L'Art équestre

passions, expériences, témoignages, avis, commentaires.....cette rubrique est la votre...

nunooliveira_artequestre @ yahoo.fr

Bonjour, 

Merci pour votre intérêt et bravo pour votre blog, qui m'a perms de voir le fameux gala de la piste 1966 où le Maître montait le super Euclide que j'ai eu la chance de monter souvent à Genève. Un jour, que nous chevauchions ensemble, moi sur Maestoso et lui sur Euclide il me dit quelque chose comme ".. tu devrais venir chez moi au Portugal...". Moi je pensais  (grand ignorant de l'erreur que je commettais en déclinant son offre) finir mes études d'ingénieur. Je ne pensais pas que très vite  mon avenir me conduirait vers la profession équestre.... C'est peut-être mon seul regret. Mais depuis je me suis bien rattrapé... 

Meilleurs salutations. 

www.wagneur.ch

 Ashort extract from the introduction to “Reminiscences of a Portuguese Ecuyer” by Nuno Oliveira; which has influenced the ethos at Carreg Dressage.

Translated by Georges Dewez.      

I understood then that equitation as an art is comparable to music and dance. In performing itself it can only vanish, drawing its attraction from the very unlikelihood of this choreography for two, this Pas de Deux.

At its highest level the dialogue fuses into a single voice. The “ecyuer” must at the same time be choreographer and dancer, he upholds the grace, an incredible harmony, he bears within himself the rhythm, carries it and gives it to his partner, he reveals his partners own style while he himself fades away.

The horse has to become the artist. From there on, the ecyuer merely indicates and therein the tragedy lies.

Equestrian Art defined in such a way becomes a desperate art. Once the doors of the manege are closed, only an emotion remains, a lingering vision. 

  http://www.carregdressage.co.uk/nuno.htm

Bettina Drummond talks about

Mr. Nuno Oliveira and her life studying under the great master.

by Wendy Murdoch  

When a great horseman passes away, his insight and his personal style are forever lost to us. ……………………   Nuno Oliveira was an undisputed master of horsemanship. Choosing not to compete, he practiced his art for himself and his horses.

  Question: What made Mr. Oliveira a master?

Answer: Mr. Oliveira's understanding of horses gave him the acute ability to judge the psychological moment in the horse and take advantage of it - what some people call timing, but in good riders it is basically a natural happening. In great riders this moment has been sensed and recreated on purpose, taken advantage of. Also, he had a phenomenal seat. I think there are very few people who have a seat like his.

Question: What was Mr. Oliveira's background?

Answer: His basic training was from Maestro Miranda who was one of the last trainers of the Portuguese Royal School. Miranda's training could be traced back to Maralvaa, who brought French classical riding to Portugal from the school of Versailles at the time of le Guériniére. It literally came down from France through an unbroken line of trainers trained the Royal Family exclusively. These trainers taught other trainers. Eventually, the method became used by the Portuguese bullfighters and that is how it retains its tradition today.

Question: Why hasn't there been another "Mr. Oliveira"?

Answer: We have seen riders of equal ability and stature but he was the first to take the classical French root and graft it successfully with the Baucherism in this century. General L'Hotte put both methods together in the 19th century. But nobody has any pictures or videos and as the head of Samur, he didn't have the mission of disseminating Baucherism. Also, very few riders have the classical French formation, and the ones that do, because of their rigid mind set that the classical formation puts in, do not tend to dabble in Baucherism. Mr. Oliveira had the classical French formation and the open-mindedness to combine it with Baucher. That combination, along with his innate riding abilities, is something that happens very rarely. He is the only purely Latin trained rider that went off seriously into Baucherism fully committed to it and had the exactitude and knowledge of the classical training to back it up.  Question: So he did do a lot of studying and reading?

Answer: Absolutely. When it finally dawned on me that it wasn't just up-down, up-down I started reading a bit. Once I was quizzed in the United States if I had read Steinbrecht. I thought "German, how could I possibly read a German." I thought I would be contaminated reading a German book. Then when I went to Mr. Oliveira, I said "What you just did to disengage the horse forward in the shoulders was Steinbrecht." And he said "Of course." He quoted me the page number in the book. And I said, "Wait a minute, you are training me in the French system; what is this German stuff coming in?" I had this concern that I was going to start pulling on the reins and cranking on the horse's mouth if I do anything German. He looked at me as if I had completely lost my mind. And he said, "Steinbrecht is just Baucher on the other side of the Rhine. It is just put on a different muscle structure and a different equilibrium on a horse." Question: What quality is it that made his horses so spectacular?

