NHE Equine Anthology. Vol 7

Founder and publisher: LLC “Nevzorov Haute Ecole” Editor-in-Chief: Lydia Nevzorova Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Stasya Zolotova Translation editors: Stormy May, Donna Condrey-Miller, Kristina McCormack, Varvara Liobovnaya Editorial Staff: Cloé Lacroix, Marie Duizidou, Victoria Reesor, Lovisa Nilsson, Fred Ivar, Sasha Day, Caroline Lavoie, Jean Lafontaine, Evgenia Shevchenko, Olesya Rodina, Maria Sotnikova, Alexandra Oranskaya IT Director: Elizaveta Makarova Photo on the Cover: Lydia Nevzorova Art Director: Dmitry Raikin Head of pre-Press Department: Evgeny Mushtai Head of News Department: Sophya Demskaya Chief Executive Officer: Dmitry Uchaev Assistant Director: Elena Kuzina Officer in Charge of the Project: Tamara Komissarova Editorial Office Address 199397, St-Petersburg, PO Box 900 Tel.: +7 (812) 335-30-39 E-mail: Journal@HauteEcole.ru © NEVZOROV HAUTE ECOLE. All content of “Nevzorov Haute Ecole Equine Anthology” is protected by the copyright law and other acts of legislation of the Russian Federation and international copyright laws. Contents, or part of contents, appearing in this issue cannot be published in the Internet without express written permission from “Nevzorov Haute Ecole”.

All text, photographic and/or graphic material found in this issue cannot be published, rewritten or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium without express written permission from “Nevzorov Haute Ecole”.

Contact: Journal@HauteEcole.ru www.NevzorovHauteEcole.com

Horse Encyclopedia

by Alexander Nevzorov This film marked the beginning of great conflict between people who truly love the horse and people who want to exploit it as before. Dozens of chapters – about great people and terrible epochs, about manege elements and famous horses, about scientific discoveries and age old delusions – turned the horse world upside down.

The film was released in Russia in 2004 with runaway success and received awards in the Houston and New York Film Festivals. Innovative, unique, based on science and inspired by the sincerest loving view of relationship between two creatures that have walked side by side for centuries, but have never listened to each other.

The film has already changed the destinies of hundreds of horses and humans and has become an important hippological document, vital to any serious manege work.

Nevzorov Haute Ecole Principles The film brings a viewer right into the heart of the School – to the School manege.

For the first time ever, an outsider can watch the most important principles of work with a horse at liberty. Following the camera’s lens, a spectator follows horse education in the most difficult High School elements, learns the importance of “Discipline” and “Composure”, understands the purpose and practical value of the cordeo, touching techniques and the practice of longeing. The comments of Alexander Nevzorov, which accompany every segment, interpret what is essential for understanding and mastering the School work.

The magnetic grace and power of the School horses, the marvelous harmony of their interactions with the Master make “The Principles” not just a priceless hippological educational edition, but also a rare and beautiful film, which once and for all will change a person’s view of the horse.

The Horse Crucified and Risen For five centuries High School masters have fought an uncompromising and unrelenting war against the ignorance, abomination and beastliness that have been concentrated in equestrian sport. But here and now, at the turn of the millennium, when horse torture seems common, acceptable, and legal; old prophecies come true. A man stepped forth to open a new, truthful page in equine history and has brought us this film…

In this film – we see the victory of the great School master, preceptor Antoine de Pluvinel over sadistic James Fillis, equestrian sport ideologist. In this film – we see the newest scientific discoveries, which will make people change their views on the horse and its destiny in the human’s world. In this film – we see ancient mysteries, knightly orders and bloody events of past epochs. This film also features the first horses in the world to have received an academic High School education at liberty and their teacher, manege Master, the founder and teacher of today’s Nevzorov Haute Ecole, Alexander Nevzorov.

“The Horse Crucified and Risen” shines a light on the most important events in hippological history and gives a viewer the understanding of the essence of horsemanship, which is the basis for understanding the principles and practices of NHE.

www.NevzorovHauteEcole.com

Journal@HauteEcole.ru

school © Lydia Nevzorova

What are the ways to gain trust of an abused horse and reach his heart again?

By Joan Boyd, NHE senior student, Australia

Caring for a horse with a history of abuse means becoming a therapist, as pointed out by Alexander. He chose to do so with his four horses.

Most people would have asked: “Why bother? What is the profit?”, seeing no point to Alexander’s purchase of Kaogi, Lipisina, Perst and Tashunko.

They would be struck dumb by what has been achieved since.

Humans are the reason horses end up being judged ‘hopeless’ cases.

In NHE we aim to show that humans

6

NEVZOROV HAUTE ECOLE Equine Anthology, Vol. 7

must be the solution as we set out to undo the harm done in the past. Why we choose such difficult horses can be hard to explain logically: “The heart has reasons which reason knows nothing of”, as Blaise Pascal said.

Of his own reasons, Alexander says, “Amazing circumstances and strange feelings were always the foundation of choice. They always appeared during the first meeting…”

A glimpse in the paddock, a look into a particular horse’s eye – we each

have experienced something like that when drawn to a certain horse.

But, because he knew that the physical potential of the horses he chose was of utmost importance in Haute École, Alexander tells how he had to wait for Lydia’s evaluation by computer thermograph to ‘set his feelings free.”

