Racinet Remembered
Remembering Jean Claude Racinet

A devoted student reflects on his life, his legacy, and her own commitment to carrying his work forward.

An interview with Lisa Maxwell submitted by Julie Abbott

Lisa Maxwell has been teaching riding for thirty years from her farm, Sugar Creek Stables, tucked into a picturesque valley in the heart of the western North Carolina mountains. There, Lisa and her horses work to preserve the light and artistic form of horsemanship taught by her mentor, Jean Claude Racinet.

With Jean Claude’s death in April 2009, the prospect of losing his alternative way of riding and teaching loomed large. Having studied with Jean Claude for five years, Lisa is one of only a few people teaching this style of riding in the U.S. today. She has dedicated her life to passing on this holistic and kind form of riding, offering scholarships and internships as well as traditional lessons.

As one of Lisa’s students, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a truly gifted teacher who learned from a great master. Her teaching style is thoughtful and considerate, infused with humor, and always guided by a deep love of horses. She also draws from twenty years of Aikido training to help students find a centered position and calm mental attitude. Watching Lisa ride is a lesson in itself. Her horse seems to float through its paces as though the difficult movements of the upper levels of dressage are play. She sits still in the saddle as the horse trots by in a lofty airborne passage – a graceful, joyful dance.

Jean Claude fought a tough battle to introduce this way of riding and training to a horse community that wasn’t yet ready for it. Like Francois Baucher before him, Jean Claude was ahead of his time. Lisa’s goal is to make this style of riding available to others who are seeking a lighter, less forceful way to ride. She’s determined to do her part to make sure this unique art form is never lost.

______________________

This month marks the one year anniversary of Jean Claude Racinet’s death.

Yes, April 25, 2009.

You studied with him for four years in clinics at your stable.

Yes, he would come three or four times a year to work with us. We were so lucky. His wife Susan would drop him off for the weekend while she went down to South Carolina to visit her daughter. We started in 2002, our last clinic was in 2006, and I am still learning from him.

What was Mr. Racinet like?

He was an incredible person, not just a master horseman. He was extremely intelligent, always reading and trying to learn more in many subjects. He had a great sense of humor and the most beautiful Old World manners – you know, that really deep-seated politeness you don’t see much anymore. He was polite like that to the horses too. He truly loved horses. He was totally sincere. And he had this lovely French accent. I could listen to him all day long. There was such a nice feeling about being near him. He adored his wife and son. You couldn’t know him very long without knowing that about him. After a person’s death, it’s easy to remember only the good things about them, or to exaggerate those good qualities, but he was truly an incredible human being. His death is a great loss for all of us.

What was his teaching style like?

It was unique to him, a mix of very progressive and Old School. I’ve never seen anyone with so many different ways to help a rider break old habits. He would explain and demonstrate something thoroughly, but if he had to repeat it several times and you still didn’t get it, out came the Old School. He went right to the core of the problem. If the rider’s seat wasn’t good, out came the lunge line. He had some exercises where you would ride holding your knees above the saddle and your feet out in front, nothing touching the saddle but your seat, and he would lunge the horse at a walk and trot. It seems impossible to get into that position at first, but you quickly get the hang of it – self preservation instincts take over. He had a number of exercises like that, all about balance and training your abdominal muscles – about instilling courage too. I’ve never seen anything that could fix a rider’s seat so fast and so well. They’re all in his book Another Horsemanship.

Can you give an example of what you mean by Old School?

He would set up a situation where you had to do what he was trying to get you to do. Let’s say someone was hanging on the inside rein. He would explain why they shouldn’t do that, how it affected the horse. Then he would give them an exercise, maybe riding a figure eight with one rein looped. If they still couldn’t get it and they “cheated” and used both reins, he would take the inside rein away – take it right off the bridle – and have the student ride figure eights. He’d make you work at something until you got it. It wasn’t that he wasn’t sympathetic. He was, but he knew if you didn’t change a bad habit you weren’t going to progress. He wouldn’t gloss over a problem with the rider and ask more of the horse like some teachers do. You were going to fix the thing that was wrong. He had numerous ways to “trick” a person into changing. He knew it wasn’t easy to change, but you were going to change.

Can you give another example?

Sure, a lot of people won’t release the reins when they ask the horse to go. Jean Claude would have none of that. He insisted on immediate response from the horse, so the rider had to learn to go instantly. Jean Claude would have the rider put the reins on the horse’s neck – not touch them at all – and ask the horse to trot or canter. They could pick up the reins after a few strides. Sometimes he would unbuckle the reins and buckle them again behind the rider’s back, not allowing them to touch the reins with their hands. He did that to me when he was trying to teach me the feel of asking for passage on a horse that was just learning passage. And he often took the stirrups away. But somehow I always felt safe with him and felt that my students were safe with him. He had such authority. He was a master teacher.

