Who Do You Feel Has Influenced You The Most

[sueblue]

Who do you feel has influenced and inspired you the most in the quest to become a classical rider?
I have to say that although Desi Lorent was a very difficult and hard task master, his aim was to improve 'British' riding and teach lightness, he opened my eyes to Classical riding, the Iberian Horses and most of all the path to Nuno Oliveira.
 The most wonderful memories I have are in Nuno's school Quinta do Brejo, in Avessada, Portugal, riding his fantastic horses and watching him ride with his son Joao to Opera!!
also to watch my friend Lucy Jackson riding Soante and Jane Turley riding Bunker is something I will never forget.
I feel very honoured that I was able to meet him and talk to him, and sad as was everyone that he died so suddenly before his time.
But I have  a lasting gift all his books signed by him which I will always treasure.
So to Desi Lorent I am always indebted and although he has now passed away also, I have a stallion I bought from him and he has sired some wonderful stock.
so to Desi thank you I will never forget you .

[Funky MeerKAT]

Well, unfortunately I don't get to work or ride with any my major influences. However I very much enjoy the writings of Podhajsky, Herbermann, Belasik, Mairinger and so many more, but those are my favourites .

[aramco_trainer]

I am influenced by many and all taught me stuff.
watching Nuno Oliveira ride
Luis Valenca who made it all so clear to understand
Don Jose Athayde who went after my butt when I became lazy

just to mention a few

michael

[Heather]

Hang on Sueblue,

Didnt know you are an ex-Desi student- so WHICH Sue are you? I think I have just put two and two together     !!!!!!! And what are Lucy and Jane doing these days?

Heather

[sueblue]

Last I heard Lucy was in the Phillipines, and Jane in Germany.
Haven't heard from either for a very long time!
Heard from some of Desi's other students when we collected for the Memorial shield for the Best Classical rider for the Andalusian Breed show, but don't hear much now, I suppose the only one I hear from time to time is Jeff in wales.

[Heather]

Aha,

So it IS Sue Disney!!! Lord, we could write a few anecdotes of Desi between us!! But Sue, the memorial trophy- I swear I heard Desi spinning in his South American grave, when the competition was being run at the breed show last year to win his trophy. Aaaarrrggghhhh!! The riding!!! He would have been jumping up and down on his pork pie hat in despair.

Only ex Desi student I am still in touch with is Kay Sampson, who sadly no longer rides, but we are still good friends.

Heather

[Heather]

Who do I feel has influenced me the most?

Without doubt, Nuno Oliveira first inspired me, when seeing him at the 1966 HOYS. Desi Lorent was my main influence for many years, and I know that I could never have learnt a fraction as much from subsequent trainers if I hadnt been to Desi first. He taught the ultimate refinement of the aids, and I do not know of another teacher in the world, who taught it with so much precision. Desi looking back, was not nearly as good a horse trainer as rider trainer, and it is the two subsequent trainers below, who have influenced me most in this direction.

As Sueblue will verify, Desi was an absolute stickler for perfection. This is why so few stuck it out with him. I could have frequently strangled the old b*****r - and told him so!!-  but those of us who did stick with him, are forever in his debt.

Dr Margaret Cox was my next main influence. Margaret taught me the German scales of training, and the true German methods, not the b*****dized version currently masquerading as competition training. Margaret's great clarity of teaching, her eye for quality of movement in the horse, and correctness in a movement, is unsurpassed.

Luis Valenca has undoubtedly also been my greatest influence since. Margaret and I both go to him to train. Probably the closest to Nuno Oliveira in his training methods in Portugal today, although I do not rate Luis highly as a teacher of riding itself. He is a superb rider himself, absolutely magical in his timing, in hand and long reins as well. Sitting and watching Luis for hour after hour, I have learnt probably as much by purely doing this, as having lessons with him. But I still do not feel that I would have been able to gain as much from this, had I not had Desi and Margaret's help first.

They say that when you are ready, the right teacher comes along. I think I was lucky that this has been true for me, throughout my equestrian career.

Heather

[sueblue]

Yes Heather going to Desi was an EXPERIENCE, many riders disappeared from Crows nest  in the middle of the night which wasn't easy, it was as black as a bag on Dartmoor with no street lights!!  I recall myself buying chocolate in the garage  and stuffing my face as well as crying my eyes out all the way home after a day with Desi, how I stuck it I sometimes wonder, yet if he was going away it was always me he rang to go down and look after the yard!!
I was sorry that the riding standard wasn't good for his shield at the Breed Show  but the main objective was to keep his name alive!!
Because there are a number of us who remember the old B......... with affection.

[minkymoo2]

Crikey! My list is endless...no one "classical" though!

Tim Stockdale for his down to earth approach to people.  I ran a clinic once and booked him.  He took away whips and 3 ring gags, saying " d'ya want to make it go... or stop it?Cos if you dont know, I betcha good money your poor horse doesnt know either".  :lol:

Paul Friday (pure dressage) for taking my hubby back to basics and making a rider out of a man who had spent months struggling, in just 20 minutes.

Sharon Hunt (local 4* event rider who also trains hubby and now firmly "a friend") who rides with elegance and love.

And my own 2 instructors, one who introduced me to Feldenkrais and taught me to slow down to achieve power and balance.  The other one who inspired me enough to put my fears on hold for a year to go XC and try hunting.  
 
And finally...a local Grand Prix dressage rider who taught me that not every high achiever knows the best way to get a tune out of your own horse  

[Belle]

I have never seen any of the famous names ride. Instead it is the horses who influence me most. They are all so different that no single way can be correct for every one of them.

