These are the 12th Hussars of the Russian Imperial Army, c. 1912 demonstrating an “early application of the Forward Seat.” This is an image from a book in the museum’s library, “Riding Forward: Modern Horsemanship for Beginners” written in 1934 by Vladimir Littauer, Captain, 1st Hussars, Russian Imperial Cavalry. So, if this is what beginners do, what is the advanced course like?!
The book is about the basic Forward Seat, including jumping. These cavalry riders are obviously not beginners! You can tell because they are staying forward and their lower legs are in the proper position and they are not interfering with their horse’s heads.
As a Forward Seat rider for over 40 years I still found this book useful when I finally got it 5 or 6 years ago.
I have seen some videos on the internet of the Italian cavalry going cross country in the forward seat over a very challenging course, especially because the riders were going over it in massed units, not just one rider at a time. The Italian cavalry back then had quite daring Forward Seat riders! So did we, the USA Olympic team had a gold medal in the Military (3-Day) section when the Olympics were in Los Angeles, CA in the 1940’s (?), captained by General Chamberlin, graduate of Pinorelo in Italy and Saumur in France. According to his books the US cavalry was taught well and were capable of riding with equal daring over unknown country.
LOL, that is brilliant! It puts the “irish cottages” I’ve seen on hunter trials courses into perspective!
Holy crap! I’m looking at that roof and hoping like heck it was sturdier than it looks….
I’m definitely not interested in the intermediate course!
Holy poo!
The book is about the basic Forward Seat, including jumping. These cavalry riders are obviously not beginners! You can tell because they are staying forward and their lower legs are in the proper position and they are not interfering with their horse’s heads.
As a Forward Seat rider for over 40 years I still found this book useful when I finally got it 5 or 6 years ago.
I have seen some videos on the internet of the Italian cavalry going cross country in the forward seat over a very challenging course, especially because the riders were going over it in massed units, not just one rider at a time. The Italian cavalry back then had quite daring Forward Seat riders! So did we, the USA Olympic team had a gold medal in the Military (3-Day) section when the Olympics were in Los Angeles, CA in the 1940’s (?), captained by General Chamberlin, graduate of Pinorelo in Italy and Saumur in France. According to his books the US cavalry was taught well and were capable of riding with equal daring over unknown country.