We students are very different from each other. So are the reasons for the choices we make. Some of us hope to follow Alexander as far as possible

horse revolution HIPPOTHERAPY: In the Shadows of Equestrian Sports

Several years ago Alexander Nevzorov wrote a piece about the practice of hippotherapy in Russia. It was not flattering in that he exposed the great opportunity for unlicensed non-medical practitioners of that country to ply hippotherapy in order to extort hope for substantial curative results from people desperate to help disabled children, when no unequivocal proof existed of such outcomes.

Hippotherapy: In the Shadows of Equestrian Sports Even years later, clinical proof of the effectiveness of hippotherapy upon disabled persons remains in question, yet the use of horses as a therapeutic tool continues with great zeal.

As I revisit the subject today, inspired

by Nevzorov’s essay, I can share his compassion and understanding of the intense desire of parents of disabled children and caretakers of traumatized patients to try “anything” that might offer possibility for relief, comfort or even a cure for their loved ones.

Let me be clear, what follows is not a criticism of the patients and their real need for medical and therapeutic intervention.

However, there is a component to this vague therapeutic proffering beyond the way it affects the human organism that deserves ongoing scrutiny: the horse. I maintain that the use of horses within this scope is little more than an extension of the servitude of equestrian sports and that a fully healthy horse – one who is free from constraint, acting without fear of punishment, liberated in his mind and in optimum physiological balance could never participate adequately in such an endeavor. Only horses compromised to one degree or another could be found suitable. By the weak claims of hippotherapy, that compromise simply is not justified.

10 NEVZOROV HAUTE ECOLE Equine Anthology, Vol. 7

Before we go on allow me to clarify the terminology. According to the American Hippotherapy Association (AHA), hippotherapy in the strictest sense “is a physical, occupational and speech language therapy treatment strategy that utilizes equine movement as a part of integrated intervention program to achieve functional outcomes.” In other words, it is the movement of the horse that is the means of hippotherapy, not an understanding of horses in any sense by the patient, not a one on one developed relationship with a horse and the patient and not necessarily even a cognizant appreciation of the horse’s presence by the patient.

The popularity of horses as adjunct therapists is prevalent in numerous variations, including psychological and behavioral fields, where cognizant and emotional benefits are boasted alongside the clams of physical ones. The fact is that any interaction with a horse can be made to stand under the umbrella of Equine Assisted Activities and Therapies. Even though I cannot condone such utility of the horse in any case, equine assisted therapies other than hippotherapy will not be analyzed in any depth here. Now, I am only examining the role of the horse and the truth about what he endures in the name of human health.

Aware that “there is an enormous amount of truly agonizing, vulgar practices and disciplines concerning horses where they are suffering visibly, fearfully and hourly” (A. Nevzorov, Hippotherapy – The Wreck of the Myth) it might seem petty to put a microscope on therapeutic work. Surely, the travesties of eventing, reining, dressage, polo and more should be impeached. Yet, I’ll tell you that hippotherapy is a direct descendant of that family. * * * Let’s begin with what it takes for a physical, occupational or speech language therapist to earn the right to offer hippotherapy as choice on his menu of therapeutic strategies.

The credentials he holds in any of the aforementioned titles are not in question. However, hippotherapy is not a requirement for these practitioners at the outset of their professions, and many never incorporate it.

Instead, hippotherapy is an add-on.

There is no such diploma embossed with the title hippotherapist. Hippotherapy is merely a variation in physical therapy, a tool, a bead of hope for the patient that can be slipped on to the string of interventions available to the therapist. It broadens the appeal of the therapist to potential clients.

HIPPOTHERAPY: In the Shadows of Equestrian Sports horse revolution

True, one must be certified separately in equine skills to provide hippotherapy, and the certification requirements come down from none other than the annals of conventional training and management methods, the stalwarts of equestrian sports. It is verification given by the AHA through PATH Intl. (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International, formerly NARHA or North American Riding for the Handicapped Association) that the therapist can keep a horse in line for the safety of the client. It is assurance that the horse can be forced to obey the commands to share his movement with a rider.

And if the therapist does not have horse experience or talent enough to gain her own equestrian and equine handling certification she can simply hire a certified person to work with her.

There is no worry of being left out of this fashionable, growing industry, if one wants to take advantage. * * * In this day and age, with the watch dogs of humane societies and animals rights groups keeping tabs on the welfare of working animals, reputable organizations have standards to which they expect their therapists to adhere. I will not take space here to delve into cases that fall through the cracks. There is no need to dig up stories of lame, underfed horses living in ill-managed conditions being forced to cart around patient after patient, while the horse’s health deteriorates further. As I see it, the acceptable “standards” set by the acme of the hippotherapeutic method, the AHA, are enough to decry this as an appropriate life for a horse.

Of the 17 standards of hippotherapy as set forth by the AHA, only four are mandatory. Just one of the mandatory standards applies directly to the horse. Let’s examine that one. It is in reference to something called Tandem – Hippotherapy, or T-HPOT. Simply, it means that the therapist is aback the horse at the same time with the patient. And the mandatory stan-

dard requires that there is written evidence that the whole session inclusive of mounting and dismounting does not last more than 30 minutes, that sessions are not scheduled on consecutive days and that no more than two non-consecutive sessions per day are scheduled. Oh, yes one more – that the horse possibly be limited in other equine assisted activities on the days of T-HPOT. (There are no details as to how this written evidence is monitored or evaluated, or by whom.)

The interpretation of all this is that since T-HPOT is a stressful activity for the horse consideration should be given that his workload for other activities is lighter on those days.

