Klas Adam Ehrengranat, Father of Swedish Equitation

I was moderately interested in history in school, but when I realized that every century have some relationship or other to horses and different stiles of riding my interest was stirred. So, what do you know about Sweden around the end of the 18th century?

I now know that our very own "Father of Swedish Equitation" was alive then. Klas Adam Ehrengranat (1751-1842) was a veterinarian and an officer in the cavalry. He studied horsemanship and equitation both in Sweden at Uppsala University, and abroad in Denmark and Prussia. During his career he was at one time head of Flyinge (a Swedish breeding, training and schooling facility that dates back to the 12th century and is still in operation today) and later the riding instructor to the royal family. Ehrengranat trained horses to the level of the airs above the ground and that is one reason he is know as the "Father of Swedish Equitation".

Ehrengranat wrote three books:
Hasledens byggnad, fel och fullkomligheter (1809)
The structure of the hock, incorrections and perfections

Om hästens rörelser i deras samband med ridkonsten (1818)
About the horses movements in connection to the art of riding

Ridskolan eller ridläran (1836)
School of riding or the art of riding

When Ehrengranat wrote the booklet ”About the horses movements in connection to the art of riding” he also constructed a wooden horse that has movable joints just like a real horse. With this he could show the horses posture for any given movement. This horse model is preserved even today.



The book "School of riding or the art of riding" (1836) is centered around the traning of both horse and rider all the way to the airs above the ground. This book can in rare cases be found in second-hand bookstore, or be studied at the Royal Library in Stockholm. I have read parts of this book. It is not easy to read since it contains some words not used in Swedish today. For instance the horse's legs are called “leggings" based on the English word “legs” (Swedish for legs would be “ben”), and gaits are called "allyrer" after the French word "allyr" (in Swedish this is called “gångarter” today). But for those that mange to decipher this, the book is a fascinating read. For example, Ehrengranat discusses what we today would call equestrain tact. Ehrengranat states that the most important skill a rider needs for equestrian tact is the ability to feel sensations from the horse. When you sit on the horse in a relaxed posture and the horse move in the different gaits, movements occur in your body and your joints. This is the sensations you recive from the horse. It is the rider's ability to perceive these sensations that Ehrengranat say is the basis for euestrian tact. A rider with good equestrain tact will be able to determine when to give and aid, and with what intensity.

Ehrengranat ends his book with a section he called "Some Truths", this is a short selection of them:

"Delay the goal until tomorrow, when the outcome of the battle is threatening to become adventurous, this is how punishment is avoided. In this there is mastery. Hit the horse anyone can.”

"All riding must begin with the horse's head”

"From the head through the spine and the centre of gravity the rider influence the horse legs, the more he perfects this, the more he gains control over the horse's hooves."

"The rider's hand is the hand of a virtuoso, whose tact is above any satisfactory description"