Originally, Ecole de Cavalerie was published in four parts in 1729-1731, and in a single volume in its best known edition in 1733. The theories in this book provide the basis for all modern equitation, and it is probably the most important work on the subject ever written. But only now has it been translated into English in its entirety.

When producing this work, the author sought to draw together equestrian knowledge passed down from masters of the sixteenth-century Italian school. While he certainly achieved his aim of distilling the knowledge of past generations into a more concise, logical form, it is the addition of his own ideas which makes School of Horsemanship such an exceptional work. Perhaps the best known of these is the shoulder-in, the exercise he invented by adapting ideas expounded by the Duke of Newcastle. This, however, is just one example of his capacity for innovation; in an age when for safety in battle a horse had to obey its rider, he understood that education is a more potent force than coercion; that attention to correctly fitting tack would prevent more resistances than harsh punishment would cure; and that horses' aptitudes varied according to conformation and temperament, so that better results could be achieved by treating them as individuals.

To these enlighten views can be added a great understand of all equestrian disciplines. The author was not only an exponent of high school work; his explanation of how to keep a horse balanced when galloping cross-country is just as valuable as his explanations of passage or pirouette. Moreover, these explanations, written over 250 years ago, remain highly relevant today.

Although the section on training is the best known, and the only part to have been translated previously, the first section is a fascinating and detailed treatise on the nature and conformation of horses, and also gives details of eighteenth-century tack, shoeing, and general horse care which are still illuminating. The section on veterinary medicine, written in an age when the dismissal of any link between astrology and medicine represented enlightened thinking, is of more historical interest, but even here - amongst the bizarre and even the barbaric - are to be found remedies which modern veterinary practitioners will recognize.

Whatever their discipline, whatever their interest, all horsemen should read this book, and will find in its pages a depth of knowledge and clarity of thought which are vital to the progress of modern horsemanship.

(hardcover, photos, illustrations, 322 pgs.)

Excerpt from the book:

Of the five senses which Nature has given to all animals, including Man, there are three which it is necessary to work with when training horses; they are, sight, hearing, and touch.

A horse is trained through sight when it is taught to approach objects which may cause it apprehension, for no animal is more susceptible than the horse to wariness of objects it has never before seen.

The horse is trained through hearing when it is made accustomed to the sound of arms, drums and other sounds of war; when it is made attentive and obedient to the click of the tongue, the sound of the switch, and at times to a soft voice, which a rider uses for comforting the horse, or strong tones which are used for reprimands.

The sense of touch, however, is the most necessary, for it is by this sense that a horse is taught to respond to the slightest movement of hand or leg, by cultivating its capacity for sensation in the mouth or on the sides, if these are lacking in that regard; or by maintaining that desirable characteristic if they are already in possession thereof.

To that end aids and chastisements are used: aids to anticipate the error a horse can make; chastisements to correct an error while a horse commits it; and since horses obey only as a result of fear of punishment, the aids are no more than a warning to the horse that it will be punished if it does not respond to their direction.