The first time I read Gustav Steinbrecht's "Gymnasium des Pferdes" I was overwhelmed. At the time I had already read a number of more recent publications, including Waldemar Seunig's "Von der Koppel bis zur Kapriole". But Steinbrecht's book took opened the door to a completely different way of riding. Different not in terms of the underlying philosophy, but in terms of theoretical penetration, clarity, and seriousness. Every page contained several eye openers. There was so much information on so little space, that I could only read a few pages at a time, because I needed time to think about what I had just read, in order to digest it (partially).
Even today, after having read quite a few other training manuals, both old and new, Steinbrecht's "Gymnasium" is still my all time favorite. No other author describes the classical principles with the same stringency and the same simple clarity as Steinbrecht. He could be considered the successor of De La Gueriniere.
For this reason, Steinbrecht's "Gymnasium" became the "bible" of German horsemanship. All the classical German and Austrian 20th century authors, including Seunig and Podhajsky, described the exact same training philosophy as Steinbrecht. The famous Army Riding Instruction from 1912 and its successors were based primarily on Steinbrecht. In this tradition, the modern "Richtlinien fuer Reiten und Fahren" of the German FN, that are available in an English translation, are based on Steinbrecht as well.
Steinbrecht was born in the town of Amfurth by Magdeburg in Saxony, in 1808 as the son of a country parson. He studied veterinary medicine in Berlin, and in 1826 or 1827, he became a student of the famous Master Louis Seeger in Berlin-Moabit, whose niece he would later marry.
In 1834, Steinbrecht took on the directorship of a private riding school in Magdeburg. He returned to Berlin in 1842. The school of his teacher Louis Seeger, the Seegershof, had become the most famous school in Prussia.
In 1849, Steinbrecht became the director of the Seegershof. During the following decade he started to write down notes, which formed the basis for his posthumous book "Das Gymnasium des Pferdes".
In 1859, he bought a manege in Dessau in the state of Anhalt, where he remained for 7 years, training high school horses. Some of them were sold to the great circuses of the time, such as the Circus Renz.
In 1865, Steinbrecht left Dessau, because his wife did not like living in the country, and moved back to Berlin, where he remained until his death in February 1885. He never stopped riding until a very short time before his death. His equestrian career spanned more than 60 years.
After Steinbrecht's death, his student Paul Plinzner, the future Stallmeister to Emperor Wilhelm II, edited the notes Steinbrecht had left behind and added the chapters on the canter and high school dressage. The first edition of "Das Gymnasium des Pferdes" was published in December 1885. Like Pluvinel before him, Steinbrecht never saw the publication of his book.
Plinzner published two edited versions in 1892 and in 1901. A fourth edition appeared in 1935, prepared and annotated by Plinzner's student col. Hans von Heydebreck. This 4th edition is the one that was translated into French and English.
According to Alois Podhajsky, the great value of the book lies in the fact that Steinbrecht himself did not start to put together his notes until he had been training horses for more than 30 years, which gave him a thorough grasp of the material based on a great deal of practical experience.
A contemporary rider described Steinbrecht's training method like this (Bertold Schirg, Die Reitkunst im Spiegel ihrer Meister, Bd. 2, 269, Olms Press, Hildesheim 1992):
"During the first weeks, years, and months he rode working trot in a shoulder-fore, alternating with a counter-shoulder-fore, later on occasionally medium trot. Then the horses were driven through from the short trot, via the medium trot into the more extended trot. The circle was temporarily used quite a bit. The walk served only as a preparation for the passage, hardly ever for lateral movements. Reinback, turns on the spot, flexions at the halt, and voltes were rare. The lateral movements proper and turns in motion were hardly practiced, but were executed in perfection over time as a by-product. The A and O of the training was the longitudinal flexion (Beizaeumen) as a means to an end, but more so the flexion of the haunches as the end in itself. The haunches started to work visibly, and when they were driven towards a crooked neck, the elevation, the impulsive gaits, suppleness and obedience, the most beautiful lateral movements, down transitions, etc. appeared after a few laborious days as ripe fruit. Canter and counter canter were practiced early on, but true success came with the counter canter along the long wall with the horse's nose close to the wall. Piaffe and passage were learned playfully by the horses under Steinbrecht's tuition, as soon as the poll and the haunches were gymnasticized. He himself did not attach great importance to these movements, and never produced them to show off. Some things he liked to reserve to riding outside. Across country, his horses did everything he asked of them, even when they were semi green. One could never see him get stuck or angry."
I have selected a few of my favorite passages from Steinbrecht's book - it's difficult to limit the number of gems, since there is such a tremendous wealth of information. Most of the quotes are from the excellent English translation published by Xenophon Press in 1995. Some of them are my own translations.
