rider. For he was so well on the aids that if his rider was not equally precise in their application, he did not know where he was, because the horse became so upset.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 78, translation: TR).
Secondly, the rider's legs must not be carried too far forward, as the pistol holster, because in that position, the aids would always be too big, but never delicate. Apart from the bad posture of the rider, the horse would not feel the aids enough and would have to defend himself against anything one could ask of him.
Thirdly, the rider's legs must not be placed too far back, as this position would also cause the horse to defend himself, either by kicking or other actions which the rider does not expect. Besides, every rider who has his legs too far back often pokes his horse, who then gets accustomed to swishing his tail from side to side, not to mention that he hardens and becomes insensitive to the spurs.
It is a bad habit for a horse to swish his tail, because when he has to work on bad roads or in the rain, the rider's clothes get soiled.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 82, translation: TR).
Fourthly, to return to the good posture of the rider, I said that our forbears made their students sit straight, as if they were standing on the ground, and they wanted them to have their legs straight as batons. The rider's seat bones can hardly touch the back of the saddle. While I reject this method, I don't claim that one should sit as on a chair, either, as the rider would then have his seat bones all over the back of the saddle. Instead, I wish that they are placed in the middle of the saddle. And that is what I call a rider who is well placed on his fork, and not how all the Ecuyers understood it who read the old books and who say, without further explanation, that a student must sit on his fork: by which they understand that a man must be straight and stiff as a baton, without his seat bones touching the back of the saddle.
In addition to what I have said about the rider having to sit on the back of the saddle, it is even more important that his torso is straight, his chest and stomach very open and carried forward, so that his back forms a kind of hollow between his shoulders. He must also carry his head straight ahead and free, so that it allows him to maintain his balance, always looking without constraint between the horse's ears. It is furthermore necessary that the legs, far from appearing stiff, seem, on the contrary, to be supple alongside the girth, with the toes pointing towards the horse's ear, while the heels point towards the croup. The point of the foot is placed in the middle of the stirrup. The point of the foot must not be higher than the heel.
Finally, in order to use it when the occasion arises, the leg must be , as I have said: For if a rider has lost the effectiveness of his hamstrings by stiffening them unnecessarily, and the horse makes some unforeseen leaps, he will find himself without stability.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 83, translation: TR).
I can still hear the Ecuyers tell their students, during their lessons: 'Close your legs firmly, close your hams firmly.' But how do these gentlemen propose that their disciples have stability, once their strength is lost by having closed their knees and hamstrings too tightly? As for me, I have always recommended to my students to have flexible legs and hamstrings. They are thus rendered very stable. This enables them to have a very gentle and light hand, which is impossible without good stability.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 84, translation: TR).
Fifthly, to return to the good rider, I will add here that the legs must be turned in from above, i.e. the knees and thighs. Otherwise they would look like claws, and they would make the rider appear ungraceful, who must also not have straight legs at all, as is taught otherwise, for his knee must be bent imperceptibly, so that his leg falls alongside the girth, as I have said.
Sixthly, after the legs have been placed as I have taught, and the rider maintains his balance well, he will not lack stability. For this purpose, the legs and hams must remain flexible, because this is the true touchstone for guiding a horse delicately.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 84f., translation: TR).
In order for a rider to please the eyes of those who watch him work in the manège, he must not only sit as I have described, but he must also be able to apply his aids so well that nobody sees which hand or which leg is addressing his horse. For, if one sees one of the rider's legs by the horse's shoulder and the other one by his flank, one calls it 'seeing one leg in Rome and the other one in Constantinople'. This not only makes the rider ungraceful, but it also renders the horse dull to the aids and very often leads to tail swishing.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 85, translation: TR).
It is very useful to be able to yield with the hand and to take back delicately. It is, however, something that few people know how to do. For if a rider is able to control his left wrist well, which is the bridle hand, he will hardly need his right hand to help him bend his horse, since this is no longer the time of bending up to the shoulder. I have seen this abuse, and I have seen its downside, i.e. when a horse is working with his neck bent at the shoulder, as in times past it is impossible for him to be stable on his legs.
I have seen riders who pushed the exaggeration until the horse's neck was bent so much that his head came close to the rider's boot. They believed to accomplish miracles that way and to be very skillful. And the public really believed them. This is why I am remarking that the majority of votes is not always the most reliable sign of the knowledge of those who declare themselves in favor of something, since in all arts there are more ignorant people than knowledgeable ones. This is mainly true for equestrian art, which all the world pretends to understand, but in reality some are less knowledgeable than others. One even sees frequently that those who understand the least think most highly of themselves. As for myself, I only regret my youth, because my old age prevents me from advancing further in the art of this noble exercise, especially since I see much similarity between it and mathematics, in which nobody can boast to have touched on perfection. The wisest men are always searching for new discoveries. Meanwhile, I have seen many young people who thought they knew everything, because they had only been working for a short time, and who thought they could not learn anything from anybody any more.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 86f., translation: TR).
