THE EQUESTRIAN WORLD
BY YVES CAZENEUVE
Designer name
ERIC LAFAYETTE
TEACHING THE BASICS AND FUNDAMENTALS IN JUMPING AND DRESSAGE
PROVIDING THE BEST CHOICES ON SADDLES, TACK & EQUESTRIAN TOOLS
FREE GREAT VIDEOS
ON JUMPING & DRESSAGE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE
In addition to many years of experience, I would like to share with you
some anecdotes which define my Jumping Instruction. Specific riding techniques
are enclosed in the book I wrote a few years ago but other experiences
I went through shaped my Instruction.
This book explains why Jumping
techniques are so specific,
lists the fundamentals elements
that have to be put together
in order to achieve efficiency
in Jumping. In addition
it describes the necessary techniques
a rider has to learn in order to enter
the word of Jumping.
A book written
by Yves Cazeneuve
I started riding
when I was ten years old following the principles of the extremely famous
French master at this time, : YVES BENOIT DE LA GIRONIERE. He was
not our instructor but the whole Riding school was following his principles.
For the first three months I was on a horse on a lunge line without stirrups
and that helped me acquire a good seat. A good seat is the absolute necessity
for becoming a decent rider. Without a good seat which gives you stability
you will not have the independence of aids, that means
that your hands and legs will not be able to take actions independently
of the horse movement thus making you an inefficient passenger.
I then began to do Jumping by going over a few lines of cavaletti
without reins
( hands behind my back) or stirrups. I did not know at this time that
I was acquiring very strong legs that would be a tremendous
asset in the future and that my hands had become very independent of the
Horse motion. But at this riding club the teaching was
limited to mid level Jumping techniques.
I then became a show Jumping rider with sometimes years of tremendous
success and sometimes years of perfect mediocrity.
I was riding following my instincts without really
having being instructed in the techniques of training a horse for Jumping.
Then a Lucky event happened to me. I met a very Famous Instructor
Chevalier Jean D' Orgeix who won an individual Silver
Medal at the Olympics in Paris and was the man who revived the French
Jumping team and led them as Chef d'equipe to a gold Medal at the Olympic
in Montreal,
He left his retirement and gave one of his first clinic when I was thirty
years old at my new Riding club in Paris. Clinic I attended with my horse.
It was an Epiphany.
All of a sudden everything made sense, there was no trial and error anymore.
He had analyzed and linked together what nobody had done before him: A
comprehensive Jumping instruction.
At this time he already had a set of wonderful books and Videos that I
watched over and over again. I followed him as a spectator and as
a groupie to many of his clinics.
This allowed me to see him in action with different horses and different
riders.
I am enormously grateful to him to have let me follow him around..
He inspired me too in trying to pass along my knowledge by writing a book.
He was also very big on Dressage and showed me
the tools that are common in Dressage and Jumping.
From that point I became obsessed in bringing in the less constraining
way horses and riders from the training level to mid level Dressage and
I will probably need another book to explain my vision of Dressage techniques for
simple classes.
As I was disatisfied with most Saddles I designed
a specific Yves Cazeneuve Saddle that was picked up and sold by Miller's
the largest American reseller of Equestrian products and was for many
years one of their most successful Saddles. As with all new experiences
I learnt a lot about the anatomy of the horse because designing and fitting
properly a Saddle for many different horses leads you to understand
many of the mechanics of the horse and particularly of the spine which
is huge and extremely important.
As
I was disatisfied with most Saddles
I designed a specific Yves Cazeneuve Saddle
that was picked up and sold by Miller's
the largest American reseller of Equestrian
products and was for many years one of
their most successful Saddles.
A Saddle designed by Yves Cazeneuve
As
with all new experiences I learnt a lot about the anatomy of the
horse because designing
and fitting properly a Saddle for many different horses leads
you to understand many of the mechanics of the horse and particularly
of the spine which is huge and extremely important.
Another true epiphany came later also by
shear luck.
The Vaulting coach at my Riding club was leaving
and the President asked me because I was already good at working horses
on hand if I could lunge the horse for the Vaulters while he was looking
for a Vaulting instructor. I gladly accepted and I went to a couple of
clinics and competition to understand the discipline.