For those of you who have not read the book in its entirety:
Buy it. Read it. Study it - over and over and over. And your riding will never be the same again!
This use of his limbs will be appropriate and successful only if it is based in every respect on a detailed understanding of the nature of the horse and on a precise knowledge of its anatomy.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 1).
As the blind person touches the object before him very softly and lightly with his fingertips in order not to interfere with the work of the sensitive nerve ends by too much pressure, so it is the rider's first obligation to keep soft and natural those parts of his body with which he feels his horse. If his seat meets this requirement, he will soon feel the movement of the horse's legs and will be able to distinguish each individual one; he will thus have the means at his disposal with which to control them as if they were his own.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 13).
After the calf aids, the next lighter leg aid is the knee pressure. As the final point of closing the legs, the rider should always have available such knee pressure since he requires it at times when he must resist greatly or must give a strong aid. As a driving aid, however, the knee pressure is one of the most subtle aids that is understood only by perfectly trained dressage horses. Even with horses which already move in balance, knee pressure still acts on the forward portion of the rib cage which is quite unyielding and which is not so sensitive that the horse would be caused to move forward.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 14).
The skill of the hand can justifiably be considered a measure of the rider's total skill. It is completely erroneous to believe that good hands could be an isolated favorable characteristic of some riders. Rather, they are the result of a perfect seat and fine feeling.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 19).
However, guiding a horse with the left hand alone requires a completely trained horse that is capable of responding to the curb only. The old masters, who had time and means for such thorough work, knew only the curb as the bit for the well-ridden horse and placed their little finger between its two reins. For preparing the green horse, they used the cavesson. Today, since we have once and for all added the bridoon and its two reins to the curb bit, we admit right from the start that we do not intend to, or are not able to work our horses to such perfection that they can be mastered under all circumstances with only the curb reins in the left hand.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 19).
The influence of the hands becomes a guiding aid only by correct coaction and interaction with the aids of the legs and seat.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 20).
The steady application of a firmly closed fist is the only punishment appropriate for the rein hand, regardless of the type of bit employment and whether one rides with one or both hands. Pulling and yanking on the reins is good for nothing other than injuring the tender mouth, making the horse head-shy and ultimately forcing it into such resistance that it will escape the rider's control completely (as by rearing and flipping over, running away, etc.).
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 23).
The light and steady hand depends on the light and steady position of the upper body, and it in turn depends partly on the correct position and the resulting correct gaits of the horse.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 25).
For bending, the inside leg supports the inside rein in that it bends the horse's spine and advances the inside hind leg considerably underneath the load; for elevation, the outside leg supports the outside rein in that it fixes the horse's outside hind leg or keeps it from falling out. Both legs maintain contact by driving the horse into the hand and positioning it between the reins.
The alternating slight yielding and taking up of the reins which is so necessary for maintaining a sensitive, lively mouth is produced in a fine way by repeated opening and closing and softly raising and lowering of the hands, and by a twist in the wrist so that the little finger alternately faces the rider's body or the horse's neck.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 26f.).
Correctly executed turns are not based on complicated twists of the wrists but on the correct bend of the horse and the correct distribution of the rider's weight. Whoever correctly understands the effective range of the reins and legs and has succeeded on the basis of this understanding in getting his horse to push off from the reins in any desired bend as a result of leg pressure will have no difficulty later on in guiding his horse with one hand, the manipulation of which he will know automatically. However to attain this degree of training in a horse it is first necessary to carefully work it in a snaffle. Only after the described yielding has been safely established on the snaffle should the horse be introduced to the curb. Once this has happened, all of the training must be repeated in the same sequence as for the snaffle, it is first necessary to produce contact with the curb by riding forward on straight lines through the entire arena before an attempt is made to produce yielding to an individual rein by exercises on curved lines.
P.Plinzner, in: G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 28, fn. 5).
It should never be forgotten that the curb bit does not have a broken mouthpiece and that therefore correct rein action always necessitates a counteracting second rein. This can be done properly only if the reins are combined in one hand.
H.v.Heydebreck, in: G.Steinbrecht (1935, in: 1995, 29, footnote).
If the rider artificially applies more weight, the stirrup aid results which has become indispensable for all driving aids. It becomes a major fault if it is used to hold onto the stirrups in order to prevent their loss, or if it becomes a support for the seat. Riders who make such an error are still lacking in the fundamentals of their art, and they must first perfect their seat, and particularly their balance.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 30).
A rider in a steady, finely adjusted, balanced seat makes the fully trained horse so receptive to the aids of weight displacement that it can be kept in the required movements almost exclusively by such weight displacement. In its desire to keep in harmony with the rider, the horse will inadvertently follow the direction which the rider's position indicates.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 37f.).
