Bibliothèque mondiale du cheval

« Since soon after the last war riding has been enjoying a progressive boom. Due to unprecedented general prosperity, people whose grandfathers would never have dreamt of indulging in this sport have taken to it most enthusiastically, swelling the ranks of riders in every branch of equestrian activities. At the same time, the fact that the competitive spirit has become a major factor in riding has greatly increased the number of horse shows, raising the standards of performance and thus promoting equestrian education even for the average. The rapid switch to educated riding on a large scale could not proceed logically; the movement was bound to be full of whims, fads and even of simple failures to understand what educated riding really is. In this complicated picture of today’s various and often contradictory tendencies, two major trends are conspicuous. These are the progress of the Forward Riding, on the one hand, and on the other, the attempts of some horsemen to import the old-fashioned Dressage type of riding from Europe. The first represents a rather natural development of equestrian thinking, since the favorite equestrian sport of our youth today is jumping in one form or another. The other is an artificial transplanting to American soil of ideas which were originally developed very long ago and for different equestrian games, played by a ditterent kind of society; but to some American horsemen they represent, even today, the acme of education-which unquestionably they were once upon a time. Thus an educated, conscientious riding instructor, besides teaching his subject, has constantly to combat the influences of various temporarily popular trends in riding. These come and go, and those which were in the picture when this book was originally written have been replaced by others. » Présentation de l’éditeur (1963?)