What do you aspire to?
Training up a level? Getting started with dressage? Jumping a perfect course? The perfect piaffe or simply enjoying a wonderful hack through the woods with your horse?
No matter what your answer: It has all been done before. Not only that, it has been perfected!
Live, learn, and enjoy your horse!
Nowhere in this long history of human/equine partnership has there been a greater quest for knowledge and perfection than in the cavalry – this long lost institution of yesteryear horsemanship.
In this breeding ground for master riders and stellar mounts, equestrian thinkers and teachers penned down the experienced gathered in hundreds of years of living and learning all things horse.
The “German System” of riding is essentially the one we ride by today if we pursue an education or competition in dressage, show-jumping or eventing – all essentially cavalry riding disciplines.
Distorted knowledge destroys horses
We all know the children’s game ‘broken telephone’, where the original message arrives at the last recipient – utterly distorted and incorrect. In a game, that is much cause for amusement. The worse the distortion the better.
In horsemanship, distorted knowledge destroys horses and takes the joy out of riding. Whenever you see a laboring horse and rider, stiff, stilted, circus-like, exaggerated movement, heads behind the vertical, excessive foaming from the mouth, rolling eyes and gnashing teeth – this is the result of distorted knowledge.
Get the message in the bottle and prosper
There is the undiluted, clear, original message – all preserved neatly, thoroughly illustrated, a message from the past, a message in the bottle. The HDV12 German Cavalry Manual on the Training of Horse & Rider is the ultimate ‘How To’ guide for creating a willing and able mount and rider. It is also the original source of the Training Scale and basis for today’s The Principles of Riding: Basic Training for Horse and Rider
Get the undiluted truth. It is simply based on two things:
- Hundreds of years of experience in a purpose-driven, practical context (the cavalry) and
- deep compassion for the horse (comrade and partner, not sports equipment).
Welcome to the adventure of rediscovering the joy of riding and your horse as a willing and able equine partner! Welcome to the HDV12 German Cavalry Manual! I hope you enjoy reading the book, the material on this website and your horse, of course!
Stefanie Reinhold
“Lasting success can only be achieved if the hearts and souls of all instructors and riders are filled with the joy of riding and the love for the horse.” (HDV12 German Cavalry Manual)
