The rein aid is a secondary aid. Its sole purpose is to support the horse in responding to the rider's seat aid (request). Giving a rein aid without a seat aid is forbidden. This statement, however, is not entirely precise, since the seat is always communicating something; the seat aid cannot be…

The Hungaro-Austrian riding style is definitely different, traditionally separate from Baucherism and rejects it.  Letter from the Mauritius Herold to Sigesmund Josipovich(Published by Josipovich, summarised translation) We all read with interest Colonel Heydebreck's article about the competition…

There are many different ideas about what good contact looks like. I see that in my environment riders create contact in different ways, not how I do it. I think that the weight of the right contact is  equal to the weight of the rein. If contact is stronger than this, I think it is wrong. I’m in…

A lot of people don't understand what I do. The epithet "academic" is often heard, which is also a difficult concept for Hungarians to understand. Many people think that I’m the king of ground work, not a man of riding. All this is far from reality: I like to ride horses, I like to canter, but only…

According to Zsigmond Josipovich, the goal of horse training is to achieve self-shape. The general made it clear: “Without bending work, there is no release of tension, without the release of tension there is no straightening, without straightening there is no balance, without balance, there is no…

What makes riding a horse easy and spectacular and what does not? What makes a horse softly cooperative in transitions, turns, and bends? And if it is not soft and simple, then why not? The first is to identify the problem.This is the first half of the equestrian feeling. The feeling, since the…

Elemér Moys, cavalry colonel, one of the most distinguished equestrian master of his time, whose respect was almost equal to Sigmund Josipovich’s. His master was Sigmund Barcsák, a man of exceptional talent, pupil of Julius Speyer. Lieutenant colonel of the dragoons, one of the best riders of his…

It’s a well-known saying: “It’s not our ancestors we need to follow but what our ancestors followed.” This also applies to the training of horse and rider, since both have changed in the last hundred years. Thus, although contributing to or taking away from our ancestors’ knowledge is not possible…

The 1928 Amsterdam Olympics ended with a rather odd fiasco for the Hungarian dressage riders. After arriving at the location and seeing the work of the other nation's riders they decided to return home before the competition began, despite the professionals present all agreed that Paul Keméry's trot…

How could a high-level Equestrian Culture be maintained in a country as big as the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy? How could the furthest corps uniformly have excellent equine knowledge? The answer of the Monarchy was the two-tier training. A campagne riding school was established in Wiener Neustadt.…