Quolibet Z and Jean Luc Cornille

One of the instructors at the school was an older man named Pignot. Like every member of the Cadre Noir, Pignot had some experience in dressage and jumping. However his passion and his specialty was Steeple Chase. He had gained an extraordinary experience in the ability to reeducate horses with tendon and ligament issues. He was quite controversial. For instance, he was riding one of his steeple Chase horses in double bridle and jumping saddle. He was trotting the horse at a very rhythmic and slow cadence. It was like a jog that he sustained for a relatively long period of time.

I asked him about his training technique and he first responded defensively, works for me. Like every precursor, he was frustrated by resistance and skepticism. It took some negotiation skill to convince him that I was not critical but rather genuinely interested. The thought was basically the concept of cells' specialization. Cells adapt to stress and his work was creating moderated and regular stresses on the tendons and ligaments. The equestrian language is full of expressions that have or don't have scientific roots. Pignot was using the expression hardening the tendons.

Pignot's genius was to have furthered this basic concept to high efficacy level. Intuitively, the man had anticipated the concept of the horse's natural cadence. He comes close from modern understanding of the horse's vertebral column mechanism. He foresees the spring-like action of the front legs. He sensed the forelegs' capacity to produce upward propulsive force.

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The horse's athletic ability is the result of good genetics and training interaction." {Eric Barrey, 2002) Training techniques enhance the horse's talent preparing efficiently the horse's physique for the effort. This fundamental principle is often set aside in favor of primitive approaches tricking the horse into movements.

A perfectly square halt for instance is the natural outcome of balance control, symmetry between right and left side of the back muscles, neck carriage, over all tone of the horse's muscular system. Therefore, the sound education of square halt commences with the intelligent education of the horse's vertebral column mechanism. By contrast, primitive equitation achieves square posture placing the legs with a whip or other system.

(Narrated by Mary Linda Rapeley of Star Trek, One Life to Live and more)

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