On a thoroughly trained horse, which always seeks equilibrium with its rider, he can, by displacing his weight, move the horse's center of gravity forward or backward at will. On such a horse, a lateral displacement of his body weight allows him to move weight onto each individual hind leg as desired. By weight aids in general, the rider can restrain or reinforce every movement as desired. It is understood, of course, that in all these weight aids, hands and legs must participate correspondingly, but the less such participation is required, the greater is the perfection of the dressage training.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 38).
Whoever does not want to degrade this beautiful art to a mere trade - an art that has been held in high esteem from early times and will continue to be appreciated as long as there is courage and chivalry in the human race - should first be diligent in exercising his own body and making all its parts agile and mobile, so that his stiff limbs will not act as shackles on better understanding and feeling.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 39).
Correct dressage training is, therefore, a natural gymnastic exercise for the horse, which hardens its strength and supples its limbs. Such exercise causes the stronger parts of its body to work harder in favor of the weaker ones. The latter are strengthened by gradual exercise, and hidden forces, held back because of the horse’s natural tendency towards laziness, are thus awakened. The end result is complete harmony in the cooperation of the individual limbs with these forces, enabling the horse to continuously and effortlessly perform, with only the slightest aids from its rider, such regular and beautiful movements as it would demonstrate on its own only fleetingly in moments of excitement.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 44).
The rider has to direct his undivided attention to the gymnasticization of the hind legs, in particular their hip and stifle joints, if he wants to develop everything in his horse with which nature has endowed it. He has completed this task and trained his horse perfectly, if he has developed the two forces of the hind legs, i.e., the thrusting as well as the supporting forces - the latter in combination with the springiness -, to their full potential, and if he is furthermore able to determine arbitrarily and precisely their effects as well as their ratio to one another.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1935, 55, translation: TR).
The understanding trainer, gifted with a well developed rider's intuition, will soon sense from his horse's behavior how much he must load the hindquarters to bring the horse into balance, which will then be expressed by a beautiful, natural elevation of head and neck, by free, elastic movements of the forelegs from the shoulders, and by strong, determined follow-up of the hindquarters. He will select the means of achieving this goal with consideration for his horse's conformation, temperament, and age. The more careful he is in this selection, the faster he will reach his goal. With the infinite variety in the conformation of horses and with the innumerable and minor deviations from the desired, normal shape of the individual parts of the horse's body and their interconnections, experience is the only and most dependable teacher in the selection and use of the proper exercises under a rider. Each trainer must pay for his mistakes in this respect and may be considered fortunate indeed if it does not cost him too dearly.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 55).
As the first main principle of the art I urge every rider to "ride your horse forward and set it straight!"
When I say riding forward I do not mean driving the horse forward in the fastest and most extended gaits, but rather for the rider to take care to maintain an active thrust of the hindquarters in all exercises such that, not only in the movements in place, but even when moving backwards, the forward motion, namely the desire to move the load forward, remains in effect. The horse must therefore be enabled, through practice, to restrain its thrust to the utmost by increasing the load, but thrust should never be completely suppressed by overdoing it!
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 71).
Because of the great variety in equine conformation, science can teach the equestrian practitioner only the general principles by which he has to abide. It furthermore describes the individual movements and exercises, how they have to be executed in perfection, and what effects they have on the gaits of the horse. It is the rider’s responsibility, concerning the individual properties of his horse, to make the appropriate choices among them. Scrupulous observation of certain main principles as well as growing experience will be or become reliable counselors for him in the process.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 19353, 72, translation: TR).
If the lateral bending of the spinal column is developed sufficiently, if the riding of curved lines has accustomed each individual hind leg to carrying a greater load, if the extensor muscles of the neck are able to yield, and if the resistance of the poll has been overcome, it is time to put the weight on both hind legs. In this case the neck acts like a lever that transfers the load to the hindquarters; the more the neck is moved upward, the more it presses and puts weight on the hind legs. However, this work must be based on the principle that the greater load should never be forced onto the hind legs but that instead the horse must accept this load on its own.
The rider should not try to put the load on the hindquarters primarily with his hands. Through forward driving aids, he must cause the hind legs to step more underneath the weight and thus take on the load themselves. The hands must then either rest passively, preventing the horse from rushing forward, or they must act with so-called through-going half-halts to move the load even more decisively backward in order to bend the forward moving hind legs. The elevation of the forehand then comes automatically, the more the hindquarters are lowered and bent.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 73).
Putting the weight on the hindquarters, in other words, collecting the horse, must therefore begin from the back in that, by doubled activity and attentiveness on the part of his legs, the rider stimulates the hind legs to lively and deliberate forward movement. He must always keep the hind legs positioned in such a way that they act against the center of gravity of the body mass. This body mass is now held back by the rider’s hands, that is, the forward movement gradually generated by the thrust is limited in such a way that the hind legs must bend under the weight that they are no longer able to master.
