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"""Ecole de Cavalerie"" was published in four parts in 1729-31, and in a single volume in its best-known edition in 1733. The theories in this book provide the basis for all modern equitation, and it is probably the most important work on the subject ever written. But only now has it been translated into English in its entirety. When producing this work, Francois Robichon de la Gueriniere sought to drawn together the equestrian knowledge passed down from masters of the sixteenth-century Italian school such as Giovanni Pignatelli, and subsequently refined by men such as Saloman de la Broue, Antoine de Pluvinel and William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle. While he certainly achieved his aim of distilling the knowledge of past generations into a more concise, logical form, it is the addition of his own ideas which makes School of Horsemanship such an exceptional work. Perhaps, the best known of these is the shoulder-in, the exercise he invented by adapting ideas expounded by the Duke of Newcastle. This however, is just one example of his capacity for innovation; in an age when for safety in battle a horse had to obey its rider, he understood that education is a more potent force than coercion; that attention to correctly fitting tack would prevent more resistances than harsh punishment would cure; and that horses' aptitudes varied according to conformation and temperament, so that better results would be achieved by treating them as individuals. Although the section on training is the best known, and the only part to have been translated previously, the first section is a fascinating and detailed treatise on the nature and conformation of horses, and also gives details of eighteenth-century tack, shoeing, and general horse care which are still illuminating. The section on veterinary medicine, written in an age when the dismissal of any link between astrology and medicine enlightened thinking, is more historical interest, but even here - amongst the bizarre and even the barbaric - are to be found remedies which modern veterinary practitioners will recognise. Whatever their discipline, whatever their interest, all horseman should read this book, and will find in its pages a depth of knowledge and clarity of thought which are vital to the progress of modern horsemanship."

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The author Francois Robichon de la Gueriniere was born in France in about 1688 and died in 1751. Little is known of him until 1715, when having been granted the title of Ecuyer he opened a riding academy in Paris opposite the Palais du Luxembourg. Here he taught both equitation and everything else relating to horses. By 1730 his reputation was such that the Master of the Horse entrusted him with the Academie des Tuileries, where he remained as director until his death. It was during this period that he achieved international renown, helped by the publication of his book. A student of Antoine de Vendeuil, and with a brother who also ran a riding academy, at Caen in Northwest France, La Gueriniere was held in high esteem by his colleagues and by the Court. However, he was not a good businessman; his academy cost him more than it brought in, and in spite of the support of his brother and the beneficence of the Court, he struggled constantly with money. Apparently the publication of his book in almost every European country did not come in time to help him in this respect. The translator Tracy Boucher has long had a long-standing involvement with the study of eighteenth-century French culture through formal research into the history of literature and musical performance practice. The insight gained in that work, combined with a keen interest in horsemanship, enable him to approach the translation of this classical work with an eye to its importance both in historical and cultural terms and as a key work in the equestrian arts. The result is a translation which is easy to read and yet which retains the flavour of the age in which it was written. The language is formal and attractive, and while it avoids the modern idiom it in no way obscures the author's meaning. Unlike many translations, the rhythm and the character of the original is very much in evidence. Tracy Boucher is a managing librarian on the faculty of Pacific University, Oregon, USA, and continues research into the literature and music of eighteenth-century France.

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