I remember that after having worked at the royal manège in Versailles for twelve years, I fancied myself to be the best one of all the Masters there. I then entered the service of the Duke of Bourbon, son of the Great Prince of Condé, in the rank of Ecuyer. I had to join this prince on a campaign across the Rhine, where the French burnt down Palatia. Not believing that I would find a better rider than myself, I saw that I was very much mistaken, when I met others who did things I did not dare to undertake myself. Although at that time I did many quite astonishing things, I enjoyed learning things I did not know yet.
When the campaign was over, and I was not content with myself, I returned to the manège in Versailles, without earning any money. But I found that I gained a considerable benefit, since I learned there what I was still missing, although I continued to learn many other things later on. For I will admit here that the campaigns in which I participated opened a great road to perfection, as well for learning to train all kinds of horses, as for making them ready for various tasks.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 87, translation: TR).
The exercise with which one teaches a horse to go sideways is called teaching respect for the heels, and teaching the aids.
There is another exercise for it called Passade, or Demi-volte. The only difference between the Passades and the Demi-voltes is that the Passades are longer than the Demi-voltes.
This type of exercise has to be followed by round Voltes, square Voltes, renvers Voltes, and Pirouettes renversées. There are also renvers Demi-voltes and Passades renversées.
One uses different terms to express that a horse handles well in such and such a movement. The Manier is done at the canter, and the travers at the walk. The manier terre à terre is different from the Mezère or the Courbette. Manier refers to terre à terre, when one stays close to the ground, which means close to the footing in the idiom of the manège. In the Mezère, the canter is more elevated, and in the Courbettes it is even more so.
We also have more elevated Voltes. These are the Voltes in the Croupade as well as those in the Balotade. As far as the Voltes in the Capriole are concerned, they only exist in the imagination of some authors, who have never done them, nor do good Caprioles in the Voltes, but Croupades and Balotades do. Croupades and Balotades also must not be too high, because there has never been a horse who could do three or four laps on each rein, no matter how strong and light he might have been. If a horse could sustain even two or three laps on each rein, he would deserve the name of Phoenix, the bird that nobody has ever seen.
When the horse performs the round Voltes well, he has to do squares,by rounding off merely the four corners; and that is what is called square Volte, where the horse has to keep his haunches to the inside, as in the ordinary round Voltes.
After that, the horse has to do the renvers Voltes, as they are drawn below in the plate of the Voltes and Pirouettes, which are, as I have already said, almost the same thing, except that the Voltes, being larger, cover more ground than the Pirouettes. And in the Pirouettes the hind legs do not seem to leave their place, whereas the front legs and shoulders are the ones that cover all the ground, while turning. If they are done to the right, the off hind leg forms the pivotal point, as it hardly leaves its place, and consequently the near hind leg has the same function going to the left.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 94f., translation: TR).
Once a horse can perform the Voltes and Pirouettes well on both reins, he is ready to perform all the changes and counter changes of rein, at the haunches-in as well as in the canter.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 95, translation: TR).
In order to excel at an art it is not enough to know the principles and to have practiced them for a long time. It is also necessary to be able to choose wisely the subjects that are capable of executing these principles. This is what constitutes mainly the skill of the masters and the perfection of the disciples. It is also what most riders neglect. Out of presumptuousness or ignorance, they try unsuccessfully and flatter themselves in vain to train indiscriminately all horses they encounter, as if nature had created all animals equal and destined them for the same usage.
Experience only condemns the conduct of these would-be riding masters: Although they might be lucky enough to reach their goal in some cases they encounter, the insurmountable difficulties they meet in a thousand other subjects prove that coincidence plays a larger role in their school than knowledge.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 101f., translation: TR).
The reins are the bond that holds the horse captive in the rider's hand. It is through them that the animal knows all the demands one can place on him, all patterns, all the changements and all the movements he has to practice. It is through them that he receives the shape and perfection of his most beautiful postures, his skill, his expressiveness, his restraint, his docility and all the advantages that the manège provides. But how much precision, how much experience, how much sensitivity is necessary for the hand that wants to wield this double rudder well: Of all the points of the art I know no other that requires more attention, or more accuracy than this. For if the hand is in the habit of holding the reins only slightly too short, or too long, or uneven, or of flexing the poll without reason, without precision, or without gentleness, it provokes impressions in the animal that make him lose his calmness, that destroy his tuning, and reverse his best qualities, as I can easily demonstrate.