That’s right, just “consideration given” to a lighter workload, not clear exemption from more work. And there is no outline of what constitutes a light or heavy workload at a treatment center.

It is acknowledged that this tandem riding therapy increases stress on the horse’s back and loin area. Thus another so called safety measure concerning the horse, beyond the proposed lighter work load and careful scheduling, is that the combined weight of the therapist and patient will not exceed 20% of the horse’s weight, assuming good conformation and fitness – that’s 200 pounds ( 91 kg) on a 1000 pound (453 kg) horse.

Does that proposed limitation really avoid damage to the horses back?

In a word: no.

In the Nevzorov Haute Ecole Anthology, Volume 1 Alexander Nevzorov presents illuminating evidence as to the detrimental effects of weight and duration on the physiology of the horse’s back. The anthology article entitled Tractate on a School Mount – A Man on the Back, Understanding the Horse as an Exact Science, Nevzorov goes into great detail to explain the damage that occurs from a rider.

Borrowing methods used by forensic investigators to explain the effects of blunt force trauma to an organism, Nevzorov easily makes the argument that a rider on the back of a horse is

a blunt object. There is no doubt that one person – let alone two – on the back of the horse is going to have ill effect.

“The issue at hand is that every muscle contains a micro-vascular system of blood and lymph venules and capillaries that create within a muscle (roughly speaking) its own microcirculation. Compression breaks it down, nourishment of the “fasciculus” fasciculus muscularis reduces or stops – and the “compromised” muscle sounds the alarm through branches of nerve fibers.”

“After 15 minutes under the weight and pressure of rider and saddle, the micro trauma of tissues begin, the compression effect accumulates and the back of the horse begins to feel light discomfort. Dermal receptors produce and “itchy” feeling. Under impact of direct compression, under the weight of the rider and the saddle, the “perimysium”, the sheath of connective tissue surrounding muscle fibers, begins primary deformation, accompanied by feelings of discomfort, then these symptoms become more acute. At the end of 20 minutes, they turn into the feeling of dull pain.”

Admittedly tandem hippotherapy is a specialized hippotherapy technique and likely the majority of hippotherapy sessions are not comprised of it.

At least I hope not.

However, what of the common versions of a hippotherapy session? To what is a horse subjected on a regular basis if he is in the service of a therapist using hippotherapy. It may be no surprise to learn of the expected use of “various saddles and surcingles, stirrups, halter, bridles and bits, various pads, side reins, leads, long lines, lunging equipment, boots or bandages for equine legs, various types of whips.” 1 There we have all our old friends from equestrian sports. The relationship to equestrian sports is additionally demonstrated by the standard that reminds us that “training and conditioning methods specific to hippo1

AHA Standards, H10.

NEVZOROV HAUTE ECOLE Equine Anthology, Vol. 7 11

Against equestrian sport petition Currently Nevzorov Haute Ecole Research Centre has the unquestionable evidence of equestrian sport's cruelty.

We are ready to bring on a highest level a conclusive accusation against equestrianism, races and other horse torturing activities. Also we think it is legally acceptable to claim moral damage which is caused to children, whose mental health is endangered while participating in "sport activities" which consider the cruel treatment of a living being to be normal. The above is pertinent to the audience that is unsuspicious of the real nature of equestrian sport, races and other forms of human entertainment which include horses.

We bear in mind the extent of the problem: we understand that the equestrian industry will use any means possible to defend its financial interests. Also we understand that we can withstand and win the fight only when we close our ranks. We need your aid, the aid of the sane and intelligent people.

Let us together stop the lies and the rampancy of legalized cruelty. Let us mark the 21st century with the prohibition of such a shameful sport as equestrianism. Let us exclude "Equestrianism" from the Olympic Games.

You can not ignore the public opinion nowadays. Internet connects people all over the world. Through the efforts of the publicity the use of the wild animals in circuses was banned in the USA. The horse slaughterhouses were also closed there. In Australia the horse races were banned at the Victoria race track. All of these happened because of the unity and bravery of the people who are ready to make a stand against the deadly machine of equestrianism. And this is just the beginning.

Stop legalized violence!

Sign the Petition

reviews

reviews films

films BARTABAS NAKED

Or: The futile expectation to see Brabancon horses La Reprise musicale Joint production of Equidia Company and Academie du Spectacle Équestre France, 2004 70 min The presentation of the first official film of Bartabas' Academie du Spectacle Équestre took place with the high-end production of a capricious montage. Fanciful, dramatic, and in short: pompous.

It is well known that Bartabas is the proud new tenant of the Royal Manege in Versailles The Minister of Culture of France had been scratching his head for a long time, trying to consider the one being worthy enough to appoint as Maître for these Versailles Stables and the Manege (the school associated with the Stables). It needed to be someone appealing in their beauty and unparalleled in their cultural value.

For an extended time all the Equestrian Maîtres de France, everyone without exception from Luraschi to Gruss, were engaged in a battle against one another for the right to occupy this Manege; the

16 NEVZOROV HAUTE ECOLE Equine Anthology, Vol. 7

candidates for this position bent over backwards, while also managing to send each other the occasional poisoned arrow, but ultimately the title fell to Bartabas.

Together with the Manége, Bartabas was granted the ultimate right to represent École Classique de France to the entire world, and his newly formed Academy was nominated a brand new attraction in Paris. This honor has worked perfectly as bait for tourists (the easily controlled creatures that they are known to be).

