Classical dressage

Today, these methods are helping children, families, educators, and practitioner around the world.

Rupert's search for understanding also has led him deeply into the traditions of the classical dressage and the teachings of the old masters, exploring the timeless principle that governs balance, movement, communication, and harmony between horse and equestrian.

And perhaps these two path are not separate at all.

Perhaps they're both part of the same search, an attempt to understand the fundamental principles that allow a living being to feel safe enough to connect, learn, communicate, and express who they truly are.

So, in this conversation, I would like to explore why the horse became the, the gateway.

What is it that horses offers us through movement, rhythm, presence, and relationship that can reach beyond language and open doors within the human heart, mind, and nervous system? What did Rowan, Rupert's son, understand about horses that the adults around him had yet to recognize? And what has this journey taught Rupert about healing, fatherhood, and the extraordinary length we will travel to help someone we love find their own way of being in the world? We will also explore Rupert's fascination with the principle of classical dressage, and whether the wisdom of the old masters offers something far greater than a system for training horses, perhaps revealing fundamental truth about balance, self-regulation, relationships, and life itself.

Because for so many of us equestrian, the horse is not simply part of the journey.

The horse is the gateway, the teacher, and perhaps, as we so often discover, the horse is the source.

But I was always...

I used to joke that I was dressage by passion, but Western by function, because I've always been one of those that wanted to know why do things work, how do things work, what if we, what if we tweak it a little bit this way, what's the horse's response going to be, and how does that communication happen? And so that always sort of drew me to what I saw as dressage, a classical dressage.

But so that's, that's really for me where the, the interest was always there and the door got opened, and ultimately that led me to meeting someone who would become a mentor, Mark Russell.

Ah, yes.

So how are you-- What, what are your strategies for de-wankifying? How does Patrick King help de-wankify dressage?

I...

Coming from, coming from the different schools of thought, coming from the, the Ray Hunt horsemanship side of thought and the classical dressage side of thought, I'm always trying to build the bridge.

I have a student that for several years, she refers to me as the integrator.