Driving or the Joy of the horse

Joy? Yes, even if, now, I travel by horse-drawn carriage only when I dream, I often "hear" a vivacious and isochronal trot and I "sea", closed eyes, a horse with pricked up its ears. The work of the driving horse is easy and the horse likes it very much. I am spoken here, and in my CD, about the light driving, with a four wheeled car, without a weight on the horse’s back. "While the rider (who now drives the horse) is observing the horse, he will be amazed by the back of the harnessed horse. The back is free and not crushed by an awkward rider. The horse’s back rises and falls freely and the joints of its legs also move without any inhibition." (Jean-Yves Le Guillou, L’équitation respiratoire et angulaire, Lavauzelle, Paris, 1991). That is still true with the « heavy », except in exceptional circumstances.

Sometimes I think about the work like a slave, in the mines, one thousand meters down, in the permanent darkness, of courageous horses, pulling wagons loaded with coal, sentenced to never "to come back up" toward the light. But this thought, filled with emotion, is fleeting, and I sea, almost always, an happy harnessed horse. And I find consolation, for the other thought, the dark one, because I know the miners adored their companion and they pampered him in order to make his life pleasant as far as possible.

I chase away this thought and I sea myself as a schoolboy again, when I was going to the elementary school "Anatole France", in Le Havre. Then, I admired the powerful heavy horses, when they joyfully trotted, drawing a wagon, loaded with the delivery man’s barrels of beer, with a disconcerting ease, in the racket of the tired with iron wheels. Then, I stopped, stared wide-eyed, dumbfounded by this sight, full of strength, ease, elegance … 

And when I think about my horseman’s past, I have wonderfully memories of driving. In Canada, my drives in the forest with my young lady, and, during winter, the silence of the sleigh, only broken sometimes by a strident sound, when a skate met with a small stone … The lively trot of my little horse, Champion, accompanied with the tinkling of the small bells …

An I am happy because, without any vanity, I am satisfied with my little book on driving, the title of witch being now, for the version CD, L’attelage ou la joie du cheval, in english "Driving or the Joy of the Horse" (it was, it is, the title, of the introductory words). Why ? Because I had written with one stroke of the pen a book that suits me, after seventeen years it still represents my driver’s thought and the simple and safety education described, still seems to me good. I am very happy, because, in riding, during more than twenty years, I have known the dissatisfaction and I have desperately searched for a greater welfare of the horse and a greater welfare of the rider on the horse. Only about ten years ago, I found, at last, the serenity with the final adjustment of the L’équitation par l’auto-posture du cheval "Riding by the self-posture of the horse".

Here I want to encourage the horse’s lovers to practice driving and to give them two non-set out and non-exploited possibilities, or so rarely!

• Interest to harness the young horse before to mount him.

• An unknown way for the driving: to save, gently, the very perturbed saddle horse.

•Interest to harness the young horse before to mount him

When you harness a young horse, you take advantage of the great alertness, of the great intellectual abilities, of the great capacity of analysis and memorization of a young living being. And without the danger of a premature mounted work, when the skeleton and tendons have not achieved their development. The light driving, with only one person in the carriage, in the prime of youth, doesn’t present any danger.

And the initiation into driving, begins with … a work in hand. And you know, this work in hand allows whether the apprenticeship of the exercises or their improving.

And when arrives the time to mount him, you have a horse not afraid by the saddle or the girth, he his accustomed to the harness. And, concerning the horse’s mental development, he his accustomed not to work, but to learn … Playing with his driver. And the driver will become with him a rider. And he already knows to walk, to trot, with the voice, to stop with the voice or with the hand, to move back … Although his work was light, he got strength and that permits to ovoid the quick exhaustion of the young horse when he is directly mounted.

And to have both, a saddle horse and a draft horse, is a source of great satisfaction and of tremendous pleasure.

An unknown way for the driving: to save, gently, the very perturbed saddle horse.

The horse is a mild, gentle, charming, sociable, affectionate animal. When a horse comes depressive and dangerous, the fault always lies with the man.

We have to save him, it’s worth it! I specify, he has a nervous breakdown and the fault doesn’t lies with him, he merits to be saved!

Testimonies?

I hold up as an example a very competent and very likeable driver, Mr Jean Dillée, who very often did this rehabilitation, author of Apprendre à mener, attelage à un et en paire (Prest Edit, Versailles, 1985) :

"In the same way, I took in hand a mare having the reputation to be non-mountable. I harnessed her a short while, without any problem, except a lack of confidence in the mouth: work with the long reins, harnessing alone and by pair. Mounted afterwards she was well-behaved, easy-going, perfectly balancing herself and understanding all asked requests. With her Dominique d’Esmée was champion of France (in "Dressage", information of JYLG): she was "Reims".

More, I can tell you about "Denis de Vauplain", exported, great winner in jumping; about "Condor", in three days event, about "Fariman", an Arabian purebred, he was training at Maison-Laffite, and selected for the Olympic Games of Mexico.

To this list, I add "Nigeria", several times abandoned by big names, and he was the best French horse in three days event, mounted by Daniel Chevalier. And "Uri", specialist of the refusal, he wined the "puissance" (test jumping) at Le Touquet with a jump of 2.26 meters. The next day, he wined the "Grand prix", mounted by André Chénu.

Finaly, I evoque the career of "Derby" (sir "Uriel"), very difficult to mount. He learned very well to be drived, used as teacher harnessed in pair during the winter when he was 3/4 years old … He covered himself in glory, mounted by Manuel Henry, jumping walls of more of two meters …