The Quest for Balance E-Book

Christoph Ackermann

• Herausgeber: Crystal Verlag
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 137

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

In harmony and balance with the horse – this is every rider's dream. Physical and mental balance are the fundamental prerequisites for a sound partnership of animal and human on any equestrian level. There is, however, also the opposite: Why do we see so many beautiless images of animals in Rollkur and with unclean gaits? Voices criticizing today's equestrian sport and training methods geared toward quick successes are getting increasingly loud. Is this criticism justifi ed? How can we turn the tide in the horse's favor? Let us start with ourselves! Christoph Ackermann explains how we can bring any horse – healthily and happily – to its respective top performance by schooling the correct balance, handling the horse with affection, and applying consistent, systematic training according to the Training Scale. Christoph Ackermann himself actively competes in equestrian sports. In this book, he presents a courageous and searingly honest critique of the established way the sport operates, which will give any horse lover food for thought.

Leseprobe

CHRISTOPH ACKERMANN

The Quest for Balance

… in the Spirit of Ethical Horsemanship

Disclaimer of Liability

The author and publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respects to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book. While the book is as accurate as the author can make it, there may be errors, omissions and inaccuracies.

Copyright © 2021 by Crystal Verlag, Wentorf

English Translation©2022 by Stefanie Reinhold

Cover and interior design: Johanna Böhm

Cover photo: Christoph Schaffa

Photos: Christoph Schaffa, Pferdemagazin info.de, Kirsten Fleiser, Rainer Dill

Illustrations: Renate Blanck

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photopcopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the copyright holder.

Printed in Germany

eISBN: 973-3-95847-324-9

Contents

Preface

A student‘s recollections

Introduction

Let us take the matter of Ethical Horsemanship seriously!

CHAPTER 1

Balance and Performance Ability: The Balanced Seat

Out of Balance – Trend riders and their role models Or: Relying on “tips and tricks” instead of listening

CHAPTER 2

The mental Balance of the horse

What does the term “Losgelassenheit” really mean?

What are the external indicators of suppleness?

Out of Balance – does the nomenclature still hold true?

A horse must be able to tolerate a more pronounced aid

CHAPTER 3

The Horizontal Equilibrium

How do we bring the horse‘s spine into the horizontal?

Which training route is most suitable for this purpose?

The correct forward in Balance

Balance and relative elevation

CHAPTER 4

The Vertical Equilibrium

Poll, mouth, and longitudinal bend

Maximum longitudinal bend

Bend and flexion

Permeating impulsion and throughness

CHAPTER 5

Out of Balance – all those pretty horses! Eyes wide open at the horse show

Judge, rider, and trainer or: Do ut des (I give so that you may give)

But they still do exist! Independent judges

Final Remark

Let us stay focused on what matters

Bibliography

The horse proud and powerful, the rider erect and relaxed: The myth-enshrouded statue of Marcus Aurelius on horseback in the Capitoline museums of Rome – Almost 2000 years of “The Art of Riding”

Nothing has as much power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.

Marcus Aurelius

Preface

A student‘s recollections

The address has not changed in all those many years: Egon von Neindorff, Nancystrasse 1, Karlsruhe. And there still is a big sign on the indoor riding arena: ”Academy for Rider and Horse”

Neindorff was my teacher, and later – over the course of three decades – he also inducted Christoph Ackermann into the Art of Riding. For this book, Christoph chose the title ”The Quest for Balance”. In that, he got to the heart of what we learned from Neindorff.

I will tell you a little anecdote about learning and teaching perfect Balance – and about how much joy one can derive from this work.

For an article in the ”Norddeutsche Zeitung” (German newspaper) published in September 1953, Ludwig Zeiner, retired rider at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, shares a story from his life:

It started in 1898 in the saddle of a bicycle. One of those newfangled ”safety bicycles” that were equipped with solid rubber wheels and quickly replaced the teetering high-wheel bicycles. In Schönbrunn Park in Vienna, 13-year-old cartwright’s son Ludwig gets on the bike and – after one hour – stands on the saddle without holding on. The fact that Chief Royal Stable Master Prince Liechtenstein watched him was one of the first grandiose coincidences of Zeiner’s life.

Ludwig’s sense of Balance impresses the Prince: A person with that much control over their body has the potential to become a good rider. Only two days later, the 13-year-old becomes a member of the Spanish Riding School, where Hans Meixner is Chief Rider. ”My teacher” writes Zeiner on the back of a photograph with a blue indelible pencil in sweeping handwriting.

