German Equestrian Federation Takes a Stance with Revision Blue Book

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2012 FN Book Launch Clinic

It's been in the making for years, but a couple of weeks ago, the German Federation finally introduced the revised version of its famous "blue book," the first and most important volume of "The Principles of Riding," at a clinic in Warendorf. Based on a cavalry teaching book that, incidentally, celebrated its 100th birthday in 2012, this is a volume that never gets old

: A hundred years ago, a soldier's life often depended on the reliability and health of his horse, so trust and longevity were the main goals when training and exercising a cavalry horse, and these still are the central values of the „Principles“ -- at least in theory.

So a team of horse experts set out to review the 1997 edition of the "Richtlinien für Reiten und Fahren" -- the only riding system world-wide that is officially endorsed by and distributed through a National Federation – in order to present this theory in an even more practical and readable way. Five hundred people traveled to Warendorf to witness the unveiling of this long-awaited book – and to take home some very clear directions.

"We stand by the classical training principles described in this book," said Thies Kaspareit, head of the FN department for Education and Science and father of the 2012 edition.

Co-author Martin Plewa then proceeded to give a more precise definition of this elusive phenomenon, classical riding: "It certainly has nothing to do with baroque costumes, as people often seem to assume. Classical riding is riding according to the nature of the horse. We need to respect our horses as a breed of flight animals, and as individual characters."

Plewa appealed to his audience to keep searching for knowledge. "The horse as a living being demands a lot of us, it requires that we never stop learning. This is what makes riding different from all other sports. We need to know about riding techniques and movements, but also about the best stable climate. We need to know about the instincts of our horses, whom we may never punish if they act on their flight impulse, but also about its anatomy. Good riding also means that a rider knows how a horse's sensory organs work and that he allows his horse to use them accordingly. The rider needs to adjust himself to the nature of the horse, not try to adjust the horse to human nature."

So, while the book still stands by its decades-old no-nonsense approach – and appearance -- it does strive to teach „a more holistic philosophy of correct riding“ now. Sport sciences have left their mark in the book, which does touch subjects from functional anatomy to training plans to mental training now, and even the „holy grail“ of the book, the Training Scale, was reviewed honestly and critically.

Helen Langehanenberg, poster child of the classical way, did a demonstration of her way to train horses Of course the six building blocks of the Scale have remained untouched. Yet the authors have approached them in a subtly different way. Where the 1997 edition started by describing what training a horse does NOT mean, i.e. mindless drill, it says now: „In order to train a horse harmoniously and successfully, it helps if the rider has a mental image of wanting to support his horse while it finds its balance.“

Negative descriptions and finger-pointing are replaced by a „user-friendly“ approach that sets a new tone – in the communication between the federation and its members, and hopefully in the communication between the riders and their horses.