Meaning of life 11

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“Aging is an extraordinary process where we become the person we always should have been”.  (David Bowie)

“Procrastinating as the dragon, a great horse chestnut, hair washed, appears in its turn, her dress venous golden and shiny of foam. It lengthens his stride effortlessly powerful to tackle the obstacle. Rider and horse united in the same breath, they are approaching quickly, we feel empathy which unites these two beings, the calm and the friendship that they can tell each other the one to the other:

Every jump is a parable of life where birth, life and death, past, present and future are linked in a same second ephemeral. Freely, the horse takes off extending into the air his big body of pure-blood, it triggers a jump perfectly calibrated to clear the bank in a single gesture fluid and beautiful, immense, timeless: they have covered the obstacle without taking support, without even touching its top...

A Pure moment of feeling and mythical, unforgettable. The space of a moment, the universe has chill around us, the rapidity of the feat we pierced like an arrow.

My eternal moment....

This memory, I often evokes thoughts when I mean the greatness of eventing this sport, strange and beautiful nature, which takes more than an art of living of ancient times that of our modern potential.

Because there is everything in this moment of eternity, a set of fundamental values that make the great sport: the trust and harmony, the courage and the franchise, the abandonment, too, and a huge lack of interest for the materiality of the world. It is an act of freedom: in his quest of weightlessness and this winged horse opens in my mind a gateway to the off-grid, towards an original space-time where the horse is a horse and the rider's man, sealing a friendly alliance to escape the predators.

Often in other fields of everyday life, or when life is hard and that my clock to dreams is blocked, I invoke the shadows caring of my eternal moment, this emotion impulsive and galvanizing his power. He took place in the museum of my personal mythology, as an event of pure rock and roll, and its remembrance gives me the same pleasure, the same conscience of the feat, the same force of transgression.

It fills my heart with audacity and happiness, and by a strange energy transfer, I'm beaming down through space and time, I also cleared the obstacles that stood in my way, and I'm a child...

It's the magic of my eternal moment.

Thank you Jean-Luc, thank you Bebe Blond...”

(Mathieu Millot Editor in chief "Charisma, horses, men, a complete sport)

Jean Luc and Bebe Blond

Mathieu Millot was twelve years old when he watched Bebe blond jumping the Irish bank. Thirty-seven years later, the man, who is now the editor in chief of the French Equestrian Three day event magazine “Charisma”, remembers the ease, elasticity and fluidity of a horse who did not win the competition, but had an unusual beauty in the choreography of his jumping technique.

Bebe Blond was a very elegant and powerful athlete. He was, in my mind, the  “Noureiev” of the three-day event. Rudolf Noureiev was very well known for his exemplary technique. From his toes to the tip of his fingers, anyone of Noureiev move was a superb combination of athleticism, elegance and technique. In his own field, Bebe blond resolved the “questions’ of the cross-country course with elastic power and flawless technique. Bebe blond was naturally a gifted athlete but the technique that he learned to master, was removed or more exactly ahead of conventional thinking. The aim was not teaching the movements, but instead developing and coordinating his physique for the athletic demand of the performance.

I was both, immersed in the three day event competitive world and removed from the competitive world in the sense that in my mind, the value of a performance was not the thin layer of gold covering the medal, but instead the horse’s mastery of the athletic demand. Like every high-level athlete, I won a gold medal at the expenses of the horse’s soundness, but I learned from the experience that even covered of gold, a victory is a failure when the horse does not soundly master the athletic demand of the effort. Quality of life, ethic and legacy are not about how many medals we win but instead how well prepared is the horse for the performance. We can win out of the horse’s talent but then, we arrogate the glory. A true victory is providing to the horse the coordination and muscular development allowing full expression of the horse’s talent. Bebe blond did not win the Lion d’Angers’ advanced three-day event but he let in the mind and the heart of the ones who saw his fluid power and flawless technique an inspiring and powerful memory.

When experience, maturity and intelligence allow us to became the person we should always have been, the weight of a medal, covered of gold but made of lead is unbearably heavy. By contrast, preparing ultimately the athlete’s physique for the athletic demand of the performance, is immensely rewarding. Bebe blond flew over the Irish bank without even “touching the top” and, thirty seven years later, fills the heart of a man with audacity and happiness and help him to clear the obstacles that stood in his way.

The horse business is built on winning, but instead of being the result of sophisticated education, winning has become the outcome of abusive techniques, gadgets, drugs hiding their secondary effects, therapies coating the real problem. Paraphrasing Willian Butler Yeats, “There is another world, but it is in this one.”  There is another world where riding is not about submitting the athlete but instead, sublimating the athlete. This world attracts more and more riders and horse owners who followed the training pyramid because this was all that was offered, but intuitively knew that the horse was more intelligent and deserved a more sophisticated education.

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction.” (Albert Einstein) We have observed, providing knowledge, that a large number of riders have the genius and the courage to look in the opposite direction. The flashy cover up of show business and conventional equitation attracts at first but soon came the pressure of disposing the horse because he does not win anymore.  Voltaire wrote, “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” The ones who make you believe in absurd training techniques, are the ones who make you dispose your horse because he is lame or no longer jumping. The horse is no longer performing because of the incompetence of the training technique. The horse was a dysfunctional athlete performing out of his talent but with a physique improperly developed and coordinated for the effort. The atrocity is what happens next to the horse. The world within this one, is the world where the quality of the daily life with the horse is the ultimate goal. This world demands understanding how the horse physique effectively works and how to update the wisdom of our ancestors to actual knowledge. It is a wonderful world and there is just an easy formality to complete; “Breaking free of public opinion, and staying true to one’s creative vision.” (Paul Gaugin)

Jean Luc Cornille

IHTC Course