[sueblue]

I do agree the horses are the professors!! especially if they have good training!

[Belle]

Even the ones without good training can treach us.  

[OlavS]

Oh, at last a simple question! I chose classical riding simply because I hate the fact that in modern dressage and SJ it's common to start injecting the horse's front legs by the age of 10-13. Whereas the Spanish Riding School horses reach their peak in their twenties. So this business of activating the hing legs and achieveing balance and all that must be seriously benefiting the horse.

I want my mare to have an active life without drugs for as long as I can, and classical/academic riding is the way to go. Not to mention that she has a natural ability to do P&P and airs.
On a personal level the sky is literally the limit within classical dressage, with airs above ground. You simply cannot ever become fully schooled, as people used to do things in the past that have been lost through time (like the Sarabande). I don't expect to reach capriole or levade on any horse, but still it shows that classical riding has enough challenges to keep any rider occupied for life.

As for *which* classical master I follow it's a bit of a mix, really. I do what my instructors do, although we discuss things all the time. They are well into the teachings of Gueriniere, Müeseler, Branderup, and especially Neindorf (and his decsription of Kreutz). Paul Belasik and Kottas are the main contemporary influences.

Sueblue, I disagree with you - I think that the best teachers are horses that have *not* been trained. They will not lie, or ignore *any* rider aid, be it right or wrong. Horses that have "good training" will often interpretet the rider's aids. So even if the aids are wrong (be it the actual aids or just the timing being off) they will often give you the "right" maneuver. But that's a different discussion I guess...

[pintopiaffe]

<!!! tangent alert!!!>

I hate the fact that in modern dressage and SJ it's common to start injecting the horse's front legs by the age of 10-13. Whereas the Spanish Riding School horses reach their peak in their twenties. So this business of activating the hing legs and achieveing balance and all that must be seriously benefiting the horse.

Ah, but over here, it's the dressage horses who get HIND legs injected starting at five, six and seven...  we've had this discussion before, and I think it boils down to both extravagant gaits before the horse is truly *strong* for them, and rolkur, draw reins, and front-to-back riding (which sometimes are the defense needed to ride the extravagant gaits!  :ouch:  )

</tangent>

I credit Michael Poulin for educating my eye, and reinforcing the 'pay your dues', 'blood, sweat and tears are par for the course, and not only expected, but necessary,'attitude I learned growing up.  Dressage must be learned, and not a privelege. The dedication of that man and his staff is stunning.  I believe he still has more STUDENTS who have also gone on to Olympics than any other trainer/teacher.  I think more than anyone he taught me about the discipline of dressage, (very much in the positive sense) and on those days when I just don't *feel* like riding, but do it anyway, it's due to him.  The respect for the horse as athlete was really instilled down in Fairfield too.  Wrapping legs PROPERLY, booting, *protecting* them... seeing to their welfare FIRST before that of the rider.  Basics which I already knew, yet given a new dimension of importance and reverence for the horse.

Two of my mentors are college coaches... one made children's hunters for years, and is also a breeding mentor who taught me SO much in far-too-short anual visits... the other showed me that upper levels were not out of reach for me by teaching me and letting me ride schoolmasters for the first time. (and saying, do this, do this, now put them together, and *voila* you were doing an upper level movement!)

Walter Zettl changed the direction of my riding, and probably the course of my breeding and life, literally.  He showed me there was another way.  A way of kindness and lightness--impeccably true to the Old Masters but such a different way than I had seen in my other exposures to dressage.  I watched my mentors ride two particularly hot Trakehner mares with him.  The one was older, and recovering from a broken shoulder or collarbone... The mare got softer, and more relaxed and lighter, and the two of them danced.  The second mare was an absolute firecracker, and I watched him work her through excercises and suddenly surprize her with pirouette... it wasn't "new" at all, though it was the first time she'd done it, it built so naturally on the exercises.

He sent me in search of the French School.

Where I met my current teacher, who is from Portugal and has a school with Luso schoolmasters.  I was one of his very early students when he first opened up.  And have stuck with him.  I'll admit (and I tell him!) I liked it better before he was quite so 'famous' and had such admirers and hangers' on... But his riding is absolute perfection to watch.  His seat is remarkable.  His kindness and fairness in training absolutely what I am seeking.  He will teach a beginner in their first lesson, and olympic contenders, with no regard to anything except their learning CORRECTLY.  

Jean-Claude Racinet has shaped my opinions and knowledge tremendously.  And truly, it is Racinet's Baucher I know of.  French is not a language I'll ever comprehend.  I realize that Racinet's translations are flavoured by his own style, but they are tremendous for me.

Oliveira is, I'm a bit ashamed to admit, more 'scripture' for me than the bible some days.     I remeber crying when I found out he was not still alive because his "Equestrian Art" so moved me and tickled my psyche.  Even just a week or two ago, Bettina Drummond's (old) article hit a few nerves and got me thinking.  I'd pretty much sell my soul for a copy of "Classical Principles of the Art of Training Horses."  
 

[paulam]

<!!! tangent alert!!!>

I hate the fact that in modern dressage and SJ it's common to start injecting the horse's front legs by the age of 10-13. Whereas the Spanish Riding School horses reach their peak in their twenties. So this business of activating the hing legs and achieveing balance and all that must be seriously benefiting the horse.

 

What? Injected!! with what :blink: and where. not to mention why.

I don't do and have zero aspirations to do any competive riding. at any level. So I've never heard the like! is this really what goes on?

who influenced me matters not a jot as i'm a happy buckle end hacker, but in my dream life, I've been influenced by anyone who puts the horse first and anyone who truly describes the art of riding.

That's when I'm reading in the bath. :lol: