Methodology
Riding, and dressage in particular, rests on a sensory experience. Dressage as we understand it has an artistic dimension. That is to say that a fine performance makes a work, adds something to life. The philosophical work around art has always been dug into by the phenomenologists: they speak of lived experience without theoretical preconception, and take an interest in the meeting of bodies with the world.
Our starting point is the analysis of a phenomenological fact, of an existential experience: it brought to light the encounter with this artistic dimension of dressage, and that encouraged us to begin research.
We needed a reliable method to understand how to encourage those states of grace to emerge in our discipline.
We chose to conduct our enquiry as action research. That is, we followed step by step the stages of genuine academic research:
— establishing the facts on the ground,
— setting out our working hypotheses,
— conducting a meticulous survey of the scientific literature, in order finally to propose protocols for putting our hypotheses to the test.
We believe that if the horse is free to move, and if communication between the bodies of rider and horse is made easier, then the two together will be able to dance. The horses' bodies had to be freed so that sporting performance would serve an emotion rather than being an end in itself. It is therefore a new paradigm that we wish to see born in our relationship with dressage and with horses. And that is precisely what we have proved!
We had to understand the horse's body, and understand how the rider's body can stand in its way. That was our first field enquiry.
Then it was through our experience as trainers that we understood that the rider's body understands by itself, and we turned to the work of Varela and Moragues on embodied cognition. The body does indeed possess its own intelligence, and making it feel, sense and live something is far more effective than explaining it in words. From then on we put in place new tools to help riders.
Our starting point is the analysis of a phenomenological fact, of an existential experience: it brought to light the encounter with this artistic dimension of dressage, and that encouraged us to begin research.
We needed a reliable method to understand how to encourage those states of grace to emerge in our discipline.
We chose to conduct our enquiry as action research. That is, we followed step by step the stages of genuine academic research:
— establishing the facts on the ground,
— setting out our working hypotheses,
— conducting a meticulous survey of the scientific literature, in order finally to propose protocols for putting our hypotheses to the test.
We believe that if the horse is free to move, and if communication between the bodies of rider and horse is made easier, then the two together will be able to dance. The horses' bodies had to be freed so that sporting performance would serve an emotion rather than being an end in itself. It is therefore a new paradigm that we wish to see born in our relationship with dressage and with horses. And that is precisely what we have proved!
We had to understand the horse's body, and understand how the rider's body can stand in its way. That was our first field enquiry.
Then it was through our experience as trainers that we understood that the rider's body understands by itself, and we turned to the work of Varela and Moragues on embodied cognition. The body does indeed possess its own intelligence, and making it feel, sense and live something is far more effective than explaining it in words. From then on we put in place new tools to help riders.
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