Everyone with even a passing knowledge of equestrian history has a vague idea who Grisone was – he was the trainer who used shrewish cats as a forward aid and advocated yelling at horses and then beating them harshly. The recently published The Italian Tradition of Equestrian Art (Xenophon Press) by Giovanni Battista Tomassini suggests that this early riding master might not be quite the monster that popular belief would have it…
No one knows exactly when Grisone was born or died, he was born towards the end of the Fifteenth Century and most likely his death occurred within the last decade of the Sixteenth Century
A member of a noble Neapolitan family, Grisone published the first modern equestrian treatise Ordini di cavalcare (Rules of Riding) in 1550. The work was a best seller, between 1550 and 1623 there were twenty printed Italian editions, fifteen French translations, six English, seven German and one in Spanish.
Prior to this publication, most equestrian works were about diseases and their remedies and “only incidentally provided generic information about the taming and training of the horse, without specific technical guidance for the riders. The Rules of Riding, instead, expressly refers to the art of training the horse ‘for the use of war’ and to the secrets to ‘correct’ his vices.” (page 85, The Italian Tradition of Equestrian Art by Giovanni Battista Tomassini, Xenophon Press, 2013).
Grisone grasped that fundamental of the equestrian art – rhythm – sadly it would seem a lesson not learnt by many of our FEI level riders who sacrifice purity of rhythm in the mad rush to teach the tricks. Grisone stressed the importance of rhythm: “And when he jumps, or stops, no matter what, you must accompany him in time, according to the movement that he will do, as he responds in time to your thoughts, and to every request; because it is necessary that your body, with the back, goes the right way and corresponds to him, with no less concordance than if it were music.” (ibid, page 86). Along with rhythm, Grisone had already grasped the distinguishing features of classical riding, collection and contact, and he “recommends riding the horse with a collected attitude of head and neck to ensure the correct contact with the mouth, the proper muscle tone of the back and the support of the hips.”
Even in the sixteenth century, the debate over head carriage was on, with Grisone opposing the ‘modern’ idea of letting the horse poke his nose out:
“And although some say that it will be more useful that, when riding, he (the horse) goes with a loose and free head, keeping his natural ferocity, without giving him any punishment nor any subjection; nevertheless we see clearly that thus, the Rider would be led by the horse… And be silent those modern people that said the contrary, because the more the horse goes with a loose head, and with nose out, the more he will go with an abandoned and weak back so that not only most of the time he will do the exercise in a bad manner, lying, wide, and with no order, but more likely he will lose his strength.”
Grisone’s ideal working arena was a little different to the modern sixty twenty:
“The training takes place initially on a plowed field, where other horses have marked a track. In this way – the author argues – the horse is induced to follow a correct path to avoid the trouble of walking on loose soil. With the progress of the training, a shallow ditch can be used, in order to force him to follow an even more rigorous path. Grisone codifies some basic training exercises, consisting of voltes in both directions, alternated with a straight line at the end of which the horse should stop to execute a half-turn and return to the same straight line.”
Grisone was strong on the use of the rider’s voice as an aid, perhaps leading to the ban on the voice in the modern test, since as described by Grisone, it would not be a pleasant spectacle: “when he uses some malice, like moving his head, or rearing or leaning on the bridle, proceeds in other errors, you will punish him with a horrible voice, and with a bitter cry, you will furiously say, the one that you will prefer between these words: Come on! Come on! O la! O la! Ah ah traitor! Ah villain! Turn! Turn! Stop! Stop! Come here! Come here! And in similar ways; nevertheless, so that the cry is terrible, say any word you want, in order to inspire terror and correction to the Horse and continue this as long as he continues in the disorder, and you will make the voice higher or lower, depending on whether more or less (respectively) will be the seriousness of the error. But when he has already been won over, you must immediately be silent, or change your voice with a pleasanter and lower tone, reassuring him and always touching with the right hand over the arch of his neck, and sometimes scratching him on his mane or one the withers, or softly saying this ‘oh, oh, oh, oh,’ and more or less in that you will understand if it is enough to reassure him.”
If the voice didn’t work, there was much much worse in store, like beating a restive horse with the spurs until he bleeds, and if the horrible voice didn’t get the horse going forward, then men on the ground should throw rocks at his hocks, or in one case to correct a restive horse ‘he tied a hedgehog to his tail, whose shrieks would terrify him to the point of finally pushing him forward’ and of course, the one that everyone remembers the feline option, ‘tie a cat as fierce as possible on to of a pole and to push the cat between the hind legs or on the horse’s croup to terrorize him with his claws.’
Frontispiece of the 1550 edition
It should be noted that Grisone also said that a ‘rider of good discipline will not ever use these things, because he will get the effect without them with his own virtue and with different ways.’
Talking about the use of severe bits, Grisone warns, “thinking to keep the horse’s head steady by changing many harsh and various bridles and to make him work better with more severe bits, and they don’t realize that with these bits they discourage or rather exacerbate his problems; it follows that by such mistakes it will never be possible for him to reach his perfection, but with good art and true discipline, and with a pleasant bridle, on which he can gently find his contact and ensure his mouth, in trot and canter, keeping the hand gentle and steady, he will become accomplished in all his goodness and he will comply with the will of the Rider who mounts him.”
If you are interested in the history of dressage you might like:
http://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2010/06/riding-as-art-a-history-of-dressage-part-one-antiquity/