3.Bibliography: V.S. Littauer, Field School
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Schooling Your Horse : a Simple Up-To-date Method of Schooling Hunters, Jumpers, and Hacks
by Vladimir S. Littauer
This is the first non-fiction book I read about horses, 55! years ago. I still chortle when I remember that the bookmobile librarian phoned my mother to ask permission to check the book to me because it was an ADULT book. I was captivated by the images of Barnaby Bright, The Captain himself astride. I could see Barnaby Bright’s muscles ripple, and feel the joy and power of unity in motion. I studied, made notes, practiced.
Littauer, a Russian cavalry officer, emigrated to the US and should be credited with founding the American system of training working and showring hunters and tournament jumpers, and riding in the forward seat. Dressage riders will find that all the elements of the Training Scale are addressed, without fanfare or cerebral machination. His texts, for which people who knew them credit his anthropologist wife, Mary, are just plain lucid. And his program for schooling unfolds understandably to the mind of the horse and for the progression of the horse’s physical development. Especially for Thoroughbreds, whose minds tend to learn faster than their bodies are able to develop. Anyone who brings horses through field school, events through novice level, or foxhunts will benefit from this book.
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Commonsense Horsemanship
by Vladimir S. Littauer
Published first in 1951, my copy is the 1963 Second Edition, hot off the presses when it arrived via the bookmobile and came to occupy my mind and strum my essence.
I had already read Schooling Your Horse, and was practicing on the neighbors ponies and horses. I had never taken a riding lesson. I handled and rode unsupervised, trained the ponies the way I trained the family G. Sheps. I loved, petted and groomed them, admonished them when they misbehaved, rewarded lavishly when they behaved well, especially when they offered new, desirable behavior. Safety was not an issue; I learned to keep my head and feet out of harm’s way. I loved the horses, they loved me. What could go wrong? Why worry?
But I was more than receptive to knowledgeable help. I was ravenously hungry for it, when along came this seven course meal. After describing the nature of the horse, and it’s motion, leading to why to sit as he prescribes, Littauer narrates how to sit a horse, thence to control it, and school it. Next to teach others to ride, and to teach others to school their own horses. Craft understood. Field School accomplished. Foundation of the horses’ futures laid.
Although there are photos, diagrams, and sketches, the Littauers’ words were and are worth a gazillion pictures. Every time I pluck Commonsense from my shelf, I find new passages of illumination.
Holding it now, I see that the very first note I made inside it’s cover refers to this passage:
(PAGE 218)”In order to be a horseman he must forget himself, identify himself with the horse, feel that it is he, himself who has changed leads at the canter or taken the jump; only then will there be that complete union and harmony which produces true art.”
1 responses to “3.Bibliography: V.S. Littauer, Field School”
Jackie Cochran
May 16th, 2015 at 12:21
I am so glad to see Vladimir Littauer getting the recognition he deserves. I first picked up “Common Sense Horsemanship” in 1965 and it has been my guiding light ever since. I compare every equitation book I read to it, and few of them measure up to Littauer’s clarity and logic.
Because of “Common Sense Horsemanship” I started riding Forward Seat when I got my first horse in 1970, and because of Littauer’s book I did not ruin my just gelded, green broke Anglo-Arab gelding even though I was an elementary level rider (I just had 4 years of trail riding, no lessons). Even though I now am severely handicapped with Multiple Sclerosis I still ride Forward Seat because it is the most secure seat, I still use Forward Control because with it the horses forgive me my mistakes (sudden hand and leg jerks, dropping a rein unexpectedly), and I use Forward Schooling to help the ruined horses I get to ride. I have gotten several of these horses to become better horses for other riders who are not handicapped. Because I ride Forward Seat my riding teacher is willing to put me up on horses that can be a challenge to ride since I know how not to irritate them.
Pretty good results for mostly learning riding and training from a book!