"French Horsemanship" Salomon de La Broue’s "Le Cavalerice François" Classic 1602 Treatise on Riding and the Training of the Horse. Books 1 & 2

expected publication in late 2026

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Salomon de La Broue (1552–1614):

A Foundational Voice of Classical Dressage, translated to English for the first time

Among the great architects of classical equitation, the name Salomon de La Broue deserves far wider recognition than it has traditionally received. For modern dressage riders—particularly those interested in the historical roots of collection, lightness, and correct schooling—La Broue stands not merely as a precursor to later French masters, but as a decisive bridge between Renaissance horsemanship and the emerging principles of classical dressage.

With the forthcoming English translation of Book 2 of his 1602 treatise, Le cavalerice françois, readers will at last have direct access to one of the earliest systematic expressions of what would become the French school.

A Rider Formed at the Crossroads of Italy and France

La Broue was trained in the Italian tradition under Giovanni Battista Pignatelli, whose Neapolitan academy shaped an entire generation of European riding masters. Yet unlike many of his contemporaries, La Broue did not simply transmit Italian methods into France. Instead, he adapted and refined them, placing greater emphasis on moderation, tact, and the rider’s responsibility toward the horse.

Serving as écuyer to Jean Louis de Nogaret de La Valette, Duke of Épernon, and riding within the orbit of the French royal court under Henri IV, La Broue operated in an environment where riding was no longer purely military. Horsemanship had become a courtly art—one that demanded elegance, precision, and intellectual clarity as much as strength or courage.

 Le cavalerice françois  (1602):

A Dressage Text Before the Word Existed

Published in 1602, Le cavalerice françois represents a turning point in equestrian literature. Written in French rather than Latin or Italian, it speaks directly to the practicing rider rather than the academic theorist. For today’s dressage rider, this is immediately striking: La Broue is concerned not with tricks or spectacle, but with correct preparation, balance, and progressive

Throughout the work, he insists on:

• Gradual development of the horse’s strength and understanding
• The importance of calmness and consistency
• The rider’s obligation to adapt to the horse’s conformation and temperament
• Avoidance of force except where absolutely necessary

In modern terms, one could say La Broue is already thinking in the language of throughness and self-carriage, long before those concepts were formally named.

Lightness as an Ethical Principle

What will resonate most strongly with contemporary dressage riders is La Broue’s insistence that correct riding is not merely effective—it is morally informed. He repeatedly emphasizes that the rider’s hand, seat, and aids must be governed by judgment and restraint. Excessive force, he warns, damages not only the horse’s body but its willingness to cooperate.

This philosophy places him in direct opposition to the harsher Renaissance traditions associated with earlier Italian manuals. Instead, La Broue anticipates the later French insistence that true mastery lies in doing less, not more, and in allowing the horse to offer movement freely rather than extracting it through compulsion.

The Intellectual Rider

Another feature that sets Le cavalerice françois apart is its insistence that riding is an intellectual discipline. La Broue assumes that the rider must observe, reflect, and adjust constantly. He does not offer rigid formulas, but rather principles that demand thoughtful application.

For the historically minded dressage rider, this is especially significant. La Broue is not writing a “method” in the modern sense; he is articulating a way of thinking about training—one that treats the horse as a sentient partner rather than a mechanical object.

Between Pignatelli and La Guérinière

Historically, La Broue occupies a critical position between the Italian Renaissance masters and the later French school epitomized by François Robichon de La Guérinière. While de Pluvinel is often credited with founding French classical equitation, Le cavalerice françois predates The Maneige Royal and provides a philosophical groundwork upon which Pluvinel—and later La Guérinière—would build.

For readers familiar with École de Cavalerie, La Broue’s text offers something rare: a glimpse of the intellectual soil from which the French school emerged.

Why This Translation Matters Now

For centuries, La Broue’s most important work has remained inaccessible to English-speaking riders except through secondhand summaries. Our new translation restores his voice in full, preserving both the technical precision and the reflective tone of the original.

For dressage riders, it offers:

• A deeper historical understanding of collection, balance, and lightness
• Insight into early schooling principles that remain strikingly relevant
• A corrective to modern tendencies toward over-mechanization

For equestrian historians, it provides:

• A foundational primary source from the early 17th century
• A clearer chronology of French classical riding
• A nuanced counterpoint to de Pluvinel’s more widely known work

Looking Ahead

Rediscovering Salomon de La Broue is not an exercise in nostalgia. It is a reminder that the core questions of dressage—how to develop strength without force, obedience without fear, brilliance without strain—have been asked, and thoughtfully answered, for over four centuries.

With Xenophon Press' forthcoming English edition of Book 2 of Le cavalerice françois, modern riders are invited to engage directly with one of the earliest thinkers to frame those questions in a language we still recognize today.

Reference Notes:

1. Salomon de La Broue, Le cavalerice françois (Paris, 1602).
2. Biographical details drawn from early French court records and later equestrian historiography; see standard summaries in modern reference works.
3. On Pignatelli’s influence, see comparative studies of Italian Renaissance riding schools.
4. For La Broue’s place in the development of the French school, compare Le cavalerice françois (1602) with Pluvinel’s The Maneige Royal (1625) and de La Guérinière’s École de Cavalerie (1733).
5. Discussions of lightness and ethical horsemanship are consistent with early modern French equestrian philosophy as reflected across multiple contemporary sources.