Federigo Grisone's Gli Ordini di Cavalcare

The Renaissance fascination with classical texts led to high regard for Xenophon’s guide to choosing and training a horse for a military role. Yet as riding became a gentlemanly art, Grisone’s manual took an entirely different approach.

Animal and Human Nature

Grisone was known throughout Italy as a skilled horseman and his manual describes techniques established in the riding-school he founded in Naples in 1532. His method approaches riding as a display of human control over the horse as a lower being, with the intention of refining and perfecting nature through human skill. This meant that a fierce response to any resistance from the horse was essential to show that the man could assert his authority without compromise. Grisone does not refer to Xenophon at all and this may be because his more sympathetic approach did not sit easily with this severe starting point.

Theory and Practice

While Grisone does stress the need to reward the horse, his recommendations of severe beatings about the head, the use of fire, whips and chains together with page upon page of designs for severe bits make his approach alarming to modern sensibilities. Seeing him as a product of his own time is important in appreciating the contribution of his work. The practicality of his method has to be questioned, however, as it is hard to see his violent approach as likely to result in the calm and beautifully trained horse he is aiming for.

Subsequent Editions

Grisone’s manual was nevertheless the first of its kind and extremely successful. The original Italian text was first printed in 1550 and later editions appeared in 1552, 1556, and 1610, with at least ten French translations between 1559 and1610, as well as Spanish and German editions in 1568, 1573 and 1623. Sir Thomas Blundeville chose to adapt rather than directly translate the text into English because he considered Grisone to have ‘so confused an order of writing’ (A Newe Booke containing the Arte of Ryding and breaking greate Horses, London: Willyam Seres, 1560, unnumbered page). His adapted translation of 1560 was revised and expanded in 1565 and had run to six editions by 1609, as well as leading to a large number of derivative texts based on Grisone’s methods. From 1550 onwards, at least twenty different manuals that dealt specifically with riding as an art were circulating across Europe in numerous editions, languages and translations.

A Move Towards Change

However, despite Grisone’s long influence, concerns were raised by many later writers over his level of violence, which may be summed up by Sir Nicholas Morgan’s belief that only ‘the ignorant and pretended Rider proceedeth to violence’ (The Horseman’s Honour, or the Beautie of Horsemanship London: John Marriott, 1620, p.168). While a number comment on the intelligence of the horse, the primary concern was that humans may display animal-like behaviour themselves if they allowed anger and frustration to move them to violence. So while Grisone’s ideas still served as a precedent due to the belief that Italians had a natural authority when it came to horsemanship, a change was coming and with the rise of Antoine de Pluvinel, horsemanship took a more thoughtful turn.

Grisone’s Legacy

Grisone was not the first to develop training in horsemanship as an art but the success of his school made him the focus of a new generation of riders. By publishing, he ensured that his ideas were spread across Europe to establish a point of reference based on his own expertise. He also set a precedent for great horse trainers to immortalise their approach in print that continues to the present.

Access to Grisone’s Work

Grisone’s manuals are highly valued today and most often found in specialist and rare book library collections. A literal translation of his manual has yet to be published in English but short translated extracts can be found in several secondary sources, including Sylvia Loch’s The Royal Horse and Rider (London: J. A. Allen, 1987), while open access online facsimiles of two early editions are available from the collection of the Veterinary College of Lyon.

A lower being?

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