With Meixner, whose perfect levades had been the subject of post cards since the beginning of the century, Zeiner spends the following years mostly learning the correct seat and in-hand work. Zeiner’s specialties: the famous ”Airs Above the Ground”. Once, during a levade, his stallion kept his front legs in the air for 14 seconds. For this, even Czar Nicholas II applauded him one day. At the Cavalry School of the German Wehrmacht in Berlin-Krampnitz, Zeiner showed a small Lipizzaner stallion named Pluto. This was during the weekly performances under Felix Bürkner. Zeiner writes: ”My Pluto did eight gorgeous courbettes on the long side in hand.” He even showed a Trakehner stallion in the outdoor arena of the cavalry school in a masterful capriole.

A person with that much control over their body has the potential to become a good rider.

”The retired rider at the Spanish Riding School, Mr. Ludwig Zeiner, was an unrivaled master of in-hand work” remembers retired Major Paul Stecken, who was Chief of the Westphalian Riding and Driving School in Münster, Germany, for 35 years.

For the student Zeiner, however, the first years of the 20th century were years of studying from the bottom up. After one year of cleaning stalls, grooming and feeding in the Riding School, he asked the famous British lion tamer Tate about the secret of his animal training. Tate explained: ”You must empathize with the animal’s emotions and guide them. No force, no violence!”.

All of his life, Zeiner heeded this advice. But how can one put this into practice? No, he did not take this secret to his grave, since he became a teacher himself. Before his death in 1960, he told experienced and aspiring riders and judges the story of his life and passed his knowledge on. He also wrote books to make a living. But he wrote nothing about the Art of Riding and Balance! Not a word. Fortunately, Egon von Neindorff was one of the students, whom Zeiner personally initiated into the secrets of the Art of Riding. ”Von Neindorff was the master of in-hand work…,” that is also a justifiably valid statement. And Neindorff learned these special skills from a rider at the Spanish Riding School, Ludwig Zeiner. Our teacher Neindorff – whom we called the ”Chief” – in turn made a serious effort to transfer these secrets of the Art of Riding, which very often concern the physical and emotional Balance of the horse, to us, his students.

I would like to share yet another anecdote on the topic of Balance with you: At the Hungarian Cavalry School in Örkenytábor (1922 – 1945), which was situated about 60 kilometers southwest of Budapest, one measured and tested the laws of Balance within the classical Art of Riding. Two large scales were facing one another. They were arranged on a surface the size of a box stall and on top: a horse and rider in the saddle. The horse stood with his forehand on the first scale and his hind limbs on the second. Standing on a circle around the scale: military and stud officers as well as veterinary officers with pencils and paper. The scale showed a weight distribution of 50/50 between the two surfaces. Officers pensively wrote and scratched the paper, studied the horse and watched the numbers on the two scales with eyes wide open. The next step was starting to piaffe the horse: Scale 1 (forehand) showed 48 % and scale 2 (hind end) showed 52 %. And this even though the horse must carry his own head and neck! This is how one was able to scientifically confirm the correctness of the dogmas of the classical Art of Riding 100 years ago.

Did you know that the sensory organ for your own equilibrium is located in your ear? This may be news to your ears! The horse is set up in exactly the same way. If – while performing the ‘mother of all gymnastic exercises for horses’, the shoulder-in – one ear is lower than the other, it means that either the rider or the horse is not in Balance. The horse tilts in the poll. It shows the riding instructor, the rider, judge, and trainer: ”I am getting stiff, I am losing my Balance,” means ‘classical Balanced riding’ is quickly done for.

It is a pity that most riders and judges are no longer able to recognize this. Do they, perhaps, need better glasses or another perspective? Open your eyes, read and study these serious words, which Christoph Ackermann writes about in the ”Quest for Balance”.

I cordially invite you to embark on this journey and quote our master and teacher Egon von Neindorff: ”Riding is done with your head!”

With equestrian greetings

Jan S. Maiburg,

Instructor for Riding & Driving (FN)

Riding is done with your head!

Egon von Neindorff

Introduction

Let us take the matter of Ethical Horsemanship seriously!

Achieving a concerted, energetic Balance situation makes the Art of Riding a very beautiful, but also a very difficult task, which can never be fully completed – meaning one or several human life spans would not suffice to master it perfectly. Furthermore, we do not learn art and science while we sleep and neither by complacency. It is true that some students come equipped with above-average talent. However, talent alone is not enough to learn how to ride well. Quite a few talents are left behind in their equestrian education by a rider with average talent – and that is no exception! Many special skills can indeed be learned. Only our own diligence, work and striving in continuous exercises and repetitions will lead us toward the kind of harmony that merges two opposing nervous systems of such different creatures as horse and human being for the purpose of creating successful unity.

My teacher Egon von Neindorff viewed the classical approach – which has, over the course of centuries, been proven effective as a successful, systematic training route that keeps horses healthy – as the only correct approach and termed it ”the cause”. I also agree with the validity of this statement 100 % and therefore will use the term the ”cause” throughout this text.

