08/10/2023
Who Remembers the "Mise en main“?
Some, it is said, are surprised or even shocked when they see photos which show horses that can be seen with the curb rein adjusted and the snaffle rein loose. We can understand them since they are not many anymore who ride in this way, and also because if we refer to one of the rare documents, widely used which deals with this question, the Dressage regulations of the FEI. It can be read in article 416 that the contact must be mainly ensured through the snaffle rein which is practically not often enough the case, the two reins being too often equally tight in the world of nowadays’s dressage competitions!
Still, to equate a horse ridden on the curb alone with animal abuse is far too short-sighted and with the following text I want to explain why.�
In France we have a term which is essential when training and riding a horse: This is the „mise en main“, a term that general Decarpentry used to describe the relaxation of the horse’s mouth when the horse is on the bit. Decarpentry classified it „of capital importance when handling the horse“.
Fillis also made a big deal of it. He sees it resulting from the balance in the impulsion, obtained and preserved by a direct flexion. This is perfected by "the delicate play of the fingers, by an incessant fi*****ng comparable to the fi*****ng of the piano player.“ �And Dominique Ollivier added that "the feeling is so pleasant that it incites to seek it continuously". A feeling that I completely share.
��The verticality of the head in the direct flexion being sought after by the curb bit, granted and kept by the weight of the reins, ensures the horse's relaxation at the same time as it maintains it in an attitude of harmonious balance. Colonel Margot painted most of the horses that can be admired in a collection of his works ("Cheval Cavalier -" Cheminement editions 1996) with the adjusted curb rein and the loose snaffle rein. It is also in this attitude that he drew, very often, the horses of the various books that he had been asked to illustrate.
Note also that on the cover of his book "Horsmanship", published by Odège in 1973, the legendary Alois Podhajsky is shown with a collected horse whose contact is ensured by the curb rein only, a common practice during the solo display at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna until nowadays.
Udo Bürger, veterinarian of the Hanover Cavalry School, student of Felix Bürkner, authoritative referent, without being so precise on the use of the curb bit, nevertheless affirms in his book „The Way to Perfect Horsmanship“ that the soft effect of the actions of the hand depends entirely on the relaxation of the mouth ". �A clear indication of the convergence of classical horsemanship approaches .
To sum up: It was by the „mise en main“ that collection was sought and obtained in the French School. This happened to such an extent that one could say that the „mise en main“ and the lightness, which is its corollary, were its most significant heritage.
But what about the „mise en main“, this infallible relaxation of the mouth when the horse is correctly on the bit, today? Not much, to tell the truth, and this, without doubt, for several reasons.
The first is cultural. Who cares these days about the teaching of the masters who came before us?
Do we really want to benefit from their experience? However, for all of them, the relaxation of the jaw was at the heart of their practice.
Another reason is the globalization. It increased the number of exchanges, mainly through competitions, and led to the standardization of riding. It is accentuated in the discipline of Dressage to the point where almost all competitors „muzzle“ their horses with tight nosebands, forbidding them to have this relaxed chewing mouth I am talking about here. Better, or rather worse: Some renowned riders in France claim today that by opening the mouth the horses stiffen at the poll and that it is therefore necessary to close the mouth. �In fact, this is the opposite of the "mise en main".
And as some of those who win in Dressage today do it with more or less mute horses, we believe we have to imitate them. This is what is recommended by our French officials who encourage us to "get in line with all the developments and take inspiration from the best riders of the moment …", as if talent was the guarantor of the correctness of ideas!
So here we are in full contradiction. Indeed the texts, whether they are the FEI or FEF regulations, show a great prodigality concerning the description of the horse on the bit (the „mise en main“ having disappeared from the vocabulary). And most of these texts mention a calm and relaxed mouth allowing a soft and light contact....�Our French federation timidly denounces the mouths closed by too tight nosebands and suggests that we can pass a finger between the leather and the noseband on the horse’s nasal planum, which is not very generous. Obedience to the hand and contact must now be sought by the relaxation of the neck and poll, without further clarification. The yielding of the mouth is forgotten.
In fact, it is the High School that our century has abandoned as well as the different stages that led to it. An international version with French sauce makes up for it here. Thanks to the progression (training) scale the whole spectrum from elementary riding to high level riding is covered. The methods have faded in favor of the objectives. We are in the why more than in the how, a topic that I already thematized two years ago on these pages.
In our time of modernity where incessant progress is linked to emancipations, doctrinal wavering leads to the appearance among us of oracles who break free from the ties that bound them to their home community. They market a horsemanship more faithful to their own principles than to those which had been in use at the prestigious institution of which several, nevertheless, recommend themselves. This does not facilitate the transmission of this essential marker of horse riding in the French tradition that we found in the culture of the „mise en main“.
One way out of this deadlock could be found in high level dressage competition. If the FEI would finally stop falling deaf to the numerous public pleas, petitions and scientific findings published by the ISES, they would introduce a noseband rule which deserves this name. A rule which would include a standardized measurement by a taper gauge, like already in use in Switzerland. And a rule which would foresee at least two fingers flat on the nose ridge. Instead of measuring at the side of the head where the horse’s anatomy allows still a finger to be pushed in between the noseband and the cheek, even if the noseband is severely cranked.�A real noseband rule would more or less prohibit riding with force, would hardly forgive hand errors, and would bring the reality of competition closer to the rules of the game which codify it and which is far removed from it.
Christian Carde, 12th December 2020
