{"id":67699,"date":"2024-03-22T14:30:45","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T03:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=67699"},"modified":"2025-02-21T17:04:38","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T06:04:38","slug":"nuno-oliveira-and-his-treasure-trove-of-equestrian-wisdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2024\/03\/nuno-oliveira-and-his-treasure-trove-of-equestrian-wisdom\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuno Oliveira, and his Treasure Trove of Equestrian Wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I was lucky enough to ride in a number of Nuno Oliveira\u2019s clinics in the 1980\u2019s. They were occasions of great drama, as several of the self-anointed Great Ladies of the dressage scene battled for Nuno\u2019s attention, but if you cut out the clatter, and listened hard, there was so much to learn. Just how much, I don\u2019t think I appreciated then, reading through two splendid publications from Xenophon press, Equestrian Art: The Collected Early Writings (1951 \u2013 1956) by Master Nuno Oliveira<\/em>, and its companion The Collected Later Works, <\/em>I realise just how much of the subtly and depth of the great man\u2019s thoughts I had missed. These books are jam-packed with insights and pearls of wisdom, it was hard not to keep marking points to discuss for this review.<\/h2>\n

Nuno is best known for his high school work, let\u2019s stand that on its head, and start with his advice for breaking in the young horse:<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the very first lesson, one should desire the colt to work as calmly as possible, with confidence and not in fear. It is a great error to give the first lesson using the snaffle bridle. The defenses that appear in this case are almost always motivated by the fear that the colt feels with the steel in his mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing better than a simple stable halter with some reins attached to the sides.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just a few pages on, we are in the rarified realms of In-hand work, once again, the advice is eminently sensible:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is necessary when working with the whip, is that you do not contract him (make him tense) with the touch of the whip, making him shrink back and putting him in a position that many people classify as rassembler, <\/em>but this is not what it is; the horse looks more like a cat when it stretches, making his back convex.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The book is also enriched by a wonderful collection of photos of Nuno working his horse. This is of<\/p>\n

Zarco, Portuguese stallion in half-pass at the walk to the left, after ten months training.<\/p>\n

Photo by Pedro Villalva from Haut\u00e9 Ecole<\/p>\n

It was not for nothing that Nuno worked to a soundtrack of opera, his approach was one that emphasized emotion:<\/p>\n

\u201cToday I will not go into the subject of training, but rather I will tell you the story of two or three horses that I have fallen in love with and that I will never forget! Those who are close to me, my most advanced students, will laugh, because they are used to hearing me talk about almost all the horses that I have ridden (and they are not few!) and I have fallen in love with all of them, always finding them to be extraordinary.\u00a0 This is not lack of sincerity, but passion for the formidable art of riding. But let\u2019s get to the stories\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

And for those gentle reader you will have to purchase the book.<\/em><\/p>\n

Nuno was one of the great masters of the flying change, it\u2019s wise to listen to him on the subject: \u201cTo understand and execute the flying changes well, it is necessary to have studied thoroughly and practiced the departures into canter from the walk and the halt. A flying change is a departure into canter made from the canter itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nuno Oliveira nearing the end of his career, helps a young Russian stallion find balance at the canter. Courtesy of Olms Verlag\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The gems keep flowing: \u201cWhat is worthwhile? To take more time, following rational and gentle processes and methods, in order to solve a problem, which at first sight, seems to be settled with the use of the spur or the rein, with more or less force. It is worth it, yes, to \u2018put on your slippers\u2019 as advised by Baucher, and try to ride all horses, without exception, using either the reins or the legs as gently as possible and with the least effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another, \u201cThe role of the aids in the handling of a well-trained horse can be summarized in the following formula: The rider\u2019s legs give the horse the impulsion, the hands regulate, via the reins, the way to expend that impulsion\u2026 The old master (Victor) Franconi, when visited one day by a royal prince who asked him to teach his son (a rider of great ease) to coordinate the action of the legs and the hand, replied that he had been riding for 50 years and that he did not always get good accordance of the aids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow often do horses respond badly to the rider\u2019s aids, because these aids are not in accordance, contradicting each other. The hand receives what the legs do, regulates, but never contradicts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Garoto demonstrates maximum impulsion in passage under Nuno Oliveira in the Portuguese countryside
\n1950 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Oliveira Archives<\/p>\n

I must confess that I never imagined Nuno pushing metal in a gym or out for a jog but he was still aware that the rider had a responsibility to prepare his or her body adequately for the task of riding. Talking of riding in Hitler\u2019s Germany:<\/p>\n

\u201cShortly before there had been an Olympics in which the German riders had performed badly in every discipline. Hitler called the person in charge of selecting the German teams to him and told him that by the next Olympics (1936) he had to prepare the German riders so that they would be among the best. This gentleman began to observe very carefully the riders he judged likely to compete and came to the conclusion that all or almost all sinned by excessive rigidity on horseback\u2026 The result was that in 1936 the Germans were ranked first in the equestrian events.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis gymnastics is indispensable in the education of a rider who wants to be worthy of the name, riding well, instead of being carried in any way on the back of this admirable quadruped.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does the next paragraph remind you of some of the sights you might observe in today\u2019s competition arena?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the piaffe, when the horse leans over his forehand, putting his forelegs rather far back, under his mass, it is because he is behind the bit and has no real impulsion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn these out-of-balance piaffes (with the forelegs set back on the ground behind the point of the chest) there is always a lack of cadence, lack of rhythm and suspension, and ensuing lateral deviations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nuno Oliveira shows Euclides at the International Horse Show of Geneva.
\n1967 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Photo Courtesy of Olms Verlag<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another gem:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou often hear that so-and-so is an extraordinary rider because he has very good hands. Rarely do you hear that someone is a splendid rider because he knows how to act with his legs very well. Both are of equal importance if you want to be worthy of being called a good rider\u2026 The rider\u2019s legs should be connected to the horse, but completely relaxed and lowered so that whenever they need to act or intervene, they act or intervene in a supple way for the horse to respond with suppleness, and not in a rigid and hard manner to which the horse invariably responds with rigidity, hardness or rejection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poor Nuno, his reputation suffered because he attracted some appalling riders, who rode in a parody of the great man\u2019s style and teachings, loudly proclaiming as they did so, that this was what they had learned from Nuno. Luckily we have these two new books to make us aware once again of how much knowledge and insight Nuno Oliveira had to offer. I will review the second volume that contains his later writings in another article, but for now, let\u2019s finish, as volume one as Nuno does, with these words:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe horse is man\u2019s noblest conquest. Academic and artistic equitation is a school in virtue for the horseman. Patience, firmness, humility and common sense are indispensable virtues for whoever desires to attain a high level of dressage in his horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the beauties of art resides in the technically perfect execution and the relaxed ease of the artist. In order to obtain the greatest brilliance in the execution of any exercise it is necessary that the horse works with the lightest aids.\u201d<\/p>\n

We should be grateful to Richard Williams of Xenophon Press, who has kept alive so many of the great equestrian books. On this occasion he has published Nuno\u2019s thoughts in two paperback volumes, but they are also available in collector\u2019s hard cover editions. Visit the Xenophon website and marvel at what is to be found\u2026 https:\/\/xenophonpress.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Diestro demonstrates serpentines in rein back at the Coliseu dos Recreios
\n1952 Oliveira Archives<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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