July 2002 - First editorial - Maurice Druon

Posted Sun, 09/10/2011 - 20:28

      Editorial  July 2002     
The first editorial written by Maurice Druon of the Academie Française

As much as my servant, my horse is my friend. I expect him to serve me; but my pleasure in riding him is only complete if we share an understanding, confidence, and mutual friendship.

While one might have thought that the horse, replaced by machines for transporting and hauling, would have disappeared from our world, young people today are more and more attracted to riding. For this we should rejoice, for the benefits they draw from it and will draw in future. It is worth noting that this is the only sport where man has as his partner a representative of the animal world. And I do mean partner, not adversary. In this way riding is a physical and mental connection with nature and a marvelous school of character.

I only consider my horse well trained when he desires to please me. This definition will perhaps seem strange to some. But my experience as an old horseman allows me to insist that a horse, if he has been properly schooled and is loved, repays in kind the one that rides him and seeks to please him.
Dogs are not alone in loving man and wanting to assist him; the horse does so as well, in a way that is different and less apparent and that must be discerned and encouraged.

I maintain that a horse can want to present himself in a lovely frame, take pleasure in hacking out, develop a passion for jumping; and I have even known horses that acquired a sense for the hunt and that actually hunted with you. But this collaboration, this understanding, this cooperation—so satisfying—is obtained neither through fear nor constraint. The essential word for training is lightness.
The horse’s mouth is delicate and sensitive flesh. Held with a rough hand it will become hardened, while with a light hand it will respond to the softest direction. The quality of a rider is not measured by the length of his spurs but by the silent dialog established between the man’s leg and his horse’s side. And the horse himself will become light.

Lightness has never meant weakness or slackness.
Lightness requires intelligence, vigilance, elegance.
Lightness is the centuries-old hallmark of the French School and is what lies behind its achievements and its glory. Lightness is not only important in dressage competition and the superb performances of the Cadre Noir. It is important at all levels of riding, and as riding increases in popularity, it is important for training the instructors for the growing number of riding academies.

I could therefore not be more pleased that an association, under the direction of horsemen of the highest prestige, has been created with the goal of preserving and promoting this great and beneficent tradition.
And I consider it an honor to have been invited to pronounce over the cradle of Allege-Ideal these few words of christening.