manolo mendez

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Manolo Mendez was the first Head Rider, and one of six founding members of the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art. Based in Jerez, Spain, the school is one of the four classical schools which also include the Cadre Noir in Saumur, the Spanish Riding School in Vienna and the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art in Lisbon. A master horseman with over forty years

of experience spanning classical dressage, doma vaquera and jumping, Manolo is dedicated to a soft, sympathetic and thorough training method which

prepares horses physically and psychologically for each stage of training from training to Grand Prix and Haute Ecole. For more information on Manolo

visit: www.manolomendezdressage.com.

ManoloMendez

The brown leaTher chaps I wear are over sevenTy-fIve years old. The carefully oIled, supple hIde was cuT, hand Tooled and sTITched TogeTher for my uncle before me and I have held Them dear for forTy-fIve years now. I am The only one who handles, cleans and folds Them, They are a modesT buT prIceless Treasure. They are also a remInder of where I came from over 30 years ago, and of a way of rIdIng and TraInIng horses, of undersTandIng horses, ThaT I was born InTo, and use every day, In one form or anoTher.

Spain has a rich and long tradition of working equitation: classical and country dressage used to manage vast herds of sheep, cattle and bulls.

The first lesson I learned was about rider balance.

On our farm, for many years we had sheep and cattle. Many a time, I accompanied my uncle on three and four day trips to the village markets where we sold them. We slept like cowboys, outside, our saddles for pillows, wrapped in our serapes. We herded our sheep and cows on horseback through brush, Pinsapo Spanish Fir, Almond, Olive, Poplar and Cork trees, and I learned to anticipate their actions and keep them together, dashing at full speed or slaloming between trees, sometimes jumping small dry arroyos (creeks) to bring back renegade sheep, calves or independent cows back to the path.

Learning instinctively how to move fluidly with my horse, to over take, spin around, bring back or sometimes separate cattle or sheep. Leaning forward into the speed, leaning sideways to avoid branches, turning back to situate myself, without even thinking about it as a riding education, I learned to stay “alive” in the saddle. I learned to place my body where it helped my horse best, to stay balanced in the saddle without pulling on the reins, clamping my legs or pushing my seat into the horse’s back whether I was sitting, standing, leaning or turning my body half way left or right. I rode to stay on, and help my horse succeed in doing the work I asked of him, as conservatively and effectively as he possibly could.

We were poor, our horses were essential to the working of our farm, it would have been unacceptable in my family to bring back a lame or exhausted horse to my mother, a gifted horsewoman.

It has never made sense to me that a rider should sit anchored into a horse, elbows glued to the sides, hands and legs fixed. Demanding that the horse comply to their balance, when a rider is perhaps 15-20% of a horse’s weight, and it is he, the horse, who does the majority of the work.

Today, I still ride in independent balance and I still adapt to the horse beneath me as he learns to carry himself and a rider on his

“Learning instinctively

how to move fluidly

with my horse“

Balance is Confidence: Lessons Learned From Working Equitation by Manolo Mendez with Caroline Larrouilh

Photo: Back then...Manolo on the white horse with Juan Cid in the seventies at an Acoso y Derribo competition. They came second that day. Sadly Juan has passed away.


back. As he learns to travel laterally or do changes, or pirouettes and more, I still strive to help my horse by placing my weight, sometimes in an exaggerated manner, where it helps him most.

As the horse understands better and better what is asked of him and develops the strength to deliver the work confidently, I return to a more traditional position though my seat is always alive.

On a young horse, I learned to compromise, not too expect too much. If I asked for a halt, I accepted it took a few steps until my horse could stop its momentum and stay in balance. As he became more balanced, he was able to stop sooner and sooner until he could stop when I asked. It takes time for a young or untrained horse to learn a new balance and the more we help him, the sooner he will succeed.

On a working horse, the riding’s first priority is always to help the horse, and so should it be on any horse, in any discipline.

At fourteen, I went to work for the Domecq family on their property in Andalusia. There, I learned to ride Rejoneo but also Doma a la Vaquera and Acoso y derribo alongside Álvaro Domecq Romero. Soon enough, I was training his horses for Doma a la

Vaquera and Rejoneo and had three or four horses to work with every day.