Answer: Exuberance and lightness. To me it goes beyond impulsion and collection. Mr. Oliveira's horses never looked schooled. If you asked for a movement like passage, you always got it so they were incredibly well trained, but they never felt schooled in that they never assumed a neck position that they were expected to hold and could not move their neck a certain way.


Question: How did he achieve such lightness in his horses?

Answer: By having such control over his back and understanding of the horse's back that he could anticipate the horse's lack of equilibrium, redistribute it and then be able to focus all of his attention on breaking down the simple resistance's such as a short leg or a slow hock or a stiff neck bend. Independence of aids, basically.


Question: How did he use his back?

Answer: He said to me, "Use your back like an accordion." He used it, the lower pelvic area to bring the haunches down, the midriff to lift the front end up to the hand and the shoulders to overload the hocks or release the hocks, depending upon which way he used his back. So he used it in three parts and then he used it laterally to overload one side or the other to pivot the horse. That is a very Portuguese bullfighting style. He used his back diagonally to oppose a leg with an inside shoulder - the outside leg to the inside shoulder. Basically, he used his back like a clutch.

Question: Did he brace his back?

Answer: Mr. Oliveira's back was never braced. The one thing he always said to me was, "Never brace against the horse. " He would go into the motion of
the horse and redirect it. His back was like a clutch. He would ride the clutch and then ease it out in whatever direction he wanted. The clutch basically always functioned. He would use the spur's approach as an emergency power brake. The release of the hands was like riding the clutch against the accelerator, with the approach of the inside leg to incurve the horse, rock it back and collect it. The release of the inside leg and the approach of the outside leg deviates the course of the haunches to dominate the horse's direction. Basically, the seat ruled the whole package and the release of the leg and hand aids expressed the package.

Question: Why are there misconceptions about the use of Mr. Oliveira's back?

Answer: I think people saw him visually overload the horse's haunches with his shoulders and drive. He always spoke of bringing his belt towards his hands which was his way of tipping the pelvic bone underneath to drive the horse upward toward the hand. I think the difference is what you perceive visually. When you were on his horses and riding them you understood that there were minute releases and give in the rider's back. But because he was so well classically trained, he looked like an effigy so that when he brought his shoulders back I think people imagined that it was the classical version of the German driving seat with the lower back braced and it never was that. People who rode in a more competitive style always wondered why his shoulders moved forward, back and then sideways above the horse. It really disturbed them to see his shoulders literally accompany the horse's motion sideways rather than bring the horse back underneath him. But until you rode the horse, you wouldn't understand. He could do this in such small motions that I don't think people understood that the release was the power of the his back as well as the drive was a check of the shoulders. He often made me put my hand on his lower back. I could feel a pulsing outward motion of lower back and then lifting of the upper abdominals but you never saw him move! You never saw him move! It was the most unbelievable minute control; it was like breathing exercises. And it was like breathing to him, that is why he couldn't describe it. When he started to teach me it was the most frustrating experience of my life until I started asking the right questions.Question: How has Mr. Oliveira trained anyone to carry on his philosophy?

Answer: Philosophy? His philosophy was personal to him. His was a living example of his philosophy‚ he was the lesson. His technique, his way of riding, the people whom he has formed are Michel Henriquet, one of his oldest students and his son Jo“o who started off with him. Both of them trained during his classical and beginning Baucherist phase. Then a girl called Christine Farnir who had natural leg position was trained much more in the Baucher primier manner. She came right before me. Sue Oliveira, who married Mr. Oiler's younger son, trained in Belgium. A young Australian guy, Raymond Vanderdrift, who later on gave up riding, but who had a natural seat. I came before Raymond, after Christine, and overlapped with Sue. Those are the ones whom I call his pet students and who were formed very young and much more thoroughly than the ones who came after me. There were a number of other students who did not get trained up to that finished level. I kept going during those years where I felt I would never get anywhere with my riding particularly after his death. One of his students, Don Jose Athayde, came up to me during his funeral and said that Mr. Oliveira had taken him aside and said that Bettina understood something that he wanted to teach and he hadn't been able to do. I think that it is the philosophy of fluidity, not the rigidity, but the fluidity of his classical training following the horse's requirements with the training, that I understood. I can't do it all the time but I understand it and appreciate that. He was starving for someone who appreciated that. Everyone came to be amazed with the classical training, the roundness and lightness. But they were never interested in what he was interested in or where he was going. He was seeking something.


