Nuno Oliveira talks about competition dressage

Nuno visited Australia in the 80’s, have the problems and discussions changed? This article appeared in The Horse Magazine in 1984.

Words Christopher Hector   Drawings Jean Louis Sauvat

Mehtre Nuno Oliveira’s visits to Australia became a magnet for riders from all over Australia, fascinated by Nuno’s ability to produce horses that are light, round and beautiful.

As always, Nuno was the consummate teacher. On each trip to Australia, the Mehtre has produced new nuances of technique, the product of a lifetime teaching both horses and riders.Nuno is also nothing if not a showman.

Nuno’s work provokes a good deal of controversy. There are those, like myself, who find him a superb teacher, and find his emphasis on lightness and collection an endless source of delight. There are others, who mutter darkly about circuses and classical principles.

Certainly Nuno’s work is very different in its emphasis from the modern German Training Scale. Instead of looking to collection as the icing on the cake at the end of a long process that has at its heart the horse going forward freely and boldly, Nuno works within an older tradition – one that owes its origins directly to the teachings of the Classical Masters, that looks primarily to collection.

Again the trouble with these sorts of generalisations is that they easily lead to simplification and misinterpretation. Often it seems, the followers tend to pick upon the most obvious of their teacher’s methods and fail to observe the subtleties that lie behind them.

In his book, Notes and Reminisences of a Portuguese Rider, Nuno makes his position clear: “Generally speaking, there is a tendency to break horses too quickly and too roughly, which results in irregularities of gait. How often does one see a sway back effect after the result of bad handling and riding?”

“In the Spanish School of Vienna, horses are brought in at three years old and are worked according to a methodical rational program. Elsewhere horses are often forced too soon to extend the trot, gesticulating with the front legs with no thought for the necessary thrusting forward of the hind legs, leading to a concave back. It is different, of course, with a horse who has a naturally good extension and stays well balanced, this one can be pushed earlier in this pace.”

“Normally speaking, a horse should be trained to remain well balanced first, concentrating on rounding his paces, and augmenting his hind legs’ action to compliment the forelegs’ paces. Any extension should not be achieved through the reins’ force, but rather by lowering and empowering the haunches. This is what the French called ‘The Ramener’ -putting the horse gently on the bit to correspond with the degree and length of pace.”

For all there has been much attention to Nuno’s emphasis on the lightness of the hands, it is a philosophy of total lightness. Again in Reminiscences: “Often the hands’ lightness is spoken of, but rarely the necessity for lightness in the legs. If the rider’s legs are contracted and pressed against the horse’s flanks, the horse will have no impulsion and, even worse than that, the rider’s legs will contradict the ability of the rider’s seat to push the horse forward.”

“Obviously, when jumping high obstacles or when following the horse’s movement with the upper torso the legs may be momentarily pressed against the girth, but afterwards, in normal circumstances, they should not be contracted. Coupled with all this, the rider’s body must remain erect in the saddle to ensure a good position. So many riders try to force themselves into a correct and more majestic position, but in reality the good seat is not always that which is the most pleasing to the eye of the beholder, but that which goes most easily and naturally with the horse’s movements, without force.”

Nuno’s emphasis is certainly not on the field of competitive dressage, for him, riding is an Art: “It is too bad that the desire to win in competition leads to the rider’s inattention to small details which can make perfection in the horse’s form. Some jumping riders will jump in any old way so long as the obstacle is passed without due attention to the form, in the same way, the dressage rider will demand an extension, regardless of what must be sacrificed in the horse’s body to achieve that end.”

“Equestrian art, however, is something else which involves complete harmony between horse and rider, and that makes the rider feel that there have been moments of beauty and greatness which makes a flight possible from all that is ordinary and mediocre. Art is the sublimation of heightened technique, and art is only possible if the person in question forgets vanity and searches only for beauty, and is enthusiastic and loving. It is akin to other arts and the rider may be subject to influences of artists in other domains.” (from Notes and Reminiscencesof a Portuguese Rider)

For all that there are those who will tell you sagely: “Go study the works of the Old Masters,” unless you happen to read French and in German there is not a lot for you to study. We are fortunate that Nuno, with the assistance of translators, like Phyllis Field, continues to produce volume after volume in English. Nuno is hard at work on yet another publication – Libretto for the Horseman, and the following extract is published with the permission from the Lusitano Fund and the editor, Phyllis Field.

Pirouettes: “It must be remembered that, as in the half pass, abuse of the inside rein on the pirouette, is the kiss of death. Pirouettes may be done ‘Levante’s way,’ as one of the Maestro’s oldest American students puts it – referring to the Luso-Arab which he trained to do pirouettes in the ancient style as well as in the modern fashion. This way is by doing travers at the canter, turning in half pass in a tight circle; but it needs a lot of seat to achieve, and the horse has to have a strong back and hocks.”

“It is simpler when the voltes at the canter are small and perfect, to return to the walk, begin a small shoulder-in to the left, at the walk, for a left pirouette, then switch to a left walk pirouette, back to the shoulder-in at the walk. Strike off immediately on that same lead, keeping the aids, and try to do a half pirouette using a lot of inside leg. It helps if you look towards the horse’s inside flank as it puts your weight in the correct place. Be careful not to bend the horse’s head and neck too much. The cadence must remain the same before, during and after the pirouette.”

Nuno is also at work on another book, to be published in Portuguese. In it he recounts: ‘A recent meeting of two old friends.’ “Last year, I returned to the Phillipines where my friend, the horse, Corsario, lives.”

“This horse had been sold to me by the Royal Stud at Alter in 1964 as an example of the best bred horse they had. He was a very temperamental horse whose influx of nervosity made him an ideal subject for my way of High School training.”

“The first time I saw Corsario, he had been ridden by four of my top students at that time, who said he was beautiful, but too difficult to handle due to his temperament.”

“I bought him, notwithstanding, and trained him to Beethoven’s music. I remember receiving a telephone call at Christmas time from some French friends, to whom I was abnormally affectionate due to the influence of the music and the horse’s sensitive work, which had been interrupted.”

“I was also accused of too much indulgence when he was seen in public, as I gave him the liberty of doing occasional little jumps of joy, or an occasional brave toss of his head, but I preferred this to perpetual contact. If he heard my voice from the box in the corner where I sit, he became transformed, and realizing this I could scarcely restrain my tears.”

“I sold him to his owner because she loved him, and sent a beautiful opera aria to him, and to me, one day. She bought some mares as well, and there are many of Corsario’s progeny in existence.”

“I rode him, twenty-three years old, the day of my arrival, feeling his happiness and his wish to be brilliant even at his age. I was extremely glad that I had not sold him to the U.S. actor who played ‘Tarzan’ and had offered me a huge price, but rather to lovely Mitus Sisson, who adores him still.”

“Without love, this horse of tremendous ability and strength could never have achieved the height of High School training that he did, having been ridden on occasion with a silk ribbon in his mouth in all High School movements.”

“He never would have been able to reveal the potency he did at twenty three years old, as indeed I saw and felt myself, without the extreme tact and lightness in the impulsion, during his training.” Perhaps that extract says it best of all. Nuno Oliveria is a man consumed with a great love for horses. More than that, a man who has made equestrian activity, a great Art… an art suffused with his love.

(First appeared in THM, June 1984)