have been invited to bring to wider audience of those seriously interested in training and riding horses my views on the various aspects of this challenging and difficult task. These articles will, as far as possible, follow a logical build-up from the beginning toward higher performance so as to serve as a guide in day-to-day schooling. I will try to include everything my long life with horses and riders in the roles of trainer and rider has proved to me to be of value..

Reading can have only a limited effect on one's horsemanship. Only after acquiring several years of personal experience and through trail and error arriving at some sort of methodical procedure is one, in my opinion, in a position to really benefit from "comparing notes" and seeing problems from a different angle. On the other hand, there is an increasing number of young and comparatively inexperienced riders who show an interest in "seeking the truth," trying to find an acceptable "school of thought." Many are frustrated by the contradictions they experience from different instructors. This confuses them: they don't know where to turn. I think this is probably true in this country more than in Europe, as Americans never really developed a doctrine of their own in the same way the academies in Germany (Hanover), Italy (Pinerolo, Tor di Quinto), Austria (Vienna), France (Saumur), and Sweden (Stromsholm) did. I am sure the dedicated trainer of young horses would welcome something practical and logical, as far as possible based on facts, and expressed in plain, understandable, unambiguous language as a guide in the day-to-day work in which he or she will most of the time be on his or her own.

It is with this in mind that I may have something to contribute. I am, after all, one of the few still active rider/instructors who is a product of the old, comprehensive, and very thorough army training at one of these academies (Stromsholm), at which the approved methods as manifest in our riding manual were strictly adhered to and proved successful when put to the test in competition against other countries, particularly in eventing and dressage. I have basically been following these principles during my teaching over the last twenty odd years, observing, listening, experimenting, and modifying as I went along, and I think this long experience with riders and horses of all sorts and levels has led to a concept of riding and teaching that seems to give genuine results. I have arrived at a method. This is my case for writing it down while I am still active, in the hope it will help riders help themselves, and save a lot of horses from unnecessary suffering. If it has to have a name, I'll call it "The Swedish Way."

THE OBJECT OF SCHOOLING

 The thinking behind all schooling must obviously depend on what kind of performer we mean to produce. The harness horse is meant to pull, not carry, weight. The polo pony is also a specialist, as is, to an extent, the exclusive show jumper; both perform intensively over short periods of time, the former mainly at a gallop and controlled with one hand, and both with emphasis on handiness and quick changes of direction. There are many others: the show horse (judges mainly on conformation), the racehorse (must reach his peak on the flat at the age of three), the circus horse, the trotter, etc. I would also like to include in the category of specialists the Lipizzans at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. They are a specialized breed who are trained for a specialized purpose of display-quadrille and airs above the ground. The officers and Bereiters are guardians of the classical school and rightly admired for their high standards of horsemanship, and the immaculate display they delight us with is a result of conscientious and methodical work.

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