Building stable relationships with equines

26/09/2024

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The remodeling property of Fascia (its piezoelectric property) and how it directly affects the health of your connective tissue and chronic pain.watch this s...

26/09/2024

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A BAUCHER REVIVAL?

What if that’s what the horse world really needs right now?

After all the heavy-handedness and controversy surrounding the Olympics this year, that left us all feeling a little heavy ourselves, maybe we need some lightness.

Mangaiti Equine had an awesome series on Baucher last year that got me curious about re-exploring the work of the controversial 18th century figure.

I had been less than impressed reading his hyper-controlling ‘first manner’ as a teen, and hadn’t realized he’d gone on to evolve a ‘second manner,’ which emphasized lightness, often contradicting his first.

After reading a dozen books, and riding a dozen horses in this style the last 8 or 9 months, I can in no way call myself a Baucherist, and I’ve learned from exploring many other methods to to never view them as infallible, but I have definitely come to appreciate the spirit of Baucher.

Riders like Nuno Oliveira have shown us that it’s possible to infuse or recognize the spirit of Baucher in other styles...
“Steinbrecht is just Baucher on the other side of the Rhine,” he observed, of one of Baucher’s biggest critics.

Coming from a western background, many of the tenets of Baucher’s second manner feel like home… the ’descente de mains,’ and ‘descente de jambes,’ a release of the hands and legs into neutral, for the ultimate self-carriage and self-impulsion.

As well, familiar but surprising to me, was that Baucher’s ‘third hand effect,’ introduced early, was a neck rein, and that horses ridden with ‘descente de mains’ worked off signal on the slack, like a western horse.

Sadly, one-handed riding and signal on the slack is a rare sight in modern dressage, even by those who follow the ‘French’ style.
“There’s French, and then there’s French,” a friend has told me.

New for me was feeling the diagonal effect for shoulder rebalancing, particularly on asymmetric horses, and the idea of ‘hands without legs, legs without hands,’ a way to alternate and separate the hand and leg, to avoid confusion and compression, and to expose any faulty use of either.

Has my journey inspired you to read up on Baucher, or watch the Opus Vertical documentary on Amazon? I’d like to think I’ve played a small part in re-igniting some interest.

Here is a reading list of the books I’ve found helpful…

Faverot de Kerbrech translated by Michael Fletcher

The only English translation of Baucher’s 14th edition:
Method of Equitation Based on New Principles, Craig Stevens Translation

Faverot de Kerbrech translated by Einar Schmit-Jensen

Jean Claude Racinet:
Racinet Explains Baucher
Total Horsemanship
Another Horsemanship

Francois Baucher, The Man and His Method, by Hilda Nelson

Oliveira to Oliveira: The Spirit of Baucher, Manuel Jorge de Oliveira

Baucher and his school, by General Decarpentry

French Equitation: A Baucherist in America, by Henry de Bussigny

Horse Training: Outdoors and High School, by Étienne Beudant

The Quest for Lightness in Equitation, by Alexis-Francois L'Hotte

Baucher Reading List on Amazon:
https://amzn.to/4ee4q02

Mangaiti also has most of these titles, and ships internationally.

26/09/2024

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26/09/2024

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26/09/2024

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This is what I love about ‘counter-bending’ work….

Focus too much on ‘correct’ bend with this guy, and he just droops around his and his rider’s inside leg like a limp celery stalk, and starts to roll over his poll like a conveyer belt.

A great example of how tracking-up and ‘round’ does not equal balance.

Take him into shallow counter-serpentines, and he immediately elevates his shoulders and poll and comes into verticality, and it feels so light to him, he will spontaneously offer canter.

Some horses need to stay away from regular bending completely until they can keep their thoracic slings in equilibrium.

15/08/2024

Indeed keep believing and learning

'' The body achieves what the mind believes'' - Napoleon Hill

14/08/2024

Couldn’t agree more the rotations are so important to be aware of …

13/08/2024

Just went to treat this lovely mare of my clients . She struggles to get lift in her thoracic sling . I encourage her to lift her shoulders by riding her as high as she needed to find balance and lift in her front end …

13/08/2024

Continuing to work on Annie Dillons course . Not perfect by any means but heading in the right direction…