Ecole de Cavalerie

by François Robichon de La Guérinière

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfectionssuch as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact,or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections,have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed worksworldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition ++++École De Contenant La Connoissance, L'instruction Et La Conservation Du Cheval, Volume 1; École De Contenant La Connoissance, L'instruction Et La Conservation Du Cheval; François Robichon De La GuérinièreFrançois Robichon de La Guérinièrechez Jacques Guerrin, 1736

Genres: Horses

276 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1993

Reviews

[Thomas Stroemquist · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really hard to put a rating on this one but I'm gonna do it anyway. As an historical item it is fantastic. As of it's content; facts and insights, it is no more accurate than just about anything from the 1700's.

Of course the author got a lot right about handling and utilizing horses - he had a lot to practice on! But when he tries to explain why his methods work or expand on the theories, there is no doubt as to what times he worked in. Very large portions are taken up on giving names to everything from body parts to equipment to (and apparently most importantly) character flaws, anatomical faults, injuries and bad handling of any kind. A lot of bigotry and prejudice shows up throughout the book of course (eg. never buy a horse from a German Jew), as well as totally random characterizations of the horses ("small ears are not good", "a dishing horse will never show endurance", "horses with this hoof shape are only good for pulling a cart" and so on).

Quite a few wonderful drawings and horse studies and can of course be enjoyed for it's historical significance, I hope no-one ever makes the mistake of putting anything to practice.

[SportHorse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can not even begin to believe someone would not recommend this book. This is considered a Master Work by the inventor of shoulder-in. It is highly regarded by top riders throughout the centuries. Of course I could do nothing but highly recommend it. Most of the beneficial information is in Part Two. Much of the information from Part One is old fashioned by today's standards but the riding, pitfalls, and techniques remain as true today as they were the day they were written.

[Belinda]

A really interesting book but, as another review said, it is interesting more as an historical record of where equitation has come from rather than as an instructional manual to go out and apply today. That's not to say there aren't some pearls of wisdom in there, such as the oft repeated principal of ensuring that horses are well prepared in the school before they are expected to do strenuous work out in the real world. That preparation included shoulder in for hunting horses and piaffe for fancy carriage horses. I also particularly liked how he taught shoulder in by praising a small try from the horse, dismounting and ending the lesson on a positive note. That was refreshing after some of the less nice stuff, such as using the pillars to teach the horse to fear punishment.

This was written in a time when humans did not treat animals or even other humans as well as they are treated today, so by comparison this may well have been amazingly progressive and compassionate treatment of horses. He was surely a gifted horse person who studied the works of others, and so I like to imagine what this book would be if he'd had access to the knowledge we have today about how horses learn, their behaviour, biomechanics, etc. There would certainly be no references to horses "withholding their strength" out of "malice", that's for sure.