Bibliothèque mondiale du cheval

« The term “riding" may have many implications. It may mean anything from a primitive form of transportation to a sophisticated art. While the former does not require anything more than a certain knack, the latter demands extensive studies. In any simple form of riding the expression "natural rider" makes sense; while this same “natural rider” is nothing more than a person with potential abilities if his goal in riding is high. This complicated art cannot be mastered by mere years in the saddle, just as a man who has eaten all his life is not necessarily a gourmet.
The art of riding requires study; a part of this study consists in reading. It is obvious that it is impossible to learn how to ride from books, but it is impossible to become a horseman without reading them. The experiences and opinions of other riders are valuable to one who has the ability to sift them through his own critical observations based on logic and knowledge. There is a special reason for writing this book at this particular time, for cross-country riding and jumping today are in a period of transition; the old ideas are being gradually replaced by new ones. As always happens in such cases, a certain confusion has resulted and I believe that although many books have been written on Modern Riding a few more will be necessary to help a modern rider understand where and why he is different from his forefathers and what makes him better. My experience tells me that the greatest misunderstanding of our times is the belief that the recent reform in riding has consisted solely in introducing the Forward Seat. Of course the Forward Seat is a novelty, but it is merely a part of a new method of schooling and controlling a hack, hunter, or jumper.
In any type of riding we adopt a certain method of sitting and controlling the horse , depending on the aims, and consequently the schooling. Take, for instance, Dressage : -in this type of Equitation most of the movements are executed at highly collected gaits; the horse progresses comparatively little, and acts, with his legs, upward a lot. The general reaction of the horse’s movements received by the rider is vertical. Consequently, to be one with the horse, the rider must sit in the saddle, having the stirrups rather long and the torso vertical. So, as you see, in this instance, the position is the result of the way the horse was schooled to move, and is afterwards made to move by a specific method of control.
Modern field riding demands that the movements of a cross-country horse or of a jumper should be efficient; consequently horses are schooled to move forward with strides close to the ground, so that every bit of the energy produced goes toward the covering of the ground. Having this as a goal, Modern Riding has created a certain system of schooling a horse and controlling him. In riding such a horse the rider does not experience vertical reactions, but rather horizontal ones. Hence the old method of being vertical in the saddle disconnects the rider from the horse and the Forward Seat becomes a necessity. There are much closer ties between the method of schooling, method of controlling, and method of sitting than is generally appreciated; the unity of these three parts of riding is the main theme of this book.
Now a few words about its form. I have recently come to the conclusion that most books riding have the same weak point : written in the ordinary form of text books, they are nothing more than a series of statements, and many of these are not properly understood by the readers. It is different during the actual lesson, because then a pupil can always interrupt his teacher with a question. That is why I have chosen to write this book in a conversational form, since then all the common questions an instructor hears during his lessons may be heard and answered. There is another great difference between normal books and normal lessons. As a rule, a book is systematically constructed. Only after one subject has been completely exhausted is the discussion of the next one begun. This results in a certain dryness and monotony common to all text books. During the actual lesson, the instructor has no chance of being rigid, no matter how hard he tries to be pedantic. The pupil’s abilities or disabilities, his questions and the resistances of the horse will often take him far away from the main theme of the lesson. Consequently lessons are more lively and the pupil more easily assimilates the theory of riding. This is why it seemed better to talk about different points of riding as they usually come up in actual practice, rather than in their chronological sequence. An exact index puts them in their precise order for the sake of reference.[…]. » Présentation de l’éditeur (1941)