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"

Self carriage and responsibility

Self carriage is a good characteristic for a horse. But what does it mean? Wilhelm Müseler in ”Riding logic” (1973) describes it like this:
”By self-carriage [or self-collection] we mean the apparently automatic maintenance of the position which the rider has requested the horse to assume. The expression does not refer in any way to a particular degree of collection or a certain outer form. A horse which is properly put to the aids will, with progressive dressage, very soon arrive at this self-collection; it will get there all the sooner the more subtle the rider's aids and the more subtle his rein influences. The opposite of self-collection is the horse leaning heavily on the bit.”

A horse that leans on the bit is not in self-carriage since the horse, if he is leaning on the bit, does not carry his own head! As a rider, you should not have more than the weight of the reins in your hand, otherwise the horse is not carrying its own head.

But "self-carriage" can be about more than just the horse's posture. McGreevy and McLean, two scientists specialising in horses and the horse's welfare, say that self-carriage also means that the horse on his own continues with the behaviour you asked for. This applies to signals from both the hand and legs. Once you have asked the horse to move forward from the legs or hand then the signal should cease once the horse starts to move forward, and the horse should be left alone as long as the horse continues to move forward. The same applies if the horse should trot, canter, rein-back, perform shoulder-in, stop, go on a circle, stand still, piaffe and so on.

De la Guérinière (1731) called this the "descente de main" and "descente de jambe" in French. "Descente de main" is when the rider lowers his hand and opens his fingers so that the contact is lightened. The horse's job is to continue with whatever it was that he was asked to do. "Descente de jambe" is when the rider relaxes her legs and lets them hang like wet towels along the sides of the horse while the horse continues with whatever it was he was asked to do.

Ehrengranat (1836) writes about three degrees of “descent de main”. The first degree gives freedom for the horse's head, the second to the horse's neck and the third opens up for steps to be extended. The first degree of freedom means that contact between the rider's hand and the horse's mouth eases but nothing else happens. Ehrengranat continues "If the horse has followed the aid, it should cease, so that he [the horse] will be left to himself, for as long as the movements in their fullness still continue, no longer."

To me, self-carriage is to hand over responsibility to the horse to maintain speed, direction and posture. I should not have to hold the horse together or support him just in case he will not maintain speed, direction and posture. If and when the horse ceases to do whatever I have asked for, then and only then, should I remind him of what we were doing.

PS Thank you to Mark Stanton of Natural Horsemanship magazine for proof reading!

ISES 2010: "directed perception"

As Maria wrote last week, we both attended the International Society for Equine Science Conference (ISES) at the beginning of August. Sadly I'll have to agree with Maria about the impressions from the day at Strömsholm.

Some of the research presented was however very interesting. I will share with you the studies I found most interesting, but that will be for later. Now I will do something completely out of character for a Swede and first share with you the result of my study.

In my role as a master student in didactics, I had submitted an abstract and after review and approval from a scientific committee, I was invited to give an 10 min talk. The title of my abstract was “Learning to ride a horse – A study of concepts and thought styles in three textbooks from three centuries”.

I have read three books:
1)”School of Horsemanship” by F. R. De la Guérinière written in French 1733, translated to Swedish in 1828.
2)“Ridskolan eller ridläran” (“The riding school or the principles of riding”) by A. Ehrengranat (1836)
3)“The Principles of Riding (Complete Riding & Driving System)” by Miesner et al. Swedish translation from German in 2003.

In these books I've identified the concepts used for describing how to teach a beginner rider. I've seen these concepts as the result of the common thought style. A thought style can be explained as “directed perception”. What this mean is that we, you and I, don't see things simply by looking. We need a mental readiness to notice objects and processes. What this means in practical terms is that whatever your teacher talks about, this is what you will learn to notice. From that point of view, I've analysed the way that the teaching of the beginner rider was described in these three books.

Teaching a novice rider includes teaching the seat, the aids and equestrian tact. All these areas were included in all three books. No surprise there. What is interesting is how concepts used in these areas where explained.

In the 18th and 19th century literature, the focus for the seat is the position of the upper body. The placement of the rider's legs are said to be the result of correct posture and position of the upper body. In the 20th century literature the starting point is the placement of the rider’s legs.

Regarding the aids, the 18th and 19th century literature emphasises the rider's hand and states that this is the primary aid. The reason for this is that in all gaits the horse's head and shoulder come first. In the 20th century literature it is stressed that all aids should act together. The driving aids, here defined as the legs and the seat, are seen as more important than the hand. One reason for this is, according to the authors, that it is the nature of man to use the hands for all different kinds of purpose. Therefore the rider should focus on using the legs and seat instead

The most hands-on explanation of equestrian tact is presented in the 19th century literature. Here it is stressed that it is the rider's ability to register how the movements of the horse affect the rider's body which is the foundation for equestrian tact. The focus here is on the rider paying attention to what goes on in his or her own body,

In the 20th century textbook equestrian tact is described as “The ability to give aids at the right moment and with the correct interplay between the legs, seat and hands”. Here the focus is on the rider giving aids.

In the 19th century textbook it is said that the rider cannot receive information from the horse and give aids at the same time. I think this is the core difference between these two different thought styles. As a rider, are you foremost concerned with registration of movement (the movements in your body as a result of the movement from the horse), or on giving aids to the horse (using your own body to create impressions on the horse's body)?

My abstract is included in the conference proceedings (page 36), which you'll find it here >>