Waldemar Seunig describes Louis Seeger (1799-c.1860) with the following words:
"The Berlin écuyer Louis Seeger was the son of a court écuyer in the services of Prince Heinrich von Preussen, the brother of king Friedrich II. As a young man he attended the Spanish Riding School in Vienna and became the best disciple of the famous Max von Weyrother. Later, he owned the first private riding arena in Berlin, the Seegershof, not far from the then newly erected Ulan barracks in Moabit along the river Spree. He is the author of the "System of horsemanship" which appeared in 1844 and was dedicated to Prince Wilhelm von Preussen. "Seeger was a highly respected man. He was a board member of the Berlin racing club - a print of the horse painter Krüger shows him among the judges - and was awarded the gold medal of honor. His attitude can best be characterized by his words: "I call out to Germany's riders: Never forget that the propulsion (forward) is the soul of equestrian art, and that its impulse originates in the horse's haunches." He also shares the principle of the Spanish Riding School that the school horse must be the most perfect utility horse under a sensitive rider. "In contrast to his student Steinbrecht, he practiced the flying change as a separate movement. Seeger ascribes the "unparalleled successes of the old masters in flexing the haunches" to the effect of the cavesson on the upper jaw. This realization must have prompted him to invent the dropped noseband with which he is credited. "Objectionable is Seeger's theory of the increased loading of the inside hind leg in lateral movements on straight lines, as well as his claim, adopted from Dupaty de Clam, that the horse's spine functions as two two-armed levers. These mistakes, as well as his erroneous views on the distribution of the weight over fences, however, do not diminish the importance of his classical work as a whole."
Seeger was one of the most important German authors of the 19th century. He was maybe the most furiously outspoken opponent of Francois Baucher's "Nouvelle methode".
His bibliography includes:
- System der Reitkunst, Berlin 1844. - Praktischer Rathgeber fuer die Stalldienerschaft, Berlin 1848. - Zuechtung, Erziehung, Ausbildung des Pferdes im systematischen Zusammenhang, Berlin 1850. - Herr Baucher und seine Kuenste (Ein ernstes Wort an Deutschlands Reiter), Berlin 1852.
The following is an excerpt from his most famous book, System der Reitkunst (pp.308-312), which has been reprinted by Olms Press, but has never been translated into English.
"All well conformed and balanced horses can learn the piaffe, but only horses with much energy can learn the passage. It is therefore necessary to train horses according to their abilities and never force the passage, since otherwise the purpose would not be completely fulfilled, and consequently the correct tempo of the school trot is usually compromised. The latter is so valuable, however, that it must be preferred over the passage which is rarely seen executed correctly.
"The horse advances only c. one foot with each stride in the passage.
"If the hind legs step too close and too short, or too far forward, the front legs are raised too high, but lacking in the beautiful knee flexion, and the rein hand lacks the correct contact. One must then not be fooled by the high shoulder movements with extension of the entire front leg. The horse is either behind the bit or too hard on the bit and goes incorrectly. If the horse advances too far with each step, the action is more conspicuous, of a hovering and swimming nature. It is therefore also called "swimming step". But since this movement is possible only with rigid haunches and the horse has to lean onto the rider's hand, it must not be called passage and must not be counted among the airs.
"The horse that is being trained in the passage must not lose the good school trot he had learned earlier. If this happens, however, one must return to the school trot.
"It takes a great deal of skill on the rider's part to develop the horse's trot related movements into the correct school conform trot variations, so that he can ride the passage, the school trot, and the trot in balance at will.
...
"The same exercises that were recommended for the school trot must be practiced in the passage as well. The aids have to be applied in such a way that there can be no interruption of the rhythm. This requires the rider's utmost concentration, especially in turns, and he has to direct all his thoughts into the horse. As soon as the haunches have acquired this complete flexibility, the rein contact alternates only between the soft and the light one, and can often be replaced by the weight of the reins alone, when it approaches perfection. This light rein contact that has been derived from the firm and the soft contact with so much effort is either completely unknown to riders who have never trained horses; or they interpret it incorrectly. They are so used to the firm or the soft rein contact, or no contact at all, they confuse the light rein contact of the perfectly balanced school horse with being "behind the bit", or they confuse it with riding "on the buckle".
...
"Since the light rein contact is only the result of perfectly flexed haunches, which can never be maintained as long as the horse is able to approach the naturally crooked position, and since it is mainly the inside leg that prevents this, the application of the inside leg deserves undivided attention from now on.
"The horse is less inclined to bulge against the outside leg in the passage, i.e. to fall out with his croup, rather than to bulge against the inside one, in order to make himself crooked, since this make it easier for him to regain his natural trot. Therefore, the inside calf predominantly maintains the passage. Its dominating effect applies not only to the passage on a single track, but also to the passage on two tracks, with even greater precision in its application, especially in the travers, in which the horse is more inclined to become crooked than in any other movement, due to its oblique position.
"We already mentioned the importance of the inside leg in the half pass, in order to achieve the correct bend of the entire horse, emanating from the haunches, and thus to maintain the correct school tempo. In the travers-passage this counter-action of the inside leg is more subtle, stepping more into the stirrup on that side is often enough. It is indispensable, however, every step of the way, because otherwise the regularity of the gait and with it the light rein contact ceases."