Do you teach in the same Old School style?

Oh no. I try to teach what he taught me but I don’t imitate the way he taught. That was his unique style, and I recognize that I am a much different person, from a different age and background. He came up through the cavalry. He had a very tough life. He was wounded twice in Korea fighting with UN forces and later earned the Croix de Guerre given for valor under fire. He was just as fearless {viewonly=special}in his riding and teaching. For example, a woman showed up once on a rushing unbalanced horse. She was behind the motion and double bouncing as she posted. He put her in one of his flat little saddles, shortened her stirrups and had her stand up nearly straight legged with her hips pushed way out in front of the pommel. She had to keep her hands on her hips and was not to use them for balance or to grab the mane. Then he lunged the horse first in the walk, then the trot and the horse rushed around as fast and unbalanced as he could go. That was one time I really thought he’d gone too far. I thought they would crash. Instead, the woman finally caught up to the horse and stopped falling back into the saddle. The horse slowed down, of course. That woman learned fast and completely. She left feeling very good about herself.

Did he lecture at all, or did he teach mostly by example?

He did some of both. At the first clinic, he required everyone to come to a lecture the night before. He had an in-depth understanding of the mechanics and the psychology of horses and he wanted us to know why we were going to do certain things. He didn’t like it when people just did things because that was the way they were always done. He questioned everything and if it didn’t make good sound physiological sense, he discarded it. Also, this system is so different from the usual dressage, that people need preparation for it. He wanted an opportunity to explain why he would be asking us to do many things completely opposite to the usual way.

He would always start with details, details, details. If a student didn’t understand something, he had a dozen different ways to explain it. He knew the science, the mechanics behind the art and could explain them very well. But at some point you have to forget all that and ride from feel. So he would work on the mechanics until they were right – all these little details that you might want to skip over. For instance the way he would teach us to handle the reins. To turn the horse’s head you didn’t just retract your elbow, you had to shorten the rein on one side, bring only that hand back to neutral, then squeeze the rein while letting the other rein slide the appropriate amount. I thought, what a lot of hassle to turn a horse, I know how to turn a horse. But he had very good reasons for insisting on doing it his way. He was teaching us about the fixed hand, which is a cornerstone of this system, and about combing the reins (the opposite) which relaxes the horse as well as the rider’s elbows. Since most riders tend to ride with stiff elbows, this gets rid of that habit more efficiently than simply telling them to relax their elbows.

Can you describe your first few lessons with him?

Yes, I remember them well. During the first lesson, he let me ride around at the trot and canter. I thought maybe I wasn’t doing too badly but soon realized he was just letting me show him what I didn’t know. In the second lesson, we never got out of the walk and by the third lesson I didn’t think we would ever get out of the halt. But he wasn’t just lecturing, we were working at the halt. When you get some basic things right, everything else comes very fast. He would often quote a famous saying, Slow is Fast and Less is More. It’s very true in this system. What was so great about his teaching was that by learning the mechanics and getting the details right, you also learned that all-elusive feel.

Did you ever see him ride?

Oh yes, he loved to ride. He would do ground work with and ride almost every horse that came to the clinics. None of our horses had experienced this system before. It was quickest for him to teach the horse, then the rider could feel how it should feel. This system is so different from the usual kind of dressage, the horse looks and feels so different. Until you feel that – a horse truly moving in self carriage and self impulsion, with its back and its withers lifted – you don’t really understand. At least I didn’t. I could get my mare to lift her back but I had never felt her lift her withers until after he rode her. When I got back on, it was like being on a totally different horse. That was one of the most important moments in my education. It instantly changed something inside me. Of course the mare had already been changed, horses learn so quickly.

What was his riding like?

He had a very relaxed way of sitting on a horse. He would say you should appear to “rest on horseback” and certainly that was how he looked. Because of his age and some stiffness in his hips, his feet were often more forward than we’re used to seeing, but to him relaxation and feel were more important than position. He didn’t sit still and perfect, he wasn’t afraid to move around. He might shift his seat to one side, he might lean forward or back depending on what the horse needed at that moment. He was almost constantly manipulating the reins in this stroking, loving way. He had beautiful hands. That is something I have tried to imitate.

When you refer to “this system” of riding, you mean Francois Baucher’s second manner, right?

Yes, definitely. I don’t think Jean Claude would want this to be called his system. He was always giving credit to Baucher. He had great admiration for Baucher and thought he had been way ahead of his time. I think we should give credit to Jean Claude for translating Baucher’s work to English and developing a systematic clear way of teaching it. He then dedicated his life to teaching it when it was unheard of and unpopular, and everyone was telling him he was wrong.

But Mr. Racinet went well beyond what he’d learned from Baucher’s writing, didn’t he?

Yes, he came to understand that the flexions of the jaw that Baucher taught were so effective with difficult horses because they were actually osteopathic adjustments. By placing a horse’s head in a certain position and getting him to chew you are actually allowing him to release vertebrae that are stuck in one position and may be causing him pain. When the vertebrae are free to move, the energy can flow freely. The horse feels great and offers his best movement. He wrote about this in Total Horsemanship and also in Racinet Explains Baucher.

You said the horse “offers his best movement,” yet one of the criticisms I’ve heard about Baucher is that the horses lose their forward impulsion. Have you had trouble with that?

No, just the opposite. They have more energy, more true impulsion and they offer it. You don’t have to drive them.

Where do you think that criticism comes from?

My guess would be that the person trying to apply Baucher’s system has not truly understood the release of the jaw and so he has only slowed his horse down and not freed its energy. Or possibly the person watching doesn’t see the impulsion because the horse is not leaning into the bridle and flying around the ring.

What was the hardest thing for you to learn?

Not to pull, or at least not to allow the horse to pull on me. I didn’t even know how much I was doing it. I thought I rode with light hands, I never was one to push the horse onto the bit the way a lot of people do. It took me a long time to realize the difference between fixing my hand in one place and pulling. I didn’t understand how you could not pull when the horse was pulling on you. Jean Claude would have me put my hands on the horse’s neck and push the skin forward and stop the horse while doing that. I thought it was impossible until I learned how to use my core muscles. He could have tried and tried to explain. Instead, between the lunging and this exercise I got it for myself. Then I didn’t have to pull anymore. If the horse started to lean on me, I could rebalance him with my core muscles rather than pull back. Jean Claude would always try to set it up so the rider had to do it the right way. Then the old habit would be broken because the rider would have felt the new way to do it. Of course you then have to practice the right way and occasionally return to the original exercise. I’ve overcome a lot of stubborn habits that way.

Talk about other moments that had a profound effect on you.

The first lesson in the first clinic he gave at my stable has to be one of them. It was with a student’s horse, a little Arabian mare. She was serviceably sound, but not very fluid, mostly a pleasure and trail horse. She had never been really collected and certainly was never asked to do anything more than training level dressage. First, Jean Claude sort of pushed gently on her here and there, on her neck, her hip. I didn’t know what he was doing. Later I learned that he was doing osteopathic adjustments, or at least checking to see if she needed any. Then he took the reins and just stood with her along the wall. He turned her head a little this way and that, nothing rough, but all of a sudden that little mare drew herself up, arched her neck and tucked her hindquarters. Jean Claude chirped to her a little and she went into a very nice soft piaffer. What I remember most is how surprised the mare looked. She was delighted. It wasn’t just that he got an untrained horse to piaffer, it was how softly, how lovingly he did it and how much the horse enjoyed it.



There were many other moments for me when something suddenly clicked into place. The first time I felt a truly collected seated canter was one. And there was one super special “lesson” when Jean Claude asked if he could ride one of my school horses for the whole lesson. I know he sometimes got frustrated trying to work with a horse through the student who was riding it. He seemed to love every horse who came into the ring, and I know his heart had gone out to this horse especially, because the horse was grumpy and not forward with the student who rode him. So Jean Claude asked if he could ride the horse the next day and I was delighted to let him. That was just like Jean Claude, he didn’t ask to ride the best horse so he could show off, he asked to ride the most unhappy horse. He worked with that horse for thirty minutes or so, not doing anything that looked very spectacular. This horse would typically get into a pretty little false frame and hide there. It was a huge problem. I had enough education at the time to understand that Jean Claude was trying to get the horse to completely yield his jaw at the halt. But some auditors must have wondered what was going on. The horse stood still a lot while Jean Claude turned its head this way and that. Sometimes the horse stretched his neck down, sometimes he held it very high. Jean Claude might suddenly ride him forward and come to a halt again. Finally, they trotted around the ring and some people must have thought now he’ll do something spectacular, he’ll make the horse passage or something. But what I saw was extraordinary because I knew how stuck that horse had been and now he was trotting with a free flowing movement and a happy expression. Then he halted and the horse rocked back into his hind quarters and did the most wonderful seated canter for five or six strides and Jean Claude got off. This was a horse who usually rushed into his canter from a trot, ears pinned. It was such a precious gift to see a master working like that. It was also important for me spiritually to see such a man be so delighted with something as mundane as a nice trot and a few steps of true canter. But that is what classical horsemanship is about – truly getting things correct – winning the horse over, not forcing him. Jean Claude had a saying I loved, “Riding is the step-by-step seduction of the horse.”

