The aesthetic and existential revelation
It was in the arena of a prestigious equestrian show that I was able to feel a true existential emotion; an event took place, there, in front of me. When I speak of an event, I mean that I truly had a shock, a meeting between certain facts and my life, a moment of revelation.
Jean Gotri, a rider beyond compare, had an act that hit me like a tsunami. Performance was no longer a pretext in itself; it was a means. The horse was available, and one could read who he was. Even the music served the whole, and a genuine aesthetic emotion took hold of me.
The military craft that underpinned the practice of the school airs had disappeared; what was happening in front of me had everything of a living work of art. I was not standing before or opposite a sporting performance — I was carried into the scene. I completely changed my view of equestrian practice that day! The vibration of the horse, of his rider and of the music that made them beat as one produced an energy beyond description.
If the rigour of dressage movements is not common currency in equestrian shows, and if the rigour of competition dressage puts horses out… then I had to build another way. It was that day that Artistic Dressage was born, without my knowing it.
How can one dance on horseback with techniques that would not put the horse under stress?
Jean-Claude Barrey, an eminent scientific ethologist, wrote in his compendium of ethology in 1992 that the horse learns in only two cases: through play, and in relaxation.
How can one keep a horse energetic without putting him under pressure?
How can one make a horse move instantly, to follow a piece of music?
In fact: how can one become an integral part of the horse without exerting a domination that hampers and thwarts him?
Jean Gotri, a rider beyond compare, had an act that hit me like a tsunami. Performance was no longer a pretext in itself; it was a means. The horse was available, and one could read who he was. Even the music served the whole, and a genuine aesthetic emotion took hold of me.
The military craft that underpinned the practice of the school airs had disappeared; what was happening in front of me had everything of a living work of art. I was not standing before or opposite a sporting performance — I was carried into the scene. I completely changed my view of equestrian practice that day! The vibration of the horse, of his rider and of the music that made them beat as one produced an energy beyond description.
If the rigour of dressage movements is not common currency in equestrian shows, and if the rigour of competition dressage puts horses out… then I had to build another way. It was that day that Artistic Dressage was born, without my knowing it.
How can one dance on horseback with techniques that would not put the horse under stress?
Jean-Claude Barrey, an eminent scientific ethologist, wrote in his compendium of ethology in 1992 that the horse learns in only two cases: through play, and in relaxation.
How can one keep a horse energetic without putting him under pressure?
How can one make a horse move instantly, to follow a piece of music?
In fact: how can one become an integral part of the horse without exerting a domination that hampers and thwarts him?
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