Question: Do you know what Mr. Oliveira was seeking?

Answer: I think like all artists, an expression of self that isn't selfish. I think because he stopped verbalizing it to himself, stopped being honest with himself, he lost the thread. He lost where he was going. But he never lost the desire to share with someone, which I find extraordinary in such a egocentric human being. He desperately wanted an audience. He wanted a private audience towards the end of his life. He wanted a really good horse and private students that would admire him. He never stopped riding, even when his body was giving out. Unfortunately, he could never become a coach. The only place to go when your body gives out is to be the teacher, the supportive coach. Why I thought he could do that for me when he couldn't do it for his own son, I don't know. But I had thought that it was going to evolve. I had to pick myself up when it didn't happen.


Question: What was he seeking from the horses?

Answer: It was a feel. In the moments he had it, the joy radiated from him and the horses loved it. The pride in the horses as well as the oomph that they put into that moment of unity and classical perfection was incredible. It was so much classical perfection and control that the horse looked like he was restored to the natural fluidity without a rider on his back. Things came out full circle. The classical background and training broke up the natural look of the horse. What Mr. Oliveira was seeking, the Zen ideal, was bringing the horse back to its natural state with as little interference or effort as possible. And he managed to get that more and more, faster and faster, with the horses more in tune with him. It is a way of focusing more and more and more.

  Question: But the expression was far more than a horse would do naturally?

Answer: Yes, by the expression I mean not the expression of the horse's body, I mean the expression of the horse's gaits and movement and the freedom of the horse's spine. You forgot that there was a rider on the back. It went beyond the stylization of the classical movements which sometimes look very unnatural to someone who is into a more sport way of riding. Mr. Oliveira combined the forwardness of a sport rider with the artistic piece. He could put the exuberance, the action, the release of the muscle structure, back into the horse. This was the seduction. When it looked free and natural that is when he liked it.


Question: Do you think he found what he was looking for?

Answer: No, I don't think so. That is why he was rather sad at the end of his life. He was a very God-fearing person. The only person who could put the fear of God in Mr. Oliveira was God himself. Mr. Oliveira sacrificed his dignity for personal pleasure. Ultimately he sacrificed everything, his relationships, for his art. Gradually as his body gave out, he came around. He said that the only important thing in his life was his grandchildren. He wanted to make his peace with his family. That is when he told me I had no right to question what he was doing with his horses. He compromised till the end of his life for one thing, for basically his family and God, his peace with God. It was his way of saying I have had my playing.


Question: So was his art his prayer to God?

Answer: His art was his song to God. That is why he told me to build my indoor arena like a cathedral. As a child I really perceived that he was happy seeing you on his horses being quietly exuberant. It is that joyful quiet like in a church. That is how I feel, it is a prayer to God, a song, a voice. That is why the opera. It was the voice. It is a way of saying "you gave me life I give you this back through art." Art, that is what it is, an intonation of how we feel towards God. He didn't talk about, he lived it. He was like the centaur. Riding was a full contact art like the martial arts. Full contact with the emotions, spirit and thoughts with the animal. And the animal was the relationship that understood, like the relationship with God. There was an assumption of reception of what he was broadcasting and back again. He was the consummate broadcaster. He needed the horses to absorb that and to teach him to listen and sit back. He wasn't a listener to people. I think his riding was his way of broadcasting out to God. That is the impression I got.

Question: The horses then, did they provide the justification?

Answer: The horses were the judge certainly. That is why he said to me, "When you get off your horse it is not the people who looked at you or the judge, nor have the right to judge. It is the horse that turns around and by his supple body and kind eye that is seeing the riding I gave it, as the one tribute I take as a student."He was mesmerized by what fascinating creatures horses were. It was that horses had the ability to try and meet his every demand and was he demanding. He appreciated every effort the horses made and expected them to make more. It was the same with his human students and very few humans will do that. I think that is why he particularly bonded with the children because they will do that. We never questioned, we did. We followed because we realized he had a vision. He did abuse people who did not have the physical or mental ability to go that far. When he balanced his psychological demands, he was fantastic. When he didn't, it was too much.   Question: Was it difficult working with him?

Answer: I think the hardest thing about studying with a great master is finding your own direction and so many times you realize that without the
master's hand behind you or their creative vision, you actually don't like what you are doing. It was through riding Junc, a horse Mr. Oliveira trained
that was given to me, and developing a friendship with him and an understanding of his equine quirks that made me suddenly realize that I love
horses. I love horses even more doing this type of training with them now, so I am going back to it. It is very exciting. That is when I wish that Mr.
Oliveira were there to see because I know he would say, "Yes." That is all that he would say when it was right, just "yes."


