I did not get to ride this week, again it was too cold and I had a miserable cold.  So I drowned my sorrows again by thinking about horses.  I decided to explore controlled kicking.  I first ran into this movement when I read "The Compleat Horseman" by Gervase Markham (1614).  On page 67-68 he writes

"Next to advancing (rearing), you shall teach your Horse to jerk behind (kick), in this manner:  when at any time you have made him stop, you shall presently with your Rod give him a good jerk (hit) under the Belly near his flank, which though at first he apprehend not, yet by continual and constant use thereof you shall in the end bring him to jerk out his hinder Legs.  At the first doing whereof, you shall cherish him, for that is the only language by which he knoweth he doth your will.  Then having paused a little, make him do it again, increasing it every day and doubling his doings till he be so ready, that when you please to give the jerk (hit with the whip), he will then give the jerk (kick)."  Markham included this "jerking" kick in his program for riding before a Prince, "so as it may be perceived it is your will and not the Horse's malice."  (page 76).

 

The next time I read about a controlled kick was in  de la Gueriniere's "School of Horsemanship" (1733)  in a passage that had sort of puzzled me, about getting the horse to kick by command and under control of the horseman.  In all my earlier readings about the airs above the ground, namely those written about the practices of the Spanish Riding School, the only instance of the horse kicking out in an air above the ground was the capriole.  

 

From page 148 and 150 of "School of Horsemanship", in a discussion about training the horse between the pillars, 

     "Another point to observe is to make horses with heavy croups and stiff haunches kick in the pillars.  This action loosens their hocks, extends the haunches, makes the croup supple and puts all the muscles of this part into movement.  Not everybody is of the same opinion, and most people say that a horse should never be taught to kick out.  Experience shows, however, that a horse never made to kick has stiff haunches and drags them while moving.  Moreover, it is easy to break horses of kicking, which would be a fault if done out of malice.  When the haunches are supple enough, the horse should be chastised if it kicks without being commanded to do so."

  

De la Gueriniere also discusses a tool that horsemen used back then to make the horse kick out, the poincon (soft c), from page 324 "Poincon  A pointed stick or prod held by the rider and used to make the horse kick out in airs above the ground."   On page 85 he describes it-- 

     "The poincon is a wooden stick of seven to eight inches in length, at the tip of which there is an iron point.  One end is held in the hollow of the right hand and the point is applied to the croup of the horse, to cause it to execute a kick.  I do not approve at all of tis instrument, for besides the awkward position of the rider's arm when he applies the poincon, there can be two further disadvantages, viz. either that the point of the poincon, being too dull, has no effect, or, that beig too pointed it wounds the croup, makes it bloody, and leaves gashes.  I prefer the invention of M. de la Broue, which is like the shank of a spur, hollow, and fitted with a rowel.  This spur is attached to a stick of about two feet in length, so that it can be handled like a switch; and thus the rider guides his horse with greater grace and ease, and does not run the risk of causing injury to the croup."  And on page 188 he writes in his instruction for training the capriole, "When the poincon is used...it sould be applied to the middle of the croup when the forehand is about to return to the ground."  De la Gueniere does not describe a ridden kick though.

 

So I started to look for videos of this dressage kick.  I did not have any luck until I remembered that, in the second serious horse book I got given me, Bruno and Beatriz Premiani's "El Caballo", on page 97, there is a drawing of a horse doing a croupade, and kicking out as it landed on its front feet, with the title of Grupada.  So I got on You Tube again and typed in Croupade and I finally found what I was looking for.  The Cadre Noir of Saumur still does this dressage kick.  It is very interesting, the horse sort of half rears, launches itself up into the air, and kicks out as the front feet go down, with the highest part of the kick happening just as the front feet land.  This is different from the Capriole where the horse launches itself up into the air, kicks out with the hind legs, and then lands on all four feet at the same time.  Two above the ground kicks with different landings.  This is also different from the Spanish Riding School croupade, in which the horse jumps up with all four feet and sort of brings its hind feet forward under its belly and lands on all four feet at once without kicking out.   

 

Since Podhajsky says in his books that the Spanish Riding School system is based on de la Gueriniere's book I started wondering how they could ignore this controlled kick, except in the capriole, especially since de la Gueriniere considered it such a superior movement for suppling the haunches.  Then I got to thinking that ALL dressage riders might need an exercise that supples the haunches, and it occured to me that there is now another exercise that does the same thing, jumping over fences, especially high fences, in which the horse completely extends his hind legs at the take-off, and, over very high jumps, some horses kick out their hind legs as they are passing over the highest part of the jump.  Since jumping horses over fences became so much more athletic after the introduction of the Forward Jumping seat there was apparantly no longer any need to teach the horse to kick out at command.  This is a blessing for riders, I have ridden out a full, two barrel kick once (my dressage whip hit a little too far back), and I ended up on the horse's neck and I had to push myself back into the saddle.  None of the croupade kicks I saw on video looked any easier to ride.  It is much easier to ride out a jump over a fence than it is to ride out a kick!  It is also a lot less cruel to train a horse to jump, no whipping of the horse's flank or poking his croup with a sharp stick as described above to get him to kick out.

 

Since I come from hunt seat riding, where kicking horses are not liked, it never had occured to me that anyone might want to teach their horse to kick.  But now I know that some riders at least have been doing this for centuries if not longer.  This is the only above the ground movement in which the horse has all of its weight on its front legs for part of the movement.  In a way it makes sense, high school teaches the horse to get its weight on the hind legs for the rears (levade, pesade), and vertical leaps into the air ( SRS croupade, ballotade and capriole), why not school the horse also to put his whole weight on his front feet during a movement?  Horses kick out naturally just as much as they do the other dressage movements.  In fact my Paso Fino mare used to do this croupade kick when loose in the pasture, she would jump up vertically, land, and kick out high sometimes when she got super excited.  Luckily for me she never did it under saddle. 

 

I do not approve of just anybody teaching their horse to kick by command.  There are too many dangers of unfortunate accidents when the horse is ridden by an ignorant rider, or when the regular rider accidentally signals the horse.  The controlled kick, like the controlled rear, should only be done by educated riders, preferably under the supervision of an experienced instructor.  Luckily people finally learned to jump horses in an athletic manner, which is an exercise that is not dangerous for any people or horses just standing around.  This seems to do the same suppling of the haunches that the dressage kick does.  Plus jumping is a lot more fun!

 

Have a great ride.

 

Jackie Cochran

 

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Comment by jay hughes on March 15, 2011 at 4:24am
Thank you for your scholarship and the interesting lline of thought.
Comment by Kathleen K on February 24, 2011 at 3:45pm
Very interesting!

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