Brief History of Horsemanship
The Seats of Equitation
Even today the measures of horsemanship have been confused. Let us take an opportunity to remember the history of the horse. The horse is an irreplacable companion in war and peace times. It took hundreds of years to conquer the art of horsemanship by many different races of peoples as well as the art of weaponry on horseback, thus beginning the relationship in the evolution of the schools of equitation in general. The offensive weapons of helmets and steel mesh body armour that covered the rider made it necessary to selet heavy horses that had the power to transport and carry the weight into battle. Lances, swords, and hammers were enormous weights which produced a powerful and slow equitation, as used by the knights. The saddles were very deep to hold the rider in position, stretched legs pushed the rider back into the saddle to help brace for impact, the shanks of the bits were a minimum half a metre long, spurs were about 20cm long, and leg work was very little. This school of equitation became arrogant, demanding, forceful of the horse and was also known as 'a la estradiota' or 'a la bastarda'. Today this style has no specific name but can be seen in use everywhere. It originated in Germany and spread all over Europe. In the eighth century the Arabs, owners of nearly all North Africa penetrated to Spain through Gilbralta, conquering the Iberian Peninsula. Their way of riding was guided by the faith of their religion. The Arab horses speed, endurance, lightness and hot bloodedness was superior to the knights slow heavier horses. They could achieve maximum movement in the saddle where the reins were always held in the left hand leaving the right hand free to use a weapon. They favoured fast movements such as side passes from the touch of the leg of the rider, the bits were 'ring bits' known today as shank snaffles, this combination of riding defined as 'al-furusiyya', later renamed by the Spaniards as 'a la gineta' or 'a la jineta'. Once these countries were conquered by the Arabs they decided quickly to adopt the new way of riding as it seemed to be superior in its techniques and applications. In the beginning of the 16th century European riding masters began to form a new style of equitation in Italy, applying the heavy way of riding but without the armour, the knights seat of rigidity, making the bits and saddles smaller which is a copy of jineta, to become known as 'escuela de la brida', literally translated as 'school of the bridle'. Thanks to the school of brida new masters started to increase their knowledge and discovered new exercises and movements of the horse by combining the two schools. Today it is known as 'classical'.
Without the philosophy of 'jineta' there will be no beauty in classical equitation and that is why a good rider must know the technologies of the two seats, then they can call themselves a rider. These schools of equitation are not generally known today due to the amount of sports and competitions producing horses in a hurry for quick results.
The truth of the 'jineta' and 'brida' schools of equitation is that they have been intertwined since the 8th century and today people are still confused by the so called new gurus focusing only on one element of horsemanship. Brida became famous in the last century because it is an easy style of riding to teach, by working mainly on direct pressure of the rein and using the simple snaffle by pulling right, left, back etc. The impatience of todays society make them keep looking for a new, faster and simpler way of training and an understanding of riding.
But they should look back on the past which is more appropiate, to discover the almost forgotten schools of equitation and horsemanship to find the answers that have already been discovered. In conclusion we always require specific information when we study the classical equitation and indeed the whole subject of classical can be a two edged knife unless there is a clear understanding of the role between the theory and the practice of riding. It is also essential for us to understand the history and evolution of the developments of the equipment so wrongly used today.