If the Academy of Saumur – the Cadre Noir in particular – embodies the classics of the King's-coated, Baucher-like French Cavalry, then Bartabas and his Academie du Spectacle Équestre is now representing the aristocratic, temporal side of classical French dressage.

Be warned from the beginning: after moving into the building of the

Royal Manege, Bartabas has significantly dressed-down.

Here in La Reprise Musicale he has lost the motley, bad-tasting touch of gypsiness and "sexual circus" which have previously radiated from his films, and which seemed to be part of his nature.

The foundation of the new Academy was accompanied by a well-organized mass media blitz. There are the clever ploys such as the purchase of "Hermes" saddles for many thousands of euros and the beautiful horsewomen arriving directly from Siberia. Additionally, the new Academy uniform coats for the riders are splendidly manufactured for flashiness, fabricated from mustard cloth with dense golden embroidery along the sleeves. They were carefully designed by Van Hoten, and the Brazilian factory which got the order to produce them–normally known for grave errors in their manufactur-

films reviews ing process, managed not to spoil a thing.

But let us get back to Bartabas…

In his new alter ego as an Academist, purified from his earlier gypsy-styled circusness, Bartabas, appointed by the Minister of Culture of France to be the "Grand Master of Classical Dressage,” and technically the next reincarnation of de La Guérinière, appeared before the world absolutely naked-exposed. He appeared not as a man and a Frenchman, but as a master of "Classical Dressage." But the rules of his new academic game prevented him from using his customary tricks which had heretofore been successful at hiding all the drawbacks of his work as a “master” trainer, tricks meant to draw the attention of spectators away from everything that should not been seen.

Frenchman, but a Russian would find this appalling.

The footing, however, is excellent.

Loam soil added to small-grained oak and beech sawdust. Visually there is about 40% sawdust to 60% sifted loam; the oak/beech proportion is visually indistinguishable. Oak sawdust had been chosen for its resistance to decay, and its use in this application is absolutely correct. Additionally, unlike the pine and fir sawdust widely used in Russia, oak sawdust is three times as heavy and thick, which gives an "impregnable" and soft density to the ground. It is marvelous footing.

Bartabas has lost his right to deco­ rate his performances with distracting extras like geese, llamas, colored arena footing, deformed gypsies and scenes of Brabancon copulations.

Incidentally, these filmed sex scenes between cart-horses, round-crouped and hairy-legged, celebrated and repeatedly replicated by Bartabas have already become so surprisingly interlaced with the Maestro's image that even during academic performances the audience wheezes, fidgets, and visibly can't wait to see the end of the sluggish dressage boredom and the entry of the Brabancons afire with passion.

This long-awaited expectation to see Brabancon horses is indeed the main attraction of the new Versailles academisms, giving the viewer false hope.

Yet the film itself remains quite traditional for this type of subject.

The manége as shown in the film is designed in a manner I would call "Ala half-finished" or "the Gastarbeiters slipped away." Planks, bolts, beams affixed but awry–all the beautiful repairs, suddenly stopped in their beginning. This is perhaps exotic for a

At the beginning of the film, silent girls are for a lengthy interval shown braiding the manes of blue-eyed white Lusitanos, collected from all around the world for the Academy. No signs of any Brabancons yet. Everything takes place inside the walls of the old King's stables, tediously decorous and boring. The scene is of grey stonework, lamps and wrought-iron lattice.

The girls move about in lovely cloaks, carrying brushes and saddles from pillar to post while making eyes at the camera and polishing the Lusitanos' croups with great enthusiasm.

As I've already mentioned, there are no Brabancons in this scene, but the lack of them can already be felt.

The performance itself begins. On the manege ground you see girls and horses. White Lusitanos demonstrate no advantages except their blue-eyedness, and they equally show no predisposition to classical dressage. The horses are tight and sore, excessively overflexed by their bits into a typical false collection; the poor Lusitanos look gloomily upon the expensive ground of the new Manege de Versailles. Correspondingly, the facial expressions of Bartabas' “academy girls” are rarely positive; they may be more clearly characterized as "obscenely sublime."

The first ten minutes of the performance come down to a resonant picking away at the polished sides of Lusitanos, with increasing self-importance gripping the faces of the girls, coupled then by a very poor drill ride.

Later, come the horsewomen squeezing flat passages and crooked piaffes out of the Lusitanos. Eventually somebody dares to exercise a Spanish walk, which is executed indistinctly and with unflattering gingerness.

Those who are unable to perform the Spanish walk show a "school walk" instead, a very crafty thing indeed, it should be noted–if there is not a good height and easy lift of the horse’s forelegs in the Spanish walk, then you can just call it the "school walk." The girls' seats are actually not so bad, but they are a bit flawed in terms of "showiness" and artificial grace. The riders are visibly weak at real school seats, but it is good to see that none of them come down on their horse with inferior, sportlike "waist-work" (posting) which would give away their dark, sporting pasts.

After the drill ride has ended, dismounted girls play ballet with fencing foils, showing a hackneyed, staged version of fencing. This is carried out sourly, but with a grand significance.

The fencing is then repeated on the backs of tough, small horses of Argentinean origin called Criollos. The group contains 16 grey hips, 8 maneuvering fannies, 8 fencing masks, and 8 ponytails. The only truly interesting director's move in this episode is a tough, woman’s howl that overpowers the thudding of hooves, the puffing of the girls and the clanking of foils. This howl

NEVZOROV HAUTE ECOLE Equine Anthology, Vol. 7 17

© Lydia Nevzorova

WAR Chapter 4

The Horse crucified and risen

22

he Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

The Scythian Halls.

