Part Three of our Excellence in Equitation series
Littauer – The Thinker
Littauer enjoyed debating and would often offer controversial opinions and ideas. He wanted people to engage in the thought process. He was a great thinker who loved the horse and what was best for the horse. He strongly believed that the forward system of riding (that he was integral in developing) was superior to the high level of manage riding that was very popular in his time. This opinion was based in facts not just biases.
Littauer wanted to make his students think. His lessons and discussions were designed to stimulate deeper exploration into theories and reasoning. What we now know as the American System of Forward Riding is the result of the initial work done by Caprilli and Santini and the thoughts, research and reasoning of Litteaur. Wisdom shared by the many students of the system are part of the equitation lexicon. “Forward and straight, semi-loose reins, connect from the hind end without using reins.” These could be statements made by Paul Cronin, Jane Marshall Dillion, Joe Fargis, Kathy Kusner, Lendon Gray, Ann Kursinski, Melanie Smith, Bernie Traurig or George Morris just some of Littauer’s students.
Littauer had strong ideas when it came to developing a program of work for a horse. Elementary control (defined as quick and definite authority over the horse and characterized by extensive use of the voice, tapping legs and check and release rein aids) was imperative to all riding sessions. He advocated spending 40 minutes riding circles at walk, trot and canter and incorporating jumps into the work, all at the elementary level of control. This should be followed by a ten minute rest break and then five more minutes on a loose rein before going to the intermediate level of control with varying degrees of rein contact.
If you were riding a school horse you would be permitted to ride at the middle, intermediate level of control but you were not permitted to make any higher demands of your equine partner. Those with their own horses may be permitted to advance through the intermediate levels of control towards the advanced level of control if they had sufficient mastery of the lower levels.
All students were expected to easily list five things that they had accomplished and all were expected to ride off of their eye. Riding without stirrups was not as popular as it is now because the horses were lighter in type than today’s warmbloods and the riders rode outside of the arena a lot more than many people do today.
Next time Littauer – Influence on Higher Education