From: tracy@scoraz.resp-sci.arizona.edu (Tracy Scheinkman)
Newsgroups: rec.equestrian
Subject: re: Andalusian + Arab <> Lipizzan
Date: 6 Jan 93 23:09:29 GMT
Organization: University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

In Article 10812 in rec.equestrian:
From: jd@rust.zso.dec.com (John D'Addamio)

>Actually, the significance of the 1729 date is that it is the year in
>which construction of the current riding hall was begun. If I remember
>correctly, construction was completed in 1735. This is the same hall
>that was threatened by the fire in the Hofburg palace in Vienna back in
>November. People frequently confuse the construction of the hall with the 
>founding of the school and its program. The current hall was originally
>called "Der Winterreitschule" (The Winter Riding School) as it was
>intended to give the Spanish Riding School a place to train during
>Vienna's snowy winters. To this day, the Spanish Riding School maintains
>remnants of that tradition. The riding hall is closed from late June
>until September. During the summer 'recess', the horses are moved  and 
>trained outdoors.

	Fascinating, thanks for giving all the great info.

>BTW, if your terminal puts an | character in the stud name, it's
>supposed to be a u with an umlaut over it....Apparently some terminals
>drop the high order bit and it comes out as | ....

	Yup, ours does that.

>>	My friend and I were discussing our horses personalities and
>>some amusing anecdotes the other day and discovered that when they balk
>>refusing to go forward for whatever reason and are urged on anyway 
>>both of our horses will rear -- not the wild kind of dangerous flailing
>>around type of rear, but rather a slow-motion 45 degree angle true LEVADE
>>that they then hold for several seconds before realizing that their
>>riders are laughing and their demonstration of irritation was not having 
>>the desired effect.

>This is a technicality but... If your horses are going up to 45 
>degrees, they are doing a true PESADE.  This is still remarkable but 
>slightly less difficult than a levade. If your horses are offering such
>movements voluntarily, they must be VERY talented animals! I envy you!
>Ours have offered piaffe as a 'disobedience' but never true airs!
>Here's an explanation of the differences between pesade and levade as 
>well as the basis for my comments.

	Thank you very much :-) .

>There are two closely related "airs above the ground" called the pesade 
>and the levade. Both require the horse to lift his forehand off the 
>ground with his forelegs folded under his chest while sitting in place 
>on well bent hind legs. Both are developed from the piaffe(trot in place). 
>In "The Complete Training of Horse and Rider," Col. Alois Podhajsky says 
>that the pesade requires a the horse to raise its body to an angle of 
>45 degrees with the ground. In the levade, the horse only raises its 
>body to 30 degrees. He says that the levade was introduced at the 
>beginning of the 20th century. 

	Fascinating, then I guess they are doing the pesade, although
it is hard to measure angles when you are sitting on the horse :-) .

>In "The Spanish Riding School," Podhajsky's successor Col. Hans Handler 
>says that the levade is more difficult to execute as it requires more 
>strength of the hindquarters and an even greater flexion in the joints 
>of the hindlegs.

>On the difference between the rear and the classical movements of
>pesade/levade, Podhajsky says "If the horse lifts himself higher from 
>the ground at an angle more than 45 degrees and does not bend his hind 
>legs, he does not perform any classical movement but simply rears up." 
>I would add that in most rears, the horse actually extends the joints 
>of the hindlegs and hyper-extends the spine(i.e. hollows its back).  
>In a levade or pesade, the horse must not only flex his hindlegs but 
>his spine(i.e. "round his/her back"). The rearing horse may also flail 
>its forelegs as a stallion might in a fight. The horse doing a levade 
>or pesade tucks them up like a careful showjumper.

>John

	VERY FASCINATING!  
	Cachet has definitely done the pesade, not a rear.  She never 
goes higher than 45 degrees (never feels out of control either) and she 
flexes her hind legs and rounds her back under me, I can feel the rounding 
and the tremendous strength she has through the saddle, and her legs are 
neatly tucked like when she is jumping, no flailing around at all.  Also she 
did it very slowly, almost in slow-motion, and deliberate.  That's why it 
wasn't scary, very surprising the first time she did that, but not scary.  
She seemed most frustrated that her physical demonstration did not have the 
desired affect, I just waited till she came down and asked her to move
forward again.  One time when she was particularly irritated she did the 
pesade at least 5 or 6 times in a row.  
	Now how to get her to do it when I ask her ... :-) 
	(Since she is still a Training level horse, I think I'll wait until 
we have more experience to try.  I wonder what she could do with a better
trained rider?)

	John, Thank you very much for all that great information.  I have an
idea, why don't you post descriptions of the classical airs for those of
us who maybe have heard the terms like capriole and courbette, etc., but
don't know the differences???  
	I think people would love to learn how to do the airs above the 
ground again like they used to teach, think how beautiful it would look to 
include such movements in a musical freestyle!

				Tracy and Bruce (beautiful man) and 
				Cachet (8 year old Arabian dressage mare)
				and Mithril (3 year old about-to-learn-
				what-it-is-like-to-be-a-working-horse
				Arabian filly) and The Cats
Newsgroups: rec.equestrian