This kind of work requires that a horse knows how to do travers, shoulder-in, half pass, single and multiple pirouettes, flying change, piaffe, passage and Spanish walk. While all these movements are present in dressage, three things are different: First, as we carry a pole, we have the reins in one hand not two. Second, this work includes some speed not found in dressage, and third the repetition of the movements and the configuration of the figures we create are different.

For example, working with cattle or bulls, a rider and horse may have to spin three or four times in a series of tight pirouettes and move out at warp speed only to do a half-pass to the left, one to the right, do a flying change and find themselves doing several spins again only in the opposite direction.

By comparison, in dressage, the same movements feel as though they are happening in slow motion.

This is the second and most important lesson I learned from this work. The more balanced and able to carry himself at high speed or in-place a working horse is, the more he knows the rider will

MANOLOMENDEZ

Are you a Baroque Magazine subscriber interested in in-hand work? Take advantage of a special offer from

Manolo Mendez Dressage for our readers.

"In-Hand Lessons with Manolo Mendez, Volume I," is a six hour introduction to working in hand with horses of all breeds and disciplines. Designed to be practical and un-intimidating, Volume One follows the first five lessons of equestrian and biomechanics lecturer Jillian Kreinbring as she learns to shape, influence and enhance horses' postures and gaits with the help othe help of a cavesson and a bamboo.

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MANOLOMENDEZ

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In-hand

To read about in-hand work and Manolo's training philosophy, inquire and pre-order the DVD please visit

WWW.MANOLOMENDEZDRESSAGE.COM.

Photo: Developing a strong, supple horse means he can carry himself and the rider is free to use his body and hands as he needs whether it is to close a gate or volte underneath a garrocha pole.


not block him but assist him in his work, the more he will trust his rider. Beyond developing fit, supple, athletic horses this work taught me that there is an intimate relationship between confidence and balance. It is a lesson that applies to all horses, not just working equitation ones.

One of the most pleasurable things I found as young boy and then man riding working horses was that it truly is teamwork. In dressage, there is quite a bit of talk about harmony and partnership but I rarely see a horse that has any choice in the matter of how it is ridden.

Riding a working horse, failing to listen to him when you are in the middle of separating a cow or taking a group of bulls to a new pasture, may get you killed. A working horse not only has to be in independent balance to react and move as fast as lightning without being blocked or slowed down by the rider (who will not process data as quickly as a horse with his eyes on a cow), but it has to be trusted that it knows how to do its job.

You train the horse, you make him fit and balanced, you introduce him to his work gradually and safely and when he is ready and he is reporting to duty, when he has experience under his belt, then you have to say: “ I trust you. I will guide you but I will also listen to you, and sometimes, we will do it your way”. Because you are a pro. Because you carry me. Because you are doing the brunt of the work and you know how the earth feel beneath your feet, and how this cow feels to you today. You say, “I am your rider but sometimes, you know better” and that is true of all horses, not just working horses.

A good horseman should know the difference between his horse’s working instinct and disobedience wether he is riding dressage, garrocha, jumping, etc...

Like many a working horseman before me, I learned that while we ask for our horses trust, we should not forget to

give them ours - and as they have to deserve ours, so do we have to deserve theirs.

In truth, riding can be boiled down to this: If a rider and a horse are both independently balanced, they will have confidence in their ability to move together. If the rider makes helping his horse his first priority, his horse will give him his trust and have even greater confidence in him.

As the horse’s balance and confidence increase so will the quality of his work and so can the rider’s trust in his horse grow. When these conditions are in place, there are very few limits to what can be taught and experienced.

These are lessons that come naturally when we learn to ride in the fields and we have a job to do. When our horse is our only companion sometimes for entire days, and from his soundness, confidence and well being depends our livelihood and sometimes survival, we learn to really value his generosity. That is the best lesson of all, knowing how giving a horse is, if we give him the chance to be. a

“I trust you. I will guide you but I will also listen to you,“

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Photo: Carrying a heavy pole is not reason for a rider to not carry himself and sit lightly on his horse, this allows the horse in turn to rise up beneath the rider.

Photo: And sometimes, it is about just having fun and letting your horse have a say. Dinamico loves nothing more then to charge, and in this session, Manolo indulged him.

Photo: In working equitation, the horse sometimes has to move at warp speed and make very sharp turns or spin multiple times. The horse is responsible for his balance and the rider for his own. The rider leans into the movement, lightening his seat to free his horse’s back and help him collect and turn as much as possible.

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