Question: Was he expressive as a teacher?

Answer: He used to get so excited when you got it right and when you got it without him saying anything. I used to ride his horses for an hour in
silence. I would ride them and direct the schooling. I had to analyze the resistances when I got on whether it was after he warmed them up or I warmed
them up. Towards the end of his relationship with me I did most of the warm-up. I had to direct it right. When I got it right he really got a kick
out of it. It was like "she understands finally!" He told me once that it was surprising to him how much interest he had in seeing a student actually
doing something with his horses. It usually just annoyed the hell out of him. The amount of times I had heard, "What did you do to my horse?" Like I
was doing it on purpose. "Don't pull on him, don't upset him. You are ruining my horse." Often times I would think, "I don't want to be up here
anyhow. I don't want to touch these reins."


Question: Was he demanding?

Answer: Yes. The work was exhilarating and exacting and hard physically and he just pushed and pushed. He would deliberately put you in fear situations. The minute you backed down was the minute you lost your mind facilities and that was worse than loosing your physical aids. For him it was that challenge. I think he tested me doubly hard because I was a woman. I know he did it to the other woman he trained before me. Then when I got smart with the riding, it was OK and the challenges were on a very subtle level. That is what taught me the quality of riding. It was extraordinary to be challenged on how subtle your aids could be. Not a question of whether you could passage or piaffer or get something right or make the horse look good. The question was could you feel the exact degree of the horse's nervous influx and respond to it while doing all these things. That was exhausting. I would come out absolutely drained from that kind of ride where I was standing still for half an hour doing piaffer in one spot or little passage backwards. I would come out dripping with sweat from the mental discipline. Then, because Mr. Oliveira was so earthy, he would take me and make Beef Baucher which consisted of taking a large knife and spearing a large piece of meat with garlic and grilling it. He would have me up half the night drinking brandy. Why I never said "no" I will not understand.


Question: Was it difficult living in the shadow of this man?
Answer: He considered me his spiritual daughter. We had this curious father/daughter relationship. I never considered myself as a student in his shadow as a teacher because I never perceived him as my teacher until later in life. I saw him as my master and I was his acolyte and formed by him. As that, I had the right to follow, not question. I saw him as an extra parental figure when he was in his happy Uncle Nuno attitude. Very fun and very sweet. I saw him in his angry rage, push everything away and commit professional suicide by pushing the wrong people away at the wrong time on purpose. He was sort of a maverick, a loner in that way.


Question: Why haven't you spoken about what you learned from Mr. Oliveira before now?

Answer: Nobody was interested expect for those few who showed up at my door. There has been a recent surge of interest in Mr. Oliveira lately which he predicted. He said that after his death he would be more popular than in his lifetime.


Question: Why is his popularity greater after his death?

Answer: He had a demanding personality. He backed himself into a corner and he did not take enough chances in front of the top riders that could have given him both critical feedback and enthusiastic support.


Question: How long has it taken you to understand Mr. Oliveira's work?

Answer: I think I always understood the direction. The "how" took me about six or seven years to understand the technique I was taught and it has taken me the last twenty years to understand what I felt. I am just beginning to put the three of them together. He told me it would take about that long. It took him 25 years he said. But of course he rode many more horses a day than I did and I ride more than the average person. I am down to 7 horses a day now. I used to ride 10 - 12.


Question: Can Mr. Oliveira's methods fit into modern dressage competition?

Answer: The methods, certainly they are already there because the methods he used are already being taught. The principles and the end result, I doubt seriously, he never really thought so. I had the pretension as a child in thinking so. But, I think they will certainly be appreciated by an educated eye. The judges will certainly like anything that rounds and lightens up a horse, gives it more impulsion and correctness. Could you recreate his end results under competitive circumstances? I certainly doubt it. I don't think it stands up to the performance anxiety and pressure. His techniques can help unload some of the strain on the horse's muscle structure. I strongly urge anybody in competition to study some of his techniques in flexing and bending a horse and strengthening a horse.


Question: What was the most important lesson you learned from Mr. Oliveira?

Answer: The way through problems, not around them.


Question: Do you think the average person can benefit from the teachings of Nuno Oliveira?

Answer: Definitely because his psychology was so sound and the view of an artist in a sport is always invaluable. After you have won a medal you might want to read Nuno Oliveira. Where else do you go from there?

http://www.eclectic-horseman.com/newsletter/BettinaInterview.php