Fort Riley Seat / Balanced Seat Method

There are many methods of riding. Most of the distinctions or differences between methods go back to national standards begun in a country's mounted cavalry. Our American tradition began with the First City Troop in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War. At that time we were part of England and therefore our riding and training was English. English cavalry training and riding instruction was strictly regimental, with standards typically handed down by word of mouth with few written manuals. With each cavalry regiment having its own unique take on the overall British national method, which evolved into the British Horse Society, Competition between regiments was a matter of pride in their method. This was considered a positive in the context of military preparedness. The problem was that it was a bit of a problem for a rider to switch regiments, given the training differences.

The U.S. Army continued the British regimental approach to teaching and training until after the Spanish American War. Then at the turn of the 20th century it became clear that what was to become World War One was approaching. The Army General Staff in Washington D.C. in their planning for oncoming war reevaluated all forms of military training, including the cavalry. It was decided that the continental European centralized method of training cavalry was superior to the old British regimental system and would be preferable for U.S. cavalrymen in the event of a war with Europe.

With no national cavalry method or manuals, we looked to our old ally France to supply needed training standards and manuals, which the readily gave to the U.S. Army. These manuals represented centuries of knowledge and training and were the equivalent of "Top Secret" at the time. America also had not centralized training facility from which to train using a universal national method. Fort Riley Kansas was selected due to its geographically central location. The French manuals were sent their and a Captain Campbell translated them into American English. This was the birth of the U.S. Army Mounted Service School that trained mounted cavalry, mounted artillery, mounted signal corps and other elements of the Army that employed horses and mules. Fort Riley had a vet school, farrier school and saddler's school along with the riding and training school. Eventually Fort Riley became only the school for cavalry. At that time, a young officer, Harry D. Chamberlin who had never ridden a horse until he attended the Academy at West Point and quickly became an expert rider, rewrote the original French Manuals and thus founded the authentically American Fort Riley Seat.


Col. Harry D. Chamberlin

The Fort Riley Seat was the envy of the equestrian world in international competition from the 1920's until the 1970's. During that time our national riding method influenced many country's riding methods. George Morris, a civilian rider who was 7 years old when World War II ended learned to ride in the post war period under the instruction of Gordon Wright, a Fort Riley instructor. Morris went on to win numerous international equestrian championships in the 1950's and 60's.

George Morris 1960 (note - no crest release)

America was changing during that post war era. Economic prosperity allowed many more people to take up horseback riding. Seeing this, Morris developed a new simplified riding method he called "Hunter Seat Equitation" and introduced it to America with his famous name in the 1970's. The rest is history, as they say. Morris's method, which is a series of shortcuts and edits of the Fort Riley Seat was met with enormous popularity. Long story short, from then on American international riding devolved to the point now where in the past several Olympics the U.S. has done no better than 5th in Eventing, once called "The Military" because of it cavalry origins.

I post this because it is how I was taught to ride in the 1950's. As a young man I watched the "new" Morris method being introduced and take hold. I watched, for example, the Hunter/Jumper crest release go from being identified by my instructor as a "mistake" to the newly approved method of releasing a horse over a jump. I dismissed Morris' method as a passing fad then. I was wrong.

Contemporary crest release

Here are some links to contemporary websites that still value and promote the traditional military standard of riding:

ushorsemanship.com

www.triplecreekfarmpa.com/History_of_Balanced_Seat.html

theridinginstructor.net

www.gilmorehorsemanship.com

glenshee.blogspot.com/2009/01/crest-release-and-how-it-has-ruined.html


Please feel free to add more sites. Absent from my list is the website of Society of the Military Horse. This is because it has more of a focus on cavalry equipment, uniforms and so on. The participants are generally not riders, but collectors, and in this regard it is a useful source.

I would really like to see more discussion of other traditional riding and training methods. I know Jimmy is involved in the Vaquero traditional method, for example. There are also very important distinctions between French and German dressage worth exploring here. My point is, there is more to riding than "I ride western" or "I ride English", which sadly is where a great many American rider's and instructor's consciousness resides.