Your stable is off the beaten path. How did you get Jean Claude to teach there?

We’re way off the beaten path. Western North Carolina is not what you’d call horse country. There’s one recognized annual dressage show held an hour away and that’s it, not even any schooling shows. My students ride a collection of horses of all different breeds and mixed breeds. I never dreamed of asking a world famous clinician to come here. But a friend of mine bought a saddle from Jean Claude. He had developed his own saddle, which is nothing like any dressage saddle I’ve ever seen. It resembles the saddles jockeys use, only it has a tree. There’s nothing to it, a flat seat with no cantle to speak of, just one flap down the side so your legs rest right on the horse. The girth attaches to a v-shaped piece of webbing. There’s no knee roll, nothing to keep you in the saddle. You are entirely responsible for your own balance. But the coolest thing about them is that they stay back off the horse’s shoulders where we all know we should put our saddles, but most won’t stay there. Horses absolutely love these saddles.

In any case, Jean Claude insisted on showing my friend how to put the saddle on her horse. She had ridden for years and thought this was odd, but Jean Claude and his wife were passing through the area and delivered the saddle. Jean Claude ended up riding my friend’s horse for an hour and she was totally blown away by what he did with her. When she called to ask if I would host a clinic with him, I instantly agreed. I had read Another Horsemanship years before and loved it but had not been able to get it to work for me because I didn’t truly get the release of the jaw. Having him come here was the opportunity of a lifetime. He put so much effort into teaching us we could have been Olympic level riders on the best horses in the world (and of course ours are the best horses in the world).

I imagine that having the clinics filled by your own students made the experience even more meaningful for you, knowing all the people and the horses.

Oh yes, it also put pressure on me because when Jean Claude would leave, my students would ask, “What did he say?” “What did he mean?” He had a very strong accent and a soft voice so it was hard to understand him at times. Under his supervision, the students would have gotten great results and felt incredible things, but maybe lacked the understanding to continue on their own. Though Jean Claude tried to explain everything completely, it was a lot to take in. So I had to learn as both student and teacher so I could help my students when he was gone.

And I’m guessing he would expect to see some progress when he returned for the next clinic?

Yes, but he always fooled me. Always. We would have worked really hard on what he taught in the last clinic and I would be ready to show him. Instead he would start at a completely different place and teach something new. I would be scrambling to understand again. He might work on something different with each of my students. We were all running around with our notebooks trying to get it all down. We usually had about eight hours of lessons planned and it went on much longer than that. Even during lunch break he was teaching. It was really a crash course. I think he knew that he had to teach me as much as he could as fast as he could. I felt tremendous pressure to learn it, really learn it. We both knew his time was limited. And my students were depending on me to get it so I could help them. Now, after his death I feel even more pressure because this is such a beautiful system and it would be a crime if it were lost. I want to do as much as I can to make it available for anyone who is seeking it.

I understand you were working with Jean Claude on a video to capture what he taught you so it wouldn’t be forgotten.

Yes, twice during the years I knew Jean Claude, we started to make a video to complement his book Another Horsemanship. The first time, we completed one session and were planning to tape more at the next clinic, but Jean Claude had to have heart surgery which delayed the process for a long time. His recovery was slow and never quite complete. Yet he amazed his doctors who thought he should be in a wheelchair with a tank of oxygen. His heart had such a low ejection fraction (the strength with which the heart contracts to push blood out) that he should not have been able to ride. But he kept doing clinics and he kept riding almost every horse. Even when he could barely get into the saddle he rode beautifully. He seemed to plug into the horse’s energy.

I remember one clinic after the surgery when he was also having trouble with shingles and was obviously in great pain. I kept asking if he would like to rest or be done for the day and he would have none of it. He taught with his usual energy and rode every horse. But between lessons he would fall asleep in his chair for five or ten minutes.

In the last year of his life, we tried again to make the video. This time I was to drive to his home in Virginia and tape him working with a student. We were to do a session every six weeks or so to show the progression of training of this student and her horse. We never even completed the first session.

And now you’ve decided to make the video yourself?