Up to a certain extent, for example up to the topic of contact in the training scale, anyone should be able to achieve this harmonious unity. To get there, we must persevere through a long haul and must give our best. A real, dedicated rider is able to do this! Many ”modern” riders, however, do not want to walk this strenuous path. Instead, we see them engaged in idle chatter and equipped with fashionable riding accessories, which are to show the world how significant those riders are, and which serve to highlight the gloss of their vain but ignorant rider performance.

In contrast, is it not true that when we look at our daily work environment, the business world or science, that people working in these settings spend eight to ten years or all their lives engaged in a learning process? And in the arts, one human life span does not suffice either, to approach perfection. Riding, in fact, is one of the hardest arts of all. Fact is, this is where two personalities come together. Nevertheless, there are a myriad of alleged riding experts, who claim to have amassed the same vast amount of knowledge in the shortest period of time, as a fully schooled rider could hope to acquire during his entire lifespan. One quickly then purchases the most expensive horses, which are expected to guarantee the anticipated success – no matter how they are ridden. If that was indeed how it works, all wealthy individuals would be able to easily purchase the qualities of a good rider. They only fool themselves, however, because the Art of Riding and correct handling of the horse are anything but easy!

We now need a kind of Renaissance of pure culture.

At the current moment, all eyes are on the forehand, especially on the neck and head position of the horse – quasi overlooking the rest of the animal. This – in my opinion – is rooted in the fact that today’s rider is seduced by an unfiltered flood of images and films and assume these to be correct, without using due diligence to question processes and their context. If we were to view the images and movements armed with more knowledge and in more detail, we would come to a more nuanced conclusion. The most suitable approach to improve the ability to judge what is presented, would be to assess the horse with regard to Balance and harmony.

When we speak of Balance, we speak of the physical process of balancing centrifugal forces (working from the inside out) and their centripetal force (the opposite direction, working from the outside in) under consideration of gravity. These opposing forces are only in Balance when they compensate one another. When this is the case, the normal force (perpendicular to gravity) that relates to the center of gravity of any body, pulls us deep into the saddle and therefore into the horse’s movement.

Christoph Ackermann on his successful horse Champus, beautifully drawn by Renate Blank. The core requirement for riders: To bring our horses into the correct Balance in all gaits and movements and to maintain this Balance.

What do I have to know to get there?

From the physical perspective, every body is in a specific position at any given time. Therefore, every body has an exact center of gravity, the position of which can be changed. The position of the center of gravity determines a body’s Balance. When a body is in motion, it continuously changes the position of its center of gravity in space and time in a linear fashion. This is called the line of gravity. To deliver the energy and propulsion required to make fine riding possible, the horse must be in a suitable Balanced state. However, riding involves not only one body, but two.

I chose the title for this book very intentionally – echoing Louis Seeger’s justifiably critical view. Seeger was one of the great and important master riders of the 19th century. In his book ”Mr. Baucher and His Arts – A Serious Word with Germany’s Riders” (1852), he decried riding methods that do not agree with the needs of the horse and inflict damage on the reputation of all Ethical Horsemanship.

In his books ”System of Horsemanship” and ”Mr. Baucher and His Methods”, Louis Seeger explains the important role of the Balance situation in the horse. Here he describes the horizontal Balance in great detail and why it plays a key position in the systematic Art of Riding. His student was Gustav Steinbrecht, whose knowledge strongly influenced the German ”Reitvorschrift” (H.d.V. 12 German Cavalry Manual on Training Horse & Rider). In that, he also directly influenced today’s Principles of Riding, published by the German Equestrian Federation (Fédération Équestre Nationale, FN). The second volume of these Guidelines names Louis Seeger as a divinely gifted Instructor and highlights one of his statements, which will hold true for all eternity: ”Always remember that forward movement is the soul of the Art of Riding and that the required impulsion originates in the hindquarters.” This also means that the hindquarters are the crucial starting point, when it comes to training the Balance of the horse.

In 1837, Ernst Friedrich Seidler highlights in his book Guidelines for Systematic Training of a War and Work Horse with the subtitle: under special consideration of young horses, whose body is not yet fully developed, that the rider’s first and foremost duty is to work on the Balance of the horse. He warns of the trend – which already existed in those times – of fooling the rider into the belief, that riding can be learned easily and effortlessly. He begins his deliberations by describing how young horses are started in a way that allows them to regain their natural Balance. In his book, he repeatedly highlights the topic of Balance and presupposes respective knowledge around the topic as fundamental.

And even earlier – around 1800 – Ludwig Hünersdorf already described in his book Instructions for the Most Natural and Easy Way to Train Horses