Raising (horsemanship)

The raising initially constitutes the activity by which the human being teaches with the Cheval the behaviors (to advance, to stop, turn,…) that it wishes to ask him and the signals by which it asks them (voice, call of language, movements of the body, hands, the legs, of the spurs,…). Raising is also an Olympic discipline of the equestrian sports. He is often regarded as the discipline mother of the other equestrian disciplines. Indeed, no other discipline is possible without passing by the preliminary raising of the horse.

Raising is an art because the esthetic research of the movement takes there a dominating place, and principles such as lightness, relaxation, the impulse, and the love are essential to the attack of “beautiful horsemanship”, in order to raise it on the level of Article.

History

The art of raising is found already among Greeks with Xénophon. In order to show the excellence of the training of raising, an equestrian art was invented to make it possible to emphasize the drawn up horse and the skill of its rider, in particular by the execution of figures, also called airs , whose difficulty of execution and sequence shows the degree of excellence of the couple formed by the horse and its rider.

Raising makes its first appearance with the Olympic Games of Stockholm in 1912 with the Saut of obstacles (CSO) and the complete contest (the CEC). These three disciplines constitute the traditional horsemanship what is called within the category of the equestrian Sports.

Raising in the modern competition

In competition, raising is used to test the quality of the communication between the horse and its rider.

The couple evolves/moves on a rectangular ground of 60 m out of 20 m and carries out a series of figures belonging to a program called taken again . This program can be imposed or free with music. The free program is called also free Kür or taken again in music (RLM).

The rider employs orders as discrete as possible in order to almost appear to communicate by telepathy with its mounting. Paradoxically, to the eyes of a public not informed, a good execution gives the impression which the discipline is easy. However, a good resumption in competition is only the result of years of intesive work.

The jury, composed of two to five judges, evaluates ease and fluidity in the movements of the couple. Each figure is noted of zero (figure not carried out) to ten (excellent execution). The jury allots also notes overall allowing to consider a certain number of parameters, depend on the technical level of the test, such as the precision of the execution, the tender of the horse, the quality of the paces, the impulse, the position of the rider, etc an artistic note is allotted during the free resumption in musique ; it takes account in particular of the harmony of the recovery, choreography and the music.

The total note is expressed as a percentage. An average of 65 with 70 % is an high note in national competition. Into international, the greatest tests are gained between 75 and 80 %, but of the riders can exceed 80 % in certain tests. The record in free recovery is of 87,85 %. It was established in 2006 by the Dutchwoman Anky van Grunsven with the horse Salinero with the international contest (CDI) of Hertogenbosch. In Grand Prix, the same riding one also holds the record with a note of 81,33 %. It is also the first riding one to have obtained more 90 % in artistic note.

Components

Figures of horse-gear

Paces

In horsemanship, the term “pace” indicates each various way of moving horse.

The paces are classified in three categories:

the natural paces : these are those that the horse carries out of instinct. The not, the trot and the gallop are the three typical natural paces.
the artificial paces : they are the paces acquired by raising.
the defective paces : these paces result from a pain or a misuse of the horse.

In raising, all the variations in the same pace are exploitable. The transitions in the pace are movements which require in this discipline a rigor without fault. These transitions consist in changing the movement in the same pace. Thus, the traditional lengthening of trot is included in the category of the “rising transitions in the pace” from trot.

Airs

A air is a figure of raising.

Shoulder in inside : exercise of two tracks in which the horse moves laterally, inflected nape of the neck with the tail. The horse moves towards with dimensions outside of the fold, glance carried towards the interior of the fold. It is carried out with the three paces. The shoulder in inside represents a limbering up exercise and aims to increase the engagement of posterior, cause a drop in the hips and to raise the forehand. It is “the aspirine and the stone of key of horsemanship” (Nuno Oliveira).
Croup in inside or head with the wall : this air is the reverse of the shoulder in inside. The shoulder in inside and the croup in inside (also called “hip in inside”) when they are carried out in alternation by inversion of the movement, constitute a exercise supporting the increase in the amplitude of the treads of the horse and its dexterity.
To support : exercise of two tracks in which the horse moves laterally and crosses its members. The forehand precedes the back-hand slightly, the neck and the head is inflected in the direction of the movement. To support is practiced in particular to reinforce the musculature, to soften the horse laterally, by of to increase its mobility and its availability and to mobilize the posterior ones.
Passage : majestic trot of a great slowness, strongly diagonalized and raised, at the very constant time of suspension, in which the horse projects itself with force, flexibility and grace of diagonal on the other as well to the top as forwards.
Piaffer : passage on the spot.
Not Spanish : not given rhythm, majestic and spectacular in which the horse raises and extends upwards and before successively each former, while advancing frankly and while preserving its to gather.
Croupade : refers to two different airs according to whether one refers to the denomination of the Cadre Noir of Saumur where the horse is propped up on its former, raises the croup and detaches an energetic kick by extending the rear limbs completely and by preserving its setting in hand or to the denomination introduced by Guérinière and such as it is applied by the Spanish School of Vienna where the horse leaps in the air and when he is with the horizontal one, gathers its posterior under its mass by putting them at the same height as the former ones. The croupade is regarded by much as being an air of a great beauty.
Levade : symbolize to gather it thorough with its maximum. The body of the horse forms an angle of forty-five degrees with the ground. The rise in the forehand of the horse to the top of forty-five degrees is called one to pull up. The horse puts itself quite simply upright, with a less inflection of the back-hand and then loses its to gather. To pull up is not the result of a long work gathered but a simple epic learned with the horse.

To note that the Spanish step, the croupade and the levade are not allowed in competition.

See also:

Video of an air of passage (1594 KB)
Video of a Spanish step (1030 KB)

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