It won’t be the video he would have made. I can’t fill his shoes, but I can do my part to preserve this horsemanship. The video will illustrate some of the main points in Another Horsemanship. It’s a great book and it tells you everything you need to know. But, without a chance to feel the release of the jaw and the changes in the horse, most people have a hard time getting it. While I can’t make people feel it, I can at least help them see it. The video will show the flexions of the jaw and how they affect the whole horse. It will show exercises to improve the rider’s seat and exercises to help the horse learn the posture of collection. And it will demonstrate some really basic things like the way Jean Claude handled the reins, the difference between a fixed hand and pulling, and the way a horse should chew the bit versus improper chewing. It’s these really basic things on which everything else is built. If people get the basics they can go forward on their own. The horse will teach them.

Will there be some footage of Jean Claude on the video?

Yes, that is the plan.

I understand you’re also offering a scholarship/internship.

Yes, I’m trying to find people who want to teach this method of riding. I have been so fortunate. I have had one great teacher after another, not just in horsemanship. When I was a kid, I had a very good but tough ballet teacher. Then I had a great hunt seat teacher, Lou Ragonetti, with whom we did a lot more than cantering around the ring in two point. We did dressage and cross country as well. Then I had an excellent and tough Aikido teacher from Japan who spoke very little English. All of them taught me much more than their own disciplines. They taught me how to learn. When Jean Claude came, I was ready to learn from him. Now I want to give back as much as I can.

What are your thoughts on the future for this light style of horsemanship?

I don’t think it will replace competition dressage and that’s fine. It won’t appeal to everyone. It’s very cerebral. But I think there are a lot of people seeking this approach. The whole natural horsemanship movement proves that. People want to know how their horses think and feel. They want a partnership. This system dovetails beautifully with natural horsemanship. Many of the people I talk to have had an experience similar to mine. I set out to learn dressage but after a while realized that the push-pull method wasn’t what I wanted. It seemed to have nothing to do with the image I had in my head. Natural horsemanship was a godsend and I played with it for years (still do) but I eventually realized it wasn’t going to take me where I wanted to go. The style of horsemanship developed by Baucher and taught by Mr. Racinet is exactly what I was seeking. I want to help others who are seeking this path.

Is there anything you’d like to add?

Jean Claude was probably one of the greatest human beings a person could ever hope to know. He was very sincere and honest. He was always learning. In the years I knew him he was delving into research that might have become the next step in horsemanship. He was constantly experimenting but not ready to talk about it in depth. I’m so sorry he wasn’t able to finish that research. Maybe someone else will discover it and in time it will become accepted. I cannot tell you how sorry I am he’s gone. Because of my experience with him, I am dedicated to preserving his teaching through my own work.

_______________

Julie Abbott is a freelance writer and editor living near Asheville, North Carolina. When not writing, she spends time with her horse at Sugar Creek Stables. (julabbott@msn.com) To learn more about Lisa Maxwell and Sugar Creek Stables, go to www.learningjoyresources.com/dressage.html.

Jean Claude Racinet

June 2, 1929 – April 25, 2009

Jean Claude Racinet was a great proponent of riding in lightness through a method of mobilizing and relaxing the horse’s jaw as first practiced by Francois Baucher (1796-1873). Jean Claude made a significant contribution to L’equitation de Légèreté (riding in lightness) by translating and preserving the teachings of Francois Baucher’s second manner, for which he was honored by the School of Horsemanship in Saumur France with their Lifetime Achievement Award. His lifetime of work was also recognized in Germany, where he was awarded the title Trainer of the Year in 2008.

Jean Claude conducted clinics worldwide, leaving behind many devoted students and a comprehensive body of work contained in three books dedicated to preserving Francois Baucher’s method: Another Horsemanship, Racinet Explains Baucher, and Total Horsemanship, all published in the United States and translated into French and German. He also contributed articles to L’Information Hippique, Dressage and CT, Riding in Lightness, and Horses for Life magazines.

Earlier equestrian accomplishments included completion of the Superior Equitation Course in the Cavalry School of Saumur (1953-54), becoming a member of the Jumping Team of the Military School in Paris (1953), and winning the title of Champion of Tunisia in open jumping (1956).

Besides being a clinician and author, Jean Claude was a decorated war hero. He was wounded twice in Korea while fighting with the UN forces (1952-53). He then spent seven years in Tunisia and Algeria (1954-61) as an officer in the French army, where he was awarded the Croix de Guerre for heroism in battle.

Jean Claude devoted his life to the advancement and preservation of riding in lightness – the essence of riding in the French Classical tradition.