That was a helpful synopsis. Thanks!
The general dichotomy between French and German schools, as well as where that comes from in terms of history and the differences between the selectively-bred, somewhat specialized horses each system is meant to help, are what I had gathered from many sources.
As someone with a sensitive, smart-as-a-whip, light breed horse, whose built just a tad downhill, it made sense to me to find someone who leaned toward the French way of training. The mare has done really well with it. She is quite burly and strong… and built most of that strength at the walk and a very “small” trot.
A couple of people have helped me, including one who (quietly) lists Cornille as one of her teachers. So I have dipped a toe into a version of this. In our discussions, she’ll admit to being gentler on a horse in terms of the kind of precise ride that puts a horse in a quite uphill posture (albeit at the walk) from the get-go. Cornille himself is harder on a horse when he rides it. But I suspect that he can feel a lot and just doesn’t allow for the small losses of balance that the rest of us do and which some of us don’t even feel for several strides.
But some bits of the philosophy the pro holds make some sense. One of these is a bit like the way people do (and ought to) approach Pilates: If you aren’t being very correct in your technique and engaging just the muscles you intended to, you are wasting your time. So for the person who wants a horse to build all of the core strength, a strong thoracic sling and back and neck that an upper level horse needs, there’s little point in allowing the horse to cruise around and not engage those postural muscles.
Add to that the fact that horses are just waiting to use up their legs, particularly the front set, and that makes the stakes higher. If you are grinding around, taking too much time to build the postural strength you want, you are wasting your horse’s body and very finite legs. This pro has rehabbed kissing spine cases, and that kind of horse adds another layer of “you don’t have time to waste” in that what Ballou calls the “horizontal balance” of the WB who is ridden into the bridle with his neck lower for longer, and asked/expected to put a whole lot of “push” into the bit.
I have not watched too much of Cornille’s lectures, demos or lessons. I did read a paper that he authored with some University of Georgia vets about the benefits of riding a horse with better (read: lifting the front end of the rib cage immediately, IIRC) for the horse with navicular syndrome precisely because that horse’s feet and lower legs can’t stand the compression of the navicular bone between the boney portions of the leg/foot and the flexors and suspensory apparatus. The idea was to make sure this horse wasn’t leaving his foot on the ground too long/deep under his body where the compression would be greater.
One thing I don’t love and won’t do that I see these very precise guys do with their emphasis on posture and work at the walk is kinda/sorta disregard whatever level of anxiety that kind of ride creates in a horse. I’m an old, old hunter princess and I want to ride a horse who is mentally comfortable in his work. That said, I think horses can learn to be quite focused and to tolerate the pressure of an exacting ride. I don’t mind the “good tension” of a horse deep in concentration and paying attention to his rider. But he’s got to feel “not overwhelmed” in that very high level discussion he’s having with his rider.
This means that I wouldn’t ride a green horse this way unless I had a really good relationship with him and I knew he could accept some pressure. I see why WBs really suck at accepting this style of ride. All of the French types I have read or met assume a level of being ahead ofr your leg that lots of lower-level WBs aren’t. And for the WB who has had been sent forward in the more German style, a Cornille ride would be terrifying or intensely frustrating. Even with the horse who has a great deal of mental maturity, I think you have to give them many breaks in a ride.
Also, as a hunter princess, I sure do stretch my horses. But! This kind of riding has made me very aware of the horse’s balance and that moment when the horse “drops its sternum” by relaxing one side of the thoracic sling on the way to relaxing both. That happens one step with a front foot before you feel it in your hand. So when I ask a horse to stretch down now, I can feel that loss of postural support in the front end and I’m not sure a stretch without the horse continuing to hold up the front end of his ribcage is worth having. For all those horses looking lovely after a good canter with their noses down around their knees, that’s great for the top line, I would assume, but did you also let the horse dump his weight onto his front legs? Can you feel even feel for that? I suspect that most horses can’t stretch that low and maintain that uphill posture; their neck going out and down has to be more modest because they aren’t strong enough to put their head down there without “falling” on the front two legs.
Oh, and I have seen one of the saddles Cornille (or some related saddle maker) sells. It’s no more of a rip-off than a Frenchie close contact saddle. The fit-n-finish is beautiful and the costs are similar. It’s not the only dressage saddle out there that has a forward balance point for the rider (which I love), but its seat is very open and that’s pretty unusual, even among the French and Italian saddles you could choose if you wanted to sit closer to the withers and were willing to accept a foam-flocked saddle.
I wouldn’t buy one of these because I don’t think they can fit the sausage horse I have and I’m not willing to bet $7K on that, no matter what the fitter promised me. But that’s not unique to this saddle or company.
and by the time I ran across JLC I’d picked up enough grounding in biomechanics and conformation elsewhere. I think JLC has imbibed some of the taste for abstraction and polemic that has always permeated French cultural theory and philosophy, and that can slide into obfuscation rather quickly. I did sit down and try to read his stuff several times whrn he came to my notice, but I had to conclude that he wasn’t coherent. And I had the confidence at that point to see where logic failed in any given text.
). I want to keep him sound mentally and physically for many years to come. I am fine if it takes longer to get there, but the result is excellent. Feeling small progress is ok for me. It is progress.