The student must make an effort to look friendly at all times

“The student must make an effort to look friendly at all times, to caress his horse often, and not to correct impatiently. Even if not everything succeeds according to his thoughts occasionally, he should not get upset and choleric, and mistreat his horse, in other words prostitute himself in front of the observers.

For there is nothing more unpleasant than seeing a rider spur and beat his horse, especially when he himself is the cause for the mistake. And it happens quite frequently that the rider causes the horse to make this or that mistake through an imperfect seat or an unsteady hand, for which the horse is not to be punished, but the rider is to blame.

A horse that is trained to subtle aids and who pays attention to the rider’s smallest movement, will inevitably react as soon as the hand, the legs or the seat move incorrectly. However, the horse must not be punished, since he only did what the rider asked for with his careless movement.”

Anonymous ~ 18th century chief rider of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna

#MissingConcepts #Training #TheAids