Post by horseguy on Nov 28, 2015 15:16:34 GMT
I have been rereading Reiner Klimke's 1966 book Cavaletti. It's been many years since I first read it, back then I used it like a manual, which it is intended to be. This book probably has had a dozen or more reprintings, and his daughter Ingrid, an Olympic eventer, has redone it with a DVD. I hear her version is very good. I have used the principles in his book to develop rhythm in horses, and to teach riders stability in their seat with gymnastic grids. He mentions in this book how it can be applied to horses and riders, but my initial use was strictly with horses.
Decades later I see now that it is essentially meant to be more of a horse fitness book than an agility or rhythm book. He credits Caprilli with inventing the Cavaletti (just now I see it is an Italian word... duh) to build the correct muscles for his Foreword Seat, which became the universal Military Seat. The method of jumping before Caprilli was a seated leaning back position with no attempt to release or help the horse maintain rhythm in a jump. The rider simply went along for the ride leaving it all to the horse.
Once Caprilli introduced the new Forward method, in which the rider got off the horses back and balanced in a more "invisible" way in terms of movement, thus freeing up or releasing the horse, agility and equilibrium of balance became more necessary. Riders had to become more active in the process of this expanded unity of motion between horse and rider. Horses were then free to be more athletic and use their bodies more elegantly, as opposed to primarily using brute strength in hauling a passenger over a jump. All this required more precise muscle development in horses. Caprilli realized this need and came up with the Cavaletti, which can be rotated to set different heights and set in lines with specific distance placements to stretch and build muscle.
Horse fitness has significant meaning to me at this point in my life. Having left the farm for the city and with horses now boarded, I have no students to trot and canter horses day after day over gymnastic grids. My horses look flabby now by comparison. I see it is time for me to do the work of fitness. Probably not a bad idea for an old man living in a city.
Decades later I see now that it is essentially meant to be more of a horse fitness book than an agility or rhythm book. He credits Caprilli with inventing the Cavaletti (just now I see it is an Italian word... duh) to build the correct muscles for his Foreword Seat, which became the universal Military Seat. The method of jumping before Caprilli was a seated leaning back position with no attempt to release or help the horse maintain rhythm in a jump. The rider simply went along for the ride leaving it all to the horse.
Once Caprilli introduced the new Forward method, in which the rider got off the horses back and balanced in a more "invisible" way in terms of movement, thus freeing up or releasing the horse, agility and equilibrium of balance became more necessary. Riders had to become more active in the process of this expanded unity of motion between horse and rider. Horses were then free to be more athletic and use their bodies more elegantly, as opposed to primarily using brute strength in hauling a passenger over a jump. All this required more precise muscle development in horses. Caprilli realized this need and came up with the Cavaletti, which can be rotated to set different heights and set in lines with specific distance placements to stretch and build muscle.
Horse fitness has significant meaning to me at this point in my life. Having left the farm for the city and with horses now boarded, I have no students to trot and canter horses day after day over gymnastic grids. My horses look flabby now by comparison. I see it is time for me to do the work of fitness. Probably not a bad idea for an old man living in a city.