When the reins are too short, the rider cannot turn his horse easily right or left, because he cannot let his animal feel very well what he wants him to do. For as one hand pulls on the rein of the side to which he wants his horse to turn, the other hand resists, the rein being too short, and hinders the horse's obedience. The horse, feeling that he is assaulted by two opposing forces, cannot help becoming nervous and resisting the hand that guides him so poorly.
When the reins are too long, the horse's head, lacking contact, drops to the degree that it acts and by and by loses all the charm of an elevated, vigorous and youthful posture. It often happens that a rein that is too long gets tangled up in a part of the saddle and pulls the horse to one side, while the hand wants to pull him to the other.
The hand that holds the reins unevenly cannot flex the horse's poll, as the head immediately turns in the direction of the shorter rein, which produces a very disagreeable effect. And one can imagine that the animal is restive, because he is anything but docile.
There is nothing more tiring for a horse, nothing that aggravates him more than if the hand flexes the poll rudely and frequently, as some hicks do, under the pretext of reviving or correcting the gait. Since this is far from achieving the desired effect, the animal will on the contrary become duller and duller and learn to fear these violent saccades so that he tosses his head as soon as he feels the slightest touch of the hand, without feeling or understanding what the rider wants from him.
Many others hold the reins rigidly, without moving the bit, without ever giving the reins, which produces an even more pernicious and more irreparable mistake than the previous one. For experience shows every day that this harshness makes the horse's mouth harder and harder, until it loses all sensitivity and consequently the basis for the horse's obedience is annihilated. Soldiers, ploughmen, coachmen, and most grooms are guilty of this abuse, especially if they have lively horses or young horses, because they think that they can control them more easily, or give them a look of elevation by keeping the reins tight all the time, which causes the majority of horses that these people have to have mouths that are so hard, so strong, that nothing can make them obey gracefully.
From all this it is easy to tell that in order to train a horse well, and to ride him in accordance with the principles, one must conduct the reins with the proper weight and measure, never violently or insensibly, but always with the appropriate moderation, be it to support the horse's head, flexing his poll gently from time to time, and yielding the reins without excess, or be it to turn right or left, loosening ever so slightly one rein while slightly shortening the other one. And similarly for all the other aids I mentioned in the chapters on the training. This shows that a Horseman must carry his hand without negligence, active without force, and skillful without distraction.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 142ff., translation: TR).
Everyone knows that the closer the point of contact is to the fulcrum and the further the force is removed from it, the more efficiently the lever works. This principle suffices to show that the shorter upper shank is and the longer the lower shank is, the more the curb bit will have a lowering effect on the horse's head. Conversely, the longer the upper shank is and the closer the rein ring is to the bit, the milder is the curb action.
To the extent that the hand pulls the lever in one direction, the force leads the weight into the opposite direction. Hence the opposite effects of soft and hard branches. The term soft branches is used for those bits whose lower shanks are behind the line of the eye and the bit, towards the chest. The term hard branches is used for those bits whose lower shanks are in front of the line of the eye and the bit, opposite the soft branches. When the reins act upon the soft branches, the lever action lengthens the horse's neck and stretches it in front of the withers, while the force brings the mouth closer to the chest. The opposite happens when the reins act upon hard branches, because the force pushes the mouth away from the chest, while the lever action has to shorten the neck and bring the head closer to the withers.
It is more or less difficult to give horses poll flexion or elevation, depending on whether their head carriage is more or less stiff and high, or weak and low. That is why I have given the instruction to make the branches either softer or harder, depending on each case.
Straight branches have the same effect as curved ones, if their eyes are equally high, and if the lower shanks are equally far away from their point of contact, the bit. But, one will ask, why the difference? The reason is that while straight branches are much less pleasing than curved ones, they are much more difficult to break than the curved ones. They are therefore much more suitable for young horses, whose antics must be nipped in the bud, whose temper tantrums must be stopped without delay. That is too risky with curved shanks which, due to their fragility, are only suitable for trained horses who are accustomed to the bit.
If the lips are too thick at the corners of the mouth, or if they are too little divided opposite the bars, the horse feels pressured on both sides by the branches of the bit that they hold. They intrude on the bars and impede the bit in lying on the bars, which consequently makes the horse lean onto the hand. In order to correct this mistake the sides have to be larger so that the corners of the lips have room and do not enter into the mouth.
Gaspard de Saunier (1756, 147f., translation: TR).