There is no one here, thank goodness.

There is a smell of mummies and it is cold here.

A chestnut Scythian steed lies in a square glass coffin (there is an inscription in purple ink on an old piece of cardboard: "Horse Remains Number 10").

Two and a half thousand years ago he was killed above the coffin of his Scythian master, both of them unnamed. Killed along with his master’s wives and servants.

He lay for a long time in his deep grave made of logs until the barrows of the Pazyryk Valley tract of the Great Ulagan valley were discovered and excavated.

And now his final home, his huge luxurious barrow has become the imperial Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

No one disturbs the nameless steed, not even with a glance.

His Scythian lord is alongside, but in a more modest glass coffin.

Black, to be sure, somewhat thin and hollow-cheeked, with a rag barely covering his privates and the characteristic grin of a fully happy mummy.

Typical dead guy.

For some reason, the museum's old women call the dead one Andrusha. If someone even wanders accidentally into this cold, Scythian hall, then, being unable to resist glancing beneath the rag to learn what happened in two and a half thousand years with Andrusha's penis, he would move away, not even having noticed the steed in the glass coffin.

The chestnut steed, crowned with golden deer antlers and in a felt, embroidered mask covered with Persian gold, was brought to the crypt with the king's body in an as yet not understood Scythian funeral ritual.

In its skull is a single hole from the blow of a bronze ritualistic spike.

The Scythian funerary horse killer probably had a firm hand and plenty of skill.

NEVZOROV HAUTE ECOLE Equine Anthology, Vol. 7

The mummy of that chestnut horse from Pazyryk

24

The Horse crucified and risen

The heads of about 17 wives and servants were pierced with that same spike.

In all of this there was no more intended cruelty than in the accurate packing of a suitcase for a vacation.

They had prepared the Scythian chief for a journey.

And he needed a horse in that black country where he was going.

And it was supposed to be as dead as he himself in order to easily and reliably put its hooves on the black earth of that land.

The ancient Jews conducted themselves significantly worse.

The Bible describes without any reservations the following custom of its heroes and prophets.

Having once more conquered someone (either the Syrians or Moab), the holy, divinely inspired forefather, prophet and king David, the poet and writer of Psalms, ordered the cutting of the hamstrings of practically all the captured horses.

A horse crippled in this way is fully deprived of the ability to move and in about ten days, awaits its death in inexpressible torment, having half squatted in the red hot sand of the biblical desert.

I am not overstating this in any way, here is a quotation: "And David took from him a thousand and seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand foot solders; and David hamstrung all the chariot horses…" (Samuel II, 8:4).

The holy prophet and writer of the Psalms was not an innovator.

He only fulfilled the direct instructions of the Biblical god.

The same that had been given to Joshua a little earlier: "And the Lord said to Joshua, 'Do not be afraid of them, for tomorrow at this time I will give over all of them, slain, to Israel; you shall hamstring their horses, and burn their chariots with fire'" (Joshua 11:6).

Joshua then did just that, in full compliance with the will of his god.

David was only following tradition.

It would have been good had they treated people in a similar manner, but they did not. They killed their prisoners, with enthusiasm of course, but quickly and painlessly.

The Biblical holy ones consciously subjected only horses to the most terrible, poignantly inconceivable death. The chestnuts, the bays, the blacks, the grays, all of them.

In the lifeless, dusty haze David’s warriors, having seized the "iron" with their hands, they held onto the captive horses which were harnessed to the empty chariots. Blinking in the dust, other of David's divine warriors wearing leather plated suits of armor and clean bronze helmets bustled among the chariots yelling, while hacking the hind legs of the captive horses with broad bronze swords.

Boys immediately ignited the chariots to which the horses were harnessed with long, smoking torches, shoving them beneath the planked bottoms of the chariots.

NEVZOROV HAUTE ECOLE Equine Anthology, Vol. 7

Chapter 4. War

25

The wicker chariots of Moab and Adjara, covered with hide and parched from the desert heat, were quickly engulfed in flame, covering the backs and croups of the already immobilized horses with fire.

The horses most likely tried to shinny and creep on their forelegs in the sand, but collapsed on their carpi, tried to stand up and then collapsed onto their sides with the burning chariots.

They left those who were burning in the desert to die by the thousands, huddling in pain from their severed tendons.

Around them lay those to whom great mercy had been shown, the slaughtered men, as the chariots burnt low.

The bastard David most likely sang his Psalms, keeping an eye on what his hands had wrought.18 In the “enlightened” 19th century, Napoleonic Hussars had clear cut authorization for shooting captive horses in particular: "It must be shot in the head, aiming the shot so that a bullet that ricochets cannot injure any of our own."

These are the words of the great ideologue of cavalry, de Brack.

That same de Brack, summarizing the Grande Armée's authority, explains the need for shooting artillery draught horses, if there is no possibility or need to drive the captured equipment back to their own lines.

Thank you, French history, French historians and French writers of memoirs.

Thank goodness no reliable information about how this occurred has reached us.

And the English, holding forth before the whole world about their love for the horse, have left documentation about their own methods during the Peninsular War. In essence, they virtually replicated the actions of the Biblical prophets then.