The hands, even if they are limited to passive holding, must not hold back unilaterally but must enhance the uniformity of the movement by timely yielding and must support the correct sequence of the hind legs by skilled guidance in that, by appropriate lateral bending, they prevent the hind legs from escaping. If the horse is crooked, they move the forehand toward the line of the hindquarters.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 74).
Under a rider who has a heart for the animal, the correctly trained horse will work with joy and happiness, while a horse that carries its rider with fear and hesitation accuses him of being unfair and cruel. Riders who espouse the principle that one must intentionally challenge the horse’s resistance in order to break it, should be careful that they do not experience the fate of the sorcerer’s apprentice who eavesdropped on his master to learn the magic words about the evil spirits which he then was able to call into action but, filled with terror, could not banish.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 76).
The correct angle between head and neck not only produces the correct effect of the bit on the bars and thus contact, it also makes it possible for the impulsion generated by the hind legs to travel through the back and neck to the mouth, making the horse light on the bit and yielding in its poll. Only then is the path free between hindquarters and forehand, and now the hands are enabled to transmit their effect through the entire spinal column and to the haunches. In this way, forehand and haunches are connected with one another, the horse's body becomes a closed unit, hands and legs are able to interact correctly; the horse becomes "through". If individual vertebrae are not in the correct connection, that is, their contact surfaces are not in proper alignment, they will interrupt the transmission of the aids, similarly to the way a crack or break in a hard, resonant body interferes with its vibrations.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 77).
If there is insufficient contact with the reins, the neck is not elevated or the poll is not bent, both legs must overcome this fault by increased activity. If the neck has escaped to one side due to a false bend, the leg on the same side must remove the horse from the excessively tensioned rein. If the horse hangs on the reins to take them out of the rider's hands and to bring about freedom for its head and neck by force, the rider's upper body must take on a strong and steady position to provide a secure support for his arms. This support for the arms enables the hands to resist this pressure by repeated, quiet holding until the horse yields, that is, returns to the prescribed position and with it to the correct contact.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 77).
As a conclusion of these general observations about the course of dressage training I want to add the serious admonition, not to hurry any of the exercises and to let them all follow one another in such a way that the preceding exercise always constitutes a secure basis for the next one. Violations of this rule will always exert payment later on, not only by a triple loss of time but very frequently by resistances which, for a long time if not forever, interfere with the relationship between horse and rider and often jeopardize the success of the entire enterprise.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 78).
When the hind legs are under the rider’s control, i.e., when he is able to determine with precision the degree of their load and their activity, the entire horse is won, since each and every movement emanates from them, and their regular direction causes the correct effect of their moving forces on the mass of the weight.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1935, 77, translation: TR).
The correct activity of the back produces a swinging movement and becomes evident to the rider by a swinging back and If the ridden horse has the advantage, among many others, over the unridden horse that it is able to move easily and with regularity in a small space in the gaits nature gave it, this is because of the flexibility of its entire body that dressage training has given it.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 79).
Motion is the element of the horse and all motion starts in the hindquarters. If therefore the flexibility of the hindquarters must be the ultimate purpose of all dressage training, this in no way means that lateral bending of poll, neck, and spine are unnecessary. Rather, the flexibility of these parts must first be obtained so that it can then be used as a means for the main purpose, namely to work the hindquarters.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 79).
Free gaits require greater activity of the extensor muscles while quiet movements and shorter tempi reduce their activity.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 80).
The soft horse that has weak muscles by nature should therefore only be bent in free or at least very deliberate gaits so that the resulting tension of the extensor muscles prevents it from following its natural tendency to become crooked. Conversely, the naturally tight horse which consequently carries itself stiffly will be fully manageable in a free gait only after it has become possible to moderate pace and tempo by lateral bending work and eliminate the tension in the muscles that is the reason for the stiffness. In principle, the naturally tight and stiff horse should be worked in greater bends only at the walk and at a collected trot until it has become so yielding that its extensor muscles can also be controlled in a free gait. Since, however, tight horses have a tendency to hold back, they will first have to be made to want to move and stretch by working them in the free gaits for which the reins must leave them sufficient freedom, before they can be bent successfully also at the walk and collected trot.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 80).
Corresponding to the increasing elevation of the forehand as a result of the progressive lowering of the hindquarters, lateral bending must be reduced together with the gradually more elevated position of the neck. Even in the fully trained horse, the lateral bend of the neck must always be determined to the degree of elevation realized and must be less the greater the elevation until, with the neck fully elevated, the required lateral position of the horse is obtained merely by its bending in its throatlatch.
G.Steinbrecht (1884, in: 1995, 84).
