"I have officially joined the ranks of people reading up on Baucher. In fact, last night, I finished the last of these books I purchased in one bundle, to better keep up with the Joneses.
It is unlikely that I will be buying any more.
The experience was an interesting one, whereby I found out just as much about myself, as I did about the intended subject. Namely, the study of one François Baucher (1796–1873): a controversial but influential 19th-century French horseman, riding master and trainer best known for his innovative approach to horsemanship.
Baucher’s teachings emphasized lightness, balance—got before any movement was commenced and not the other way around—along with the aim of a harmonious relationship between horse and rider.
His methods, probably best known by the principle "hands without legs, legs without hands" were considered divisive and controversial but have since been recognized as the foundation of modern classical dressage.
And so began a fracture within the study of dressage that has continued on for the past century and a half: Baucher’s system of lightness, aka French classical riding, versus the German school of riding the horse forward up into the bridle on contact, which is the root of modern competition dressage.
So, the stage was set for serious study in my little attic bedroom, before lights out.
I found out that I am an unschooled rider, in that my capacity to read, absorb, take apart, understand and retain the written words of so many equestrian scholars, is limited in the extreme. We’ll blame it on the fact that they are translations of French and Portuguese manuscripts into English, perhaps. Whatever the cause, I found these books to be dry as chalk.
I realize that most of my cohorts have found them endlessly fascinating, so the fault lies squarely with me and my limited reading comprehension.
Literally, it has taken me seven months and a bit to grind my way through three books, each of fewer than two hundred pages. Daily, on Facebook, I watch people having meaningful and intelligent conversations on these books and I’m just as in the dark as I was before I began. The lightbulb has not come on.
What I did discover, in the clearer moments when the authors began wrapping up their theories in the final chapters, was that there is so much parallel to the jaw flexions, the leg without hand, the release of the horse into the movement, rather than the driving forward, the use of the lateral work, including on the outside bend… that is found in the best of traditional western bridle horse training. This, I found to be a huge surprise.
Anyone who has been brought about in the largely oral teachings of the west coast cowhorse methodry will find a parallel between Baucher’s teachings and their own. The horses are taught to find relaxation in their jaw, first, hence the lateral flexions and the roller bits used. They are not ridden on constant leg pressure, or contact.
There are many traditional cowhorse exercises that encourage the lowering of the horse’s hind end through the folding of his joints which include reining back, backing circles on an outside and inside bend, the schooling turnaround, transitions into lead changes… and the lowering of the hand to encourage the softly draped rein through all manoeuvres.
Key to all of these, however, are the jaw flexions that become centre stage in what is now known as Baucher’s ‘second method’, for the western bridle horse enthusiast has also known that the free movement of the lower jaw is what encourages relaxation and athleticism in the horse.
This was the reason for the metallurgy in the copper roller set into the iron bit; not only do these metals bring about a reaction in the horse’s mouth with his saliva, the act of quietly rolling the ‘cricket’ keeps a horse from that dead, still jaw that more resembles a dog carrying a stick… which is what tends to happen in the de rigeur snaffle bit and firm noseband of modern dressage as a sport. Literally, this gear is required in the rules at the earliest levels.
Studying Baucher, I could see that the key aspect of aiming for one-handedness in one’s riding, which goes such a long way to further straightening one’s horse, was also on a parallel with the vaqueros.
In the end, it’s all very interesting, reading about this life and teaching of a gifted horseman. Comparing the ways of the past with what we think we so badly want in our horsemanship, today.
To be a Baucherist might mean that you are a studied rider, one who equally combines feeling with learnedness.
To follow the principles of release, separation and moderation of the aids to allow for the maximum amount of ‘lightness’ in the horse. To never participate in the holding or influencing of the horse’s innate balance through either the reins and legs and, in the words of author Jean-Claude Racinet:
'Balance creates movement… and not the other way around.'
Shown here, Linda having her first-ever sidesaddle lesson on my western bridle horse, Tee. One can instantly see that she is a beautifully balanced rider. To further develop the secure independence of her seat, we were going through a series of jog-to-lope-to-jog transitions and back again… with very interesting results in this horse!
Tee often works straight up in the spade bit, though for this lesson, he carried a low-ported bit with a roller. ‘Leg without hand; hand without leg…’ and always—as he has long-ago progressed from the bosal through the two-rein, to the bridle—he is ridden with the reins held comfortably high and in one hand.
He is spirited, he is proud, he is growing evermore beautiful, as he ages. Tee is now nineteen years old and probably healthier than he was, when I first met him, at age nine. It is never too late, my friends."
-Keystone Equine
