The Importance of Teaching Horsemanship Verbatim
In the ever-de-volving world of horsemanship, there’s a new 'underground' policy afoot — adhering to the timeless principles of riding and teaching them verbatim.
This policy insists on teaching directly from the sources, ensuring that foundational, proven horsemanship techniques are not just passed down, but understood and retained throughout a rider's journey -- especially in the face of so many counterfeits !
One example is the practice of teaching the opening-rein to a young rider – let’s call her ‘Alice’. Rather than simply instructing the rein-action, Alice is taught to be able to locate the original instruction in Section 17 from Saumur and Ft. Riley. By instilling this knowledge early on, she not only learns the correct technique but she also can reference it in the future.
The rationale behind this approach stems from the fact that many school-instructors excel in laying the groundwork for riders, particularly during the formative years. The lessons imparted in these early stages are often the best and most technically accurate -- even though the techniques are applied in elementary exercises. However, as riders like Alice progress and navigate the broader equestrian community, they encounter conflicting teachings from different sources.
Too often a well-intentioned rider like Alice finds herself in a situation where she knows the correct method she learned as a child, yet faces pressure to adopt different practices from popular 'trainers' later on. Without the ability to defend her foundational knowledge in the proven horsemanship, she may be pressured to stray from the principles instilled in her youth.
By equipping riders with a precise knowledge of the sources of horsemanship from the outset, this policy fortifies them against future challenges to the established method. When a rider like Alice knows that the opening-rein she learned as a child is rooted in fact and documented in the French Cavalry Directives (FCD), it becomes much harder for subsequent 'trainers' to undo the solid groundwork laid in her early education.
Moreover, by installing these teachings (that have been ‘established by reason’ and that are ‘justified by experience’), riders gain a reliable standard by which to evaluate and discern the advice of future instructors – before hiring them! Armed with the knowledge of verbatim instruction, they can confidently navigate the horse world, staying true to the principles that have literally run the gauntlet, and endured the test of time.
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