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fpbThis is a passage I have been translating, about a wholly admirable fellow-citizen I had never even heard of, the cavalry instructor Caprilli, who, at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, introduced humane and effective ways to train cavalry horses, at great personal expense. He was the horse whisperer of his time, it seems, but tougher.
During instruction, he intervenes himself, to pick up, correct, give advice and orders even to lieutenant instructors, with whom will then step aside and confer. That is a truly forutnate year, for they have the chance of having that great chef-d’école from beginning to end as director.
But Caprilli has been suffering grievously from kidney pains since 1895, on account of an immense number of falls, to the point that his chair in the mess has a strip of cloth to allow him to rest the kidney area. Every evening he subjects himself to painful, continual massage, and during the summer he does not neglect bathing in hot mud.
That does not keep him from riding, in the face of any pain, and from giving a good example even by taking part in dances, when there is an opportunity in the social circles of Pinerolo, or taking the most sociable officers to Turin and the elegant salons of the local great families. Caprilli’s activity at the School is beyond praise.
In 1904, an Italian mission is invited to visit the French school of Saumur. General Berta, mission chief, asks Caprilli along; however, seven days before the start, Caprilli breaks a clavicle and sprains his left shoulder. It seems that he should give up the Saumur visit, which he has been looking forward to greatly. But after four days he turns up on horseback, holding the reins in his left hand and keeping the thumb of his right in a circle of string tied to a button of his tunic, so as to prevent as much as possible any motion in his right arm and shoulder. So he leaves for Saumur, where he admires the enormous scale of the establishment and the number and quality of the horses, of which no less than 500 are thoroughbreds, some of the highest class.
As far as country riding is concerned, however, Caprilli is not impressed, though he is perfectly aware that in this kind of riding some French cavalry regiments are far ahead of the Saumur school.
Here an event shows the excellence of Caprilli’s system. The school’s instructor officers display their skills in a special round, riding fine jumping horses over barriers a metre and a half high. One beautiful animal falls rushes over, throws itself at the fence, and jumps. Caprilli is told that that horse cannot jump otherwise; the rider’s trunk must be well back and his hands must be pulling hard on the mouth. They also say that the horse is in no pain whatever and that he is quite healthy. There is a brief debate in which Caprilli courteously declines to insist. But General Berta breaks in, and the French officers feel a desire to put Caprilli to the test. In spite of his aching shoulder, our rider accepts to take the saddle. Keeping his reins long and loose, caressing the horse, he passes several times the fence on the ground, walking and trotting. The horse grows calmer, and Caprilli has the fence raised bit by bit, till the horse, at a steady gallop, flies over it over and over again at the full one metre fifty centimetres.
His French colleagues pay him due compliments, though they feel that the success is due not to the superiority of the method, but to the exceptional personal qualities of this one rider.
Caprilli draws from this Saumur visit a belief that it is useful to train difficult horses to jump fences, and manages to have this kind of training written into the Italian regulations. Eager to learn and find out, ever ready to change his views by meeting those of others, Caprilli wishes to know what the most famous riders have written on the matter. Count Eugenio di Pettinengo, a former cavalry captain, translates for his friend some maxims from the writings of the most renowned foreign masters: D’Auvergue, Rousselet, D’Ame, Misaud, Mottin de la Balme.... Caprilli dedicates his licence time to preparing the best horses for the needs of country horseriding at Tor di Quinto. He furthermore carries on his patient and conuous work on the mare Itala, with whom he does virtuoso “school” work, takes his mud baths to relieve his pains, and travels in Ireland to supply second lieutenants with quality horses. That is how an officer of his kind spends his free time.
During instruction, he intervenes himself, to pick up, correct, give advice and orders even to lieutenant instructors, with whom will then step aside and confer. That is a truly forutnate year, for they have the chance of having that great chef-d’école from beginning to end as director.
But Caprilli has been suffering grievously from kidney pains since 1895, on account of an immense number of falls, to the point that his chair in the mess has a strip of cloth to allow him to rest the kidney area. Every evening he subjects himself to painful, continual massage, and during the summer he does not neglect bathing in hot mud.
That does not keep him from riding, in the face of any pain, and from giving a good example even by taking part in dances, when there is an opportunity in the social circles of Pinerolo, or taking the most sociable officers to Turin and the elegant salons of the local great families. Caprilli’s activity at the School is beyond praise.
In 1904, an Italian mission is invited to visit the French school of Saumur. General Berta, mission chief, asks Caprilli along; however, seven days before the start, Caprilli breaks a clavicle and sprains his left shoulder. It seems that he should give up the Saumur visit, which he has been looking forward to greatly. But after four days he turns up on horseback, holding the reins in his left hand and keeping the thumb of his right in a circle of string tied to a button of his tunic, so as to prevent as much as possible any motion in his right arm and shoulder. So he leaves for Saumur, where he admires the enormous scale of the establishment and the number and quality of the horses, of which no less than 500 are thoroughbreds, some of the highest class.
As far as country riding is concerned, however, Caprilli is not impressed, though he is perfectly aware that in this kind of riding some French cavalry regiments are far ahead of the Saumur school.
Here an event shows the excellence of Caprilli’s system. The school’s instructor officers display their skills in a special round, riding fine jumping horses over barriers a metre and a half high. One beautiful animal falls rushes over, throws itself at the fence, and jumps. Caprilli is told that that horse cannot jump otherwise; the rider’s trunk must be well back and his hands must be pulling hard on the mouth. They also say that the horse is in no pain whatever and that he is quite healthy. There is a brief debate in which Caprilli courteously declines to insist. But General Berta breaks in, and the French officers feel a desire to put Caprilli to the test. In spite of his aching shoulder, our rider accepts to take the saddle. Keeping his reins long and loose, caressing the horse, he passes several times the fence on the ground, walking and trotting. The horse grows calmer, and Caprilli has the fence raised bit by bit, till the horse, at a steady gallop, flies over it over and over again at the full one metre fifty centimetres.
His French colleagues pay him due compliments, though they feel that the success is due not to the superiority of the method, but to the exceptional personal qualities of this one rider.
Caprilli draws from this Saumur visit a belief that it is useful to train difficult horses to jump fences, and manages to have this kind of training written into the Italian regulations. Eager to learn and find out, ever ready to change his views by meeting those of others, Caprilli wishes to know what the most famous riders have written on the matter. Count Eugenio di Pettinengo, a former cavalry captain, translates for his friend some maxims from the writings of the most renowned foreign masters: D’Auvergue, Rousselet, D’Ame, Misaud, Mottin de la Balme.... Caprilli dedicates his licence time to preparing the best horses for the needs of country horseriding at Tor di Quinto. He furthermore carries on his patient and conuous work on the mare Itala, with whom he does virtuoso “school” work, takes his mud baths to relieve his pains, and travels in Ireland to supply second lieutenants with quality horses. That is how an officer of his kind spends his free time.
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Date: 2005-12-07 02:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-07 03:18 pm (UTC)