During the evacuation from Corunna, the English did not have the necessary number of ships on which to load the horses.

And then a decision was made to destroy all the horses so they did not fall into the hands of the French.

The English, having driven all their riding horses (several regiments, nearly two thousand souls) to Corunna's town square, began to shoot them with rifles and pistols, and when the smoke had cleared, an order was issued to cut them up with sabers, stab them with what was available, slit throats, break legs, and do everything in order to kill or cripple them so completely that even if the French found the horses, they wouldn't be suitable for anything.

While three hundred English cavalrymen destroyed their horses, the rest were loaded onto ships in order to evacuate Corunna for good.

The extermination of the horses in the square and in the side streets by small units of cavalrymen was very organized, but they quickly withdrew to the boats.

NEVZOROV HAUTE ECOLE Equine Anthology, Vol. 7

26

The Horse crucified and risen

They were evacuated in haste, and they did not finish off the severely injured horses, (that, by the way, was impossible, since the heaps of horse bodies on the square reached 1,5 to 2 meters in height).

Captain Gordon from the 15th Hussars regiment witnessed the gigantic slaughterhouse in the Corunna square, unreal in scale, and in the passion of the killers and in the bloodshed.

And I emphasize that those they excitedly slaughtered were their own, native combat horses.

Some of them already had survived campaigns and the clashes of the Peninsular War and many of them had served in the regiments for three to four years each.

Any niggardly tears on the mustached mugs of the cavalrymen which were certainly shed there were unable in the least to stop or slow the process of the destruction of the horses.

But there were also people there with enlightened hearts. "Sir Godfrey Webster's servant was not able to kill Sir Godfrey's horse. He dragged it from the carnage under a hail of Hussar bullets, himself being accidentally wounded in the leg and back of the head, and brought the horse to the edge of the town, and let it gallop directly toward the French."

No other evidence remained of normal deeds of the English in relation to horses during the retreat from Corunna. There probably weren't any.

It is known that in a conversation with a Dutch envoy, the French king, while experiencing certain linguistic difficulties, playfully asked Antonine de Pluvinel who was standing next to him to give him a precise translation of the word "cavalryman."

"Precise?" Pluvinel repeated.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" the king responded in a great huff.

"A cavalry man is a person who should not be allowed to come near a horse," Rustre a slowly answered, stumbling for words and glancing at the decorated cypress flooring of the Louvre.

Pluvinel was right, as always. *** So why is this chapter being written?

It is understood that in fights among primates, both local and wide-scale, everything was used that could yield the slightest advantage. This includes the horse.

The horse’s life, his feelings, his soul are not at all taken into account, for he, “it,” was merely a piece of equipment, most often used only once, his death was considered a trifle and his suffering meant nothing.

I, honestly speaking, adhere to Pluvinel's point of view and I can only repeat after him that "a cavalryman is one who should not be allowed near a horse."

But I am ready to change my opinion on the condition that the 3,000 year history of the horse, which has been inextricably involved with man’s violent endeavors, will yield at least some facts that refute my conviction.

NEVZOROV HAUTE ECOLE Equine Anthology, Vol. 7

Chapter 4. War

27

The myth about the beauty and effectiveness of the cavalry is so strong and so entrenched in human culture and history that perhaps it is worth knowing it a bit more thoroughly and looking for some kind of affirmation for it.. in at least one place or at one time.

I am writing this chapter while not knowing at all how and with what I will end it.

I hope very much that it will not turn into just a list of abominations.

Don't forget that the aforementioned myth asserts, among other things, that war is one of the horse's chief callings, that all the finest things that man valued and idolized in a horse were embodied in a military horse, that war in particular engendered that most miraculous unity of rider and steed and this became a canon in art, literature and cinematography.

But as far as unity and friendship with the horse are the fundamental and chief subjects of this book, then the need arises to write some short history of the cavalry, which rests on tested, serious and characteristic facts.

Naturally, this history will not investigate the principles of cavalry formations and tactics.

I am totally uninterested in the fundamental question of the cavalry's history, the advantage of a single file formation in front of a double-file formation, a chess formation or terraced formation of cavalry troops.

I don't want to argue about the prince-electors or dispute the eternal subject of the role of the hippotoxotès (horse archers) in the Punic Wars or for the umpteenth time, on the heels of all the cavalry historians, be horrified by the stupidity of Servius Tullius, who once divided the Roman cavalry into 18 centuries.

All of this has not the slightest relationship to the horse per se.

Nor to his relationship with man.

And I don't quite intend to groan in this chapter about man's misunderstanding of the horse, it is not being discussed, for a multitude of evidence about that has been presented in the chapters about "iron," sport and training. War was the apogee of all this ferocity.

I also do not intend to repeat and attempt to analyze the cavalry's history through "iron."

It is understood that here, too, in the history of the horse at war, everything has been decided only by merciless painful compulsion.

These issues are no longer under discussion.

Something else of interest is that the horse and man were able to be in particularly close physical proximity at war, they were in continuous contact for years, they fought and starved together and they ate and slept alongside each other.

Did such proximity then engender at least a hint of understanding of the horse?

At least a little bit?

NEVZOROV HAUTE ECOLE Equine Anthology, Vol. 7

Š Lydia Nevzorova

Here we introduce to you a list of rare and ancient things which were not known to hippological history or were completely forgotten.

