In part 2 we looked at the serious damage saddles can do to a horse’s back, based on scientific evidence. Now we will move on to the more physiological ramifications of riding with a saddle.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

Is it possible to minimize uncomfortable (I do not even speak about painful) feelings of a horse? There is.

This is where Nevzorov Haute Ecole Master differs from the dilettante-sportsman who climbs up on a horse. He must be aware of what a horse feels when person is on his back. When the methods of painful control disappear and a man refuses to control by means of “pain hypnosis” in the form of metal and kilometers (miles) of straps – and everything is based on “relationship” – the necessity to know exactly what a horse is feeling becomes critical so as not to spoil and compromise these relations. For a sportsman, in view of his stupid ways of controlling the horse, this is unnecessary and absolutely uninteresting.

I repeat one more time: for the School seat, a principle understanding and clear knowledge of all myological features and physiological processes which take place in the back of a horse when a man is astride is a prerequisite. We can do nothing with the fact that a man on horseback causes a horse at least some discomfort.

Muscles have the right to have their say. Moreover, this voice of the horse is more authoritative than man’s vote. It’s an entity, and we have to heed it. And we must listen to this voice with all its distinctions, with all its variations. Our task is to know this problem and to try to minimize it.

If we have gradual AA (aggressive action) on tissues, which has as its end result a severe trauma, it would be natural to divide or categorize the way from completely sound tissues to traumatized tissues into several stages.

Let’s mark the first stage as lack of specific sensations, the second stage – discomfort, the third – pain, the fourth – trauma. We may not even think about causing trauma or even pain, our goal is not to cross the line from “lack of specific sensations” to simple discomfort.

For this a person ought to:

1. Know exactly the time allowed for us to be on horseback. The feeling of discomfort (caused by microtraumas to the tissues) doesn’t appear right away, this is confirmed by research.
2. Know the circumstances that signal the beginning of sensations of discomfort for a horse.
3. Know the circumstances that “minimize discomfort”, i.e. those that postpone the beginning of sensations of discomfort.
A simple analysis of “when I do what I do – what does she feel” is the shortest way to a horse’s heart and to a fantastic effectiveness in the education of a horse. But the question “What does she feel?” we should answer honestly. Extremely honestly. And from the honesty of this answer, horse lovers and sportsmen are running as if from the plague. They hide from even the simplest knowledge.

Even now they are making up a myriad of excuses like “I have a very expensive saddle, it can’t be uncomfortable”, “I have an extraordinary butt, I do special fitness exercises”, “I have the world’s best coach, special riding breeches, – and I’m fed up with your physiology and anatomy, get out of here, my horse loves when I ride him, he recognizes me”. All of this and similar balderdash in the style of “mucky girls”.

I’ll tell you directly: neither saddle price, nor features of butt construction and composition, nor breech cut, have any neutralizing or advantageous outcomes when it comes to physiology and anatomy.

” … if you simply cause a horse pain or discomfort, she won’t make friends with you.”
The more strictly the rider questions himself, the more full and precise his image of the physiological sensations that the horse experiences, the more honestly he can answer himself, and the more effective the educational process is. But, as I have already mentioned, in order to answer honestly you must understand. My apologies for my harsh attitude, but I am repeating again and again, that the understanding of the physiological sensations of a horse with all their nuances is vitally important. The person who doesn’t understand this “physiological grammar”, doesn’t understand a horse, doesn’t understand anything.

All that has to be done is to simply think, to break out of the stereotype and to think. Then many things will become possible. Investigations into the deep psychology of a horse, different kinds of “extra- sensory”, or shamanistic practices are not the foremost things. They are attractive and may be extremely necessary in the School work with a horse, but everything arises first from physiology and anatomy.

You can learn by heart the teachings of Pluvinel and Fiachi, you can string yourself from head to toe with Lakota amulets, you can learn all the charms of Falling Coyote or “Horse Encyclopedia”, but if you simply cause a horse pain or discomfort, she won’t make friends with you.

And especially in regards to questions of so-called “horseback riding”. This physiological knowledge which results in an ideal physiological feeling is important while working both “from the ground”, “in hand” and “at liberty”, but I remind you that our topic for today is riding.

SCHOOL SEAT

When a man appears on the back of a horse, he takes some sort of a position, and this position has its own features. This position is called a “seat”. It is believed that there are many different types of “seats”. Special seats for show-jumping, for trail riding, for bullfighting and so on and so forth.

To put it mildly, that’s not true. There are not many different types of seats; there are a large amount of perversions on the topic of “seat”. We won’t look at them, there are too many of them, and unfortunately all of them are factors that lead to “uncomfortable and then painful sensations” for the horse.

If you put any man on a horse without a saddle, you will always get approximately the same seat. It can vary a bit due to some anatomical peculiarities of the individual man or horse, but its principle will stay the same. It will be a very deep seat with absolutely straight leg, with the toes pulled down and out a bit with fixed thighs.

This seat will appear without any effort on the person’s part. The back of the horse itself, its form, the construction of the whole horse, will distribute a man’s body exactly like this, no other way.

This will be the most natural seat. This will be the rider’s position on a horse, which is naturally dictated by the features of the horse’s body, a man’s body and the necessity of a man to sit in comfortable balance on the horse.

Surprisingly, if we look at old engravings in the works of Pluvinel, Gaspar Sonie, Dupatie du Clamme, closely enough we’ll see an illustration of this seat.

Can you recognize it? This is the very “School seat” by its classical description. This is how a “school seat” was pictured in folios of the XVII-XVIII centuries, in the works of School masters. Although the riders in old engravings sit on saddles, they sit as if there are no saddles and they just take the natural position, which is taken by a man on a horse’s bare back. Moreover, Antoine de Pluvinel in his work gave a complete written description, especially bringing attention to the position of the thigh. However, we’ll return to the thighs a bit later. A School seat is possible either with a saddle or without it. Naturally, with very strong movements of a horse, the rider will respond by a light lifting of the knees and decline of the body angle, but the principle of “deepness” and naturalness won’t disappear.

(1) A “mucky girl” is Alexander Nevzorov’s term for girls of varying ages who work with horses without any basis of hippological or scientific knowledge about the horse. They smoke, drink, use slang, beat horses with whips and use the phenomenon of NCS (neurocranial shock) brought about by the use of bits to control the horse.

(2) An itching sensation appears a bit earlier than myological discomfort, but in the first stage it is practically unnoticeable.

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