Major D. Miguel de Lancastre e Tavora (Abrantes) was born in Portugal, son of the ninth Marquis and Marchioness of Abrantes. He started riding with Nuno Oliveira at eight years of age. He rode with Nuno until he was 18, at which time he attended the Military Academy. In his military career he completed the Course of Instructors and later the Course of Masters at the Portuguese Military and Civilian Riding Academy of Mafra (CMEFED) and competed in Eventing, Show Jumping and Dressage. He was later appointed as the Chief Instructor and the Director of the Equestrian Division of the Mafra School.
WISDOM FROM MIGUEL
The first time I found the phrase ‘coming away from the bit’ was when I read the English translation of the book The Gymnasium of the Horse by Steinbrecht. In this translation the phrase is “the horse pushes off from the reins” “moving away from the hand”, “pushes away from the bit”. I first read this book in French a long long time ago, and it is for sure the book that I more often consult, and that has the greatest influence on my riding, training and teaching. This book was one of the first books that Nuno Oliveira advised me to read. In the French translation, the German ‘Abstossen vom gebisz’ is explained as the giving of the jaw as the result of the pressure of the rider’s legs.
Nuno Oliveira
True Lightness – the perfect obedience of the horse at the slightest indications of the hand or the heels of the rider.”
This is well explained by the German trainer, Jo Hinnemann:
“I explain this reaction as being like the opposite of leaning. When we first start training and developing contact, the horse normally starts by leaning on the bit, which is perfectly understandable. With the training, and when the horse develops his balance by the correct activity and engagement from behind, as a result of our half halt, the horse that was leaning a bit on the bit, ceases to lean and to do that he needs to come away from the bit. He comes away from the bit when he relaxes his jaw and then the rider feels the contact ‘becomes even nicer and lighter and the driving and restraining aids are optimally communicated. The horse doesn’t display any resistance in his body.'” (The Simplicity of Dressage by Johann Hinnemann & Coby van Baalen)
Back to Miguel:
Interestingly this is the way that General L’Hotte explains the true lightness. To General L’Hotte lightness is ‘the perfect obedience of the horse at the slightest indications of the hand or the heels of the rider.’ This is only possible when the horse doesn’t display any resistance in his body.
Furthermore, to reinforce my idea that coming away from the bit is only possible when the horse has relaxed the jaw, we can read in the paragraph THE TROT, in the English translation of the book, The Principles of Riding published by the German National Equestrian Federation “the horse should be on the bit, champing it mildly, relaxing the lower jaw”. In the rules for dressage events of the FEI article 402: THE HALT, it says “while remaining on the bit and maintaining a light and soft contact with the rider’s hands, the horse may quietly champ the bit…which is one other symptom of relaxation of the lower jaw.”
To give an example of what happens when the horse comes away from the bit, suppose that the horse extends the trot across the diagonal and when the rider starts making the transition to the collected trot, he finds that the horse leans on the bit, immediately he half halts to re-establish the activity and the engagement, re-balancing the horse, and as a result of this half halt, the horse that was leaning on the bit, comes away from the bit, and becomes light in the rider’s hands. As we can see all true Masters of equitation say the same thing using different words and expressions.
A Tribute to Miguel from Christopher Hector
The last months before his death were dominated by his book. Miguel had already published it in Portuguese, but asked me to help with the English language version. In truth Miguel was remarkably articulate in a number of languages and his English was extremely good. Still I hope that I helped with some of the nuances, the fine details – seemingly Miguel approved, since every couple of weeks, he would ring me: Crees, I have added one little chapter to my book, do you have time to look at it? And of course, my answer was always, of course.
As I noted in the forward to the book, when I started reading it, I thought it just a bit too austere. It was I guess a bit like his teaching style – Miguel was not the most popular dressage trainer in Australia, even though he was, in my opinion, the best, but he did not suffer fools gladly, and nor did he flatter or deceive to make customers happy. But as with his teaching, if you took the time to sit and watch, the pattern would emerge, so with the book, it moves with a clarity and relentless logic towards an equestrian philosophy that combines the best of the Iberian, French and German thinking.
There was for a long time, a simple-minded attempt to set the Romantic (French, Spanish, Portuguese) dressage tradition, against the demanding, forceful Germanic teachings. It was always nonsense, Miguel, like his teacher, Nuno Oliveira, was forever stressing the importance of that great theorist of modern dressage, Steinbrecht.
Central to Miguel’s philosophy is a clear awareness of the nature of the horse, and he stresses that a horse does not ‘love’ his work, but that it is the job of the rider to be aware of the horse’s physical and mental condition, so that the work he is asked to do, is not beyond his capabilities.
Once again Miguel explains this perfectly:
“The instinct of self-preservation makes the horse seek comfort. If the horse finds what we ask him to do difficult, this instinct will tell him not to do it, or to do it in a way that he finds easier. His way may not be the way we intend him to do it. Thus, training a horse is a matter of being able to make everything we ask him to do, easy. Only then will a horse be able to understand what we are asking of him. For this reason, understanding in equitation means becoming easy. We will only be able to achieve this by gradually developing the muscles, suppleness, flexibility and general athletic capability of the horse. This is one of the most important principles in equitation.”
Miguel’s book is available from www. XenophonPress.com