In this cartularium there will be forgotten articles and texts, which are vital for attaining an understanding of Equine History.

cartularium

cartularium the curb

The curb © Nevzorov Haute Ecole

Turkey. The XVII century

Materials : steel, bronze, copper, coral. Weight – 945 gr. Length of branche – 245 mm.

60

NEVZOROV HAUTE ECOLE Equine Anthology, Vol. 7

© S. Spartantseva

the curb cartularium

It is a very typical Ottoman curb. The mechanism of mouth impact is characteristic for the East. In Europe it is called «Arabic» or «Janett style» curb. Today it is widely used at races under the name «Chifney».

The same principle is used in the leading out bridle design. From the curve of the mouthpiece three-centimeter stem goes up and rests itself on the slope of the upper palate. The stem ends in a ring embracing the lower jaw and works at the slightest pull of the rein bridle as a super chin chain.

The peculiar part of its design is the location of high and sharp thorns on the

straight elements of mouthpiece – three ones on each side. Their function was to prevent the horse from any attempts to insert a part of its tongue between the branche cheek and the ring stem. The curb is decorated with a typical pair of ornamented curves with polished corals «hung» on them. Seven corals have been lost but the device is so disgustful that, frankly speaking, taking any care of it seems hardly possible. History. According to the legend it was brought from the Russian-Turkish war as a trophy then had been sharing a Moscow family life before got into the School collection.

NEVZOROV HAUTE ECOLE Equine Anthology, Vol. 7

61

Š Lydia Nevzorova

This section is dedicated to discourses with those who are capable of turning the cold searchlight of science on any hippological problem.

World-known hoof-trimmers, luminaries of veterinary sciences, historians and professors of higher educational institutions of hippology will tell you about their work, their ideas and horses.

colloquium

© Nevzorov Haute Ecole

The Path of the School The truth, demonstrated by my husband and his horses, has shocked people.

The world started changing.

We used to receive thousands of penitential and thankful letters: mountainous piles of mail.

All of them – from sportsmen to veterans of the Afghan war, from five-year-old children to ballet pensioners – either expressing support… or criticizing: no one rested indifferently.

We had to do something about this.

The School was the most natural consequence of the recent intellectual revolution. It was as logical and natural as pregnancy after impregnation.

THE PATH OF THE SCHOOL colloquium Lydia Nevzorova: One day I decided to present my husband with a website as a gift for his birthday. It was supposed to be rather a webpage, notably in English: all of our western friends had their personal webpages and we were asked for our own address. By the time I was finishing the English version it had already become clear, that the Russians are not less worthy and there was no need to offend them. The site became bilingual at once. And when it began working, it turned out that the mountainous pile of letters was nothing compared with the amount of e-mails. Moreover, people didn’t just ask their questions: they longed for a dialogue, for discussions! To any of my answers I got a dozen new questions, and in half of them their authors just wanted to be students!

The idea of a small forum appeared, where people could share their thoughts and get advice. My helper was Alexander’s first, and only student at that time, Sergey Sumbaev. If he hadn’t promised to take all the work on the forum upon himself, I would have never made the decision. But he promised – with the ease of a 20-year-old creature. He abandoned me in that forum after approximately a month, leaving me with everything from administration to lessons.

By the way, Alexander didn’t even look at his present!

Lydia, thank you for the story. Could you tell us, how the name “Nevzorov Haute Ecole” was born?

Well, that was the most logical thing that came into my head. Besides, we understood from the beginning that although we lived in Russia, the things we would deal with were absolutely international, and that’s why the name had to be international. “Haute Ecole

by Nevzorov” is how Nevzorov Haute Ecole first appeared. The second brand was the Horse Revolution. Rather, it was called “Horse Guild” at that time, but they refused to register the “guild” as the horses couldn’t sign papers by themselves. True, at that time our horses were not able to spell.

This name was written in the manége. I remember one day, Alexander worked with Perst, in my view, a bit too long, and I, entering the manege and holding my hands like a megaphone jokingly nasally-intoned: “On behalf of the horse guild I am announcing – it is time for Perst to have a lunch break.”

Was the forum closed from the begin­ ning?

It was. For me it seemed strange that people were ready to communicate on the Net with those who would never lend a hand in reality. I wished to collect a community of people who

were like-minded who seemed pleasant to me. But I am a softhearted person, one can easily move me to pity, and at the time I felt being on the Internet as if I came from the moon. I didn’t think that people would lie and embellish. As a result, of course, I “invited” a huge number of sportsmen, zoophiles, just idiots… all types! In most cases people turned out to be very far from the good that they advertised.

I remember this as if it was yesterday: a bearded man from Holland sent me such a wonderful letter! And a photo!

A pony lived in his house, sat in a chair and ate from a table. I was so touched, so touched… until someone whispered to me to read an article about him in a Holland newspaper. I looked at the picture – there was the man and the pony with a bridal veil and a priest in front of them. I read – the first official wedding in Holland with a horse had gained the public’s acclaim. For me that was a shock that can be compared with…No, why, it can’t be compared with anything.

Of course, we said goodbye to such people. To many we said goodbye just because of their lack of talent.

You know, there are some people who amount to nothing. Wasted. Biomass.

Furniture. They need neither School nor knowledge. Unfortunately, there were a lot of such people on our forum, too, and I did not see any need

to devote my time and life to them. If one of them appears – we part at first the opportunity.