We also had a wonderful lady who came once a week from her Vaulting club
to
teach us Vaulting. And she was absolutely instrumental in passing along
the Philosophy of Vaulting
In short. I had never been a Teacher before and I fell in love with teaching.
It is one of my true callings. I also fell in love with my 30 plus Vaulters
of all ages and stayed on for many years.
We went to many competitions and in France won everything including five
National French Championships. But the most important part is what I learned training the horse
on the lunge line while little acrobats jumped on him and did all sort
of fast and dynamic movements on him. You could only make the horse accept Vaulting if you were able
to gain his trust and to gain his trust you never never had the option
to hit him in order to discipline him.
Remember Vaulters jump on the horse and sometimes while doing a hard landing
they hit him involuntarily, a vaulting horse is so trusting that he never
react to an involuntary hit because the hit is never associated
with a punition. All Vaulters know that when they are a little
rough they have to reassure the horse by patting him and talking to him
to tell him that it is not a punishment.
With this philosophy where communication and gentleness are primordial
you literally can have horses jump through Hoops. Any of your horses will be scared to death if you attempted
only one tenth of what we were doing with our vaulting horse.
I have applied to all disciplines this philosophy and constantly praise
the people who introduced me to this philosophy.
Here are the two secrets I learned
The horse psychology
The horse is an animal that is constantly worried and whose only goal
is to please the boss. The boss is the leader of the herd and in this
case you.
A horse can become worried sick if he does not understand you
One exception are stallions, they will try to challenge you in ways that
can be dangerous to you. Only trained, experienced people should handle
stallions
Communication
A horse does not understand you if you do not truly try to understand
his body language and if you do not take the necessary actions to make
yourself understood by your horse.
In closing.
A violent action towards a horse is a sign of utter stupidity from a Trainer
or a rider.
Stallions may need stronger handling than all other horses. Learning the right techniques will allow you to achieve
very high levels in the discipline of your choice.
I was very fortunate to be exposed to two of the best Instructors in the
world and I am very committed to pass along this training as well
as some findings of my own and all the knowledge I have gathered
along the years.
About the videos below, it is very simple you will see that all
the best riders in the world use exectly the techniques I teach and that
are described in my book.
My mentor was already teaching these techniques
when none of the riders in the videos were born.
I started to teach these techniques when none of
these riders were competing.
My techniques as well as the techniques shown by
these Champions are the techniques adopted by all successful riders around
the world. They are the opposite of the George Morris American school
of riding that explained that you must start with the hunter techniques
then proceed to go into the Jumper field and that is why in the USA the
name Hunter-Jumper has been coined. There is no more misleading term that Hunter-Jumper and no more
absurd teaching that the teaching asking you to learn Hunter techniques
first then proceed into Jumper techniques
Hunter techiques are exactly the opposite
of Jumper techniques and terribly difficult to erase in a rider.
It is important that you notice in these videos
that the way the riders ride the last strides going to the fence is what
I teach:
Put your shoulder back, seat the last strides
to give yourself a stable platform, collect your horse to lighten his
front end, rock back the horse to put most of the weight of the horse
on his powerful hind legs, in addition in order to achieve a horse very
light on the front you will observe that the head and neck of the horse
are raised and the riders hands are relativeley high when they rebalances
their horses.
Enjoy the videos below and get the right techniques
Yves
World record 7.87 feet with Frank Schloothaak with
Leonardo, prior to that his competitors Eric Navet, Phillipaert and Otto
Becker attempting the world record
Only the best riders in the world attempt this high level Jumping
Meredith Beerbaum on Cavalo World Championship First woman to become Individual
World champion
Richard Spooner on Cristallo 2007 Best American rider, lives in Southern
California
Ludger Beerbaum on Couleur Rubin. More Olympic gold medals than any current
Jumping riders
Ludger Beerbaum on All inclusive the Best rider in the world.
Best DressageVideo ever Andreas Helgstrand on Blue Horse matine
Below are some of my students in 2008, after the super stars you saw be
kind to them,
most are beginners or advanced beginners. This video show my methods to
take beginners
to intermediate level of flat work as well as the first steps in Jumping.