SERGEY SUMBAEV: Students who come to the forum today are completely different: strict, serious, and deeply versed in science, with a huge theory base, with much bigger experiences. Now, in order to enter the School, you really need to do a lot. This is how, I think, the most worthy people are picked out. Moreover, since the school has been in existence, Alexander and Lydia have created a tremendous scientific base, and our students today use it as a foundation. That’s why the education progresses and goes more correctly.

Lydia, is there anyone dignified left from that time?

Of course! It was the dignified that were left! For example, our Elizaveta, the irreplaceable IT administrator and a constant friend. She’s been with us from the first day!

In the very beginning, when the site had first opened, I got hundreds of letters. One of them was so irate and indignant, but full of love and respect for Nevzorov. Someone gave me a

NEVZOROV HAUTE ECOLE Equine Anthology, Vol.7 65

colloquium THE PATH OF THE SCHOOL lecture in the style of a schoolteacher about the large number of grammar mistakes and misprints, in a rather rough way.

It was pointed out what a huge shame it was to write so terribly on Nevzorov’s official page. But what I appreciated, at the same time was the help that was offered.

I had no helpers, even to simply read and edit my texts. I was all alone and didn’t understand that once everything that was published on the Net goes out into the public, and that there is no opportunity to make mistakes, write drafts and then edit.

I should say, I was not offended, and gratefully accepted the help.

And without further talks I gave that strict person access to the whole site, having never seen her and knowing nothing about her. Now I understand that she could have destroyed it, but then I didn’t think of it. Elizaveta soon became my true friend, and in two months – a family friend… Isn’t it destiny? There are several more people from that time, we still work together now.

ELIZAVETA MAKAROVA, NHE School forum and website IT-director It may seem strange, but it is difficult to reconcile the age of the site and the NHE forum with the real age of the School. A chronicler’s pen scrupulously and systematically fixes all events, facts, and dates, but the history, which is being written within our sight, matches a different measure, and one year sometimes goes for a score of years.

Near Alexander the time goes by in an uncommon way, and all the events that happen – are those that should happen. My life turned upside down in the wave of a hand: once, having offered an obscure woman named Lydia my help in editing the texts on the site, I, frankly speaking, didn’t even expect a letter of reply – and at once I was given the “keys” to the site and forum, many concerns connected with this anything but simple “household”, and a close friend in the person of Lydia.

This is how within one day I became a participant from a sympathizer, in ad-

66 NEVZOROV HAUTE ECOLE Equine Anthology, Vol. 7

dition getting on the inside of the NHE School and getting a unique possibility to see day by day, how the historical process had been created, and a reason to rethink everything about the role of a person in history, that I had only read about before.

Recently, when preparing for the latest hippological seminar, the statistical data was processed, and the result was surprising even for the administration: since the origin of School only ¼ of its members are left! This means, three in four people accepted were dismissed! There were hundreds of variants on the reasons for dismissal, but in essence, there was only one: these people eventually chose the wrong door. Luckily, this is fixable: sooner or later, time will put everything into perspective.

Now, after several years have passed, it is weird to recall, how nervous our girls were because of sportsmen’s “spying” penetrations into the forum, being scared that School secrets will go to the wrong people. Today we treat minor hackers and their overgrown tutors, who devote their life to vain tries at least to feel the School development vector, with indulgence and even with compassion.

Have you ever heard an eastern parable about blind men, who touched an elephant and judged him based on their personal perception? The man who touched the trunk was sure that the elephant is a long thing, like a pipe; the man who touched the tusk contradicted, and said that the elephant is something stiff and sharp.

They both were tragically far from the real image, for Knowledge can never be a blind man’s companion.

It seems unbelievable, but only a short time ago Alexander was strongly against his own website and forum, didn’t use the Internet and had only one student. And now, he has posted more than one thousand (!) messages on the forum! It means that people who have passed a strict selection process and are in the School today are special. They have collected dozens of terabytes of photographs of sport horrors; they have shoveled up and rethought hundreds of gigabytes of anatomy, biology, physiology, history, philosophy, and management

materials. They are smart. Talented.

Daring. They have decided – and are able – to devote their life to the Horse.

Marvelous. True. OURS. The first person that came to the international forum, when I was just about to open such a section, was Michael Bevilacqua from Canada. He wrote me such a deeply felt letter, that it was clear: this person is with us to the marrow of his bones, he is ready to go with us and completely trusts us. Michael is not a boy; he is in his forties, and in all the years we have been together he has never dropped a hint of doubt, or got in wrong and has always behaved irreproachably. Recently he published a wonderful book about his comprehension of horsemanship. It has already become a bestseller on Amazon.com. Сloe Lacroix, NHE School Dean and Representative of NHE in Canada At the beginning, in 2005, anyone could sign on and that drew a lot of very negative people. Presenting a change of mentality, resistance-free schooling, natural hooves... affected a lot of people personally, as well as affecting an existing, thriving industry. Many people were furious, aggressive, and threatening.

The administration decided in 2007 to push on by using a type of screening process. Candidates were asked to write a letter to the administration explaining their beliefs and be subject to subsequent approval or denial of registration. They had to post a visible picture of their face for their avatar with their real birth name. In the beginning, some people still made the effort to try to get in and cause trouble. It kept us vigilant and less tolerant of those who did not adhere to the principles of the school.

Today, in the NHE International school, members are expected to dedicate themselves to a rigorous course of study, with required theory lessons, essays, and tests on a regular schedule, and everything related to the pursuit of an academic goal.

The School is still young, and is still

www.NevzorovHauteEcole.com