Ride Before a Prince

Virtual Movement Reviews

In 2023 THL Gesa von Wellenstein created a Ride Before a Prince/ Sultan Facebook group to help people learn more about this historic horseback riding. It was discussed at Pennsic 2023's Known World Equestrian Meet Up that a number of people were interested in Ride Before a Prince but unsure about how to do the movements. I volunteered to help facilitate online opportunities for people to learn, practice, and discuss the movements together.

You can learn more about Ride Before a Prince from Mistress Bridget Rede of Dunvegan's dedicated website. All movement images and descriptions (unless otherwise noted) are pulled from her website.

Common Description

Here is how it works: you record yourself doing the movements at home and then a group of us review our rides and talk about them together over Zoom!

This is meant to be a friendly and constructive meeting— please keep kindness and positivity in mind while giving critiques.

Feel free to send videos to Epy (Mishee) beforehand or post in the group so that I can have them queued up and ready to go so we can look at them together! Feel free to comment on others’ videos before the event if they post them publicly!

If you are submitting videos, please let us know what you'd like critiques on. Examples include: Riding pattern, appropriate pattern modification, your equitation, comportment of horse, etc. Similarly, let us know if you don't want critiques on something!

We’ll aim for any/all parts of two movements! If you can’t do the whole movement, just do part— breaking it into pieces is the first step! Can’t do it while riding? No worries! Do what you can by hand.

If you have any questions or concerns send Epy (Mishee) a DM or tag them in your post — otherwise they may not see it!

See movements and descriptions here:

http://howtoridebeforeaprince.blogspot.com/p/movements.html

Ride Before a Prince Movement Review 1

The goal of this month was to try any/all parts of the Diamond and Snail movements.

(1) Diamond (De la Broue, 1602)

(1a) Turn on the Haunches (1b) Sidepass

”To finish the first figure, make one more quarter, similar to the others.” (trans. Jobst)

(2) Spiral/Snail

(Corte, 1573)

“The horse performs a spiral, then a short straightaway, then a spiral in the other direction.”

RBaP Virtual Movement Review 1 Recording

October 17, 2023

Ride Before a Prince Movement Review 2

The goal of this month was to try any/all parts of the volta d'anche and tourni movements.

(1) Volta d'anche (Fiaschi, 1556)

"Turn on the forehand before or after a straight line"

(2) Circles (Grisone, 1550. Tourni)

“The horse makes two circles (voltes) to the right, then two to the left, after which the horse proceeds in a straight line at either the trot or canter. At the end of the line, the horse performs a ‘raddoppio’ (also called doubling, or modernly, a pirouette).”

RBaP Virtual Movement Review 2 Recording

December 12, 2023

Ride Before a Prince Movement Review 3

The goal of this month was to practice any/all parts of Going Aside and tourni movements.

(1) Going Aside (De la Broue, 1602)

“A is the line of the wall, B is the line of track of the front feet, and C is the line of the track of the back feet.”

(2) Circles (Corte, 1573. Tourni)

The horse starts on a straight path, then makes three circles with a diameter of 8-12 meters each. The horse then returns to the path going the opposite direction, then makes three smaller circles of about 2-3 meters in diameter.

RBaP Virtual Movement Review 3 Recording

February 20, 2024

Ride Before a Prince Short Pattern Review

This was meant to be the first attempt of connecting three previously practiced movements into one pattern.

Movement 1:

- Start on the horse’s BAD direction on the rail.

- Halt at the midpoint of the long side.

- Turn on the Forehand (Volta d’anche, Fiaschi, 1556)

Movement 2:

- Ride back along the rail’s long side and turn the corner onto the short side of the arena

- Turn down the quarter line before the next long side

- Snail / Spiral inwards then outwards in one direction (Corte, 1573)

Movement 3:

- Proceed back to the rail, keeping the same direction

- On the next long side, turn towards center at the midpoint

- Halt in the center of the arena

- Going Aside in the horse’s better direction (De la Broue, 1602)

RBaP Short Pattern Review Recording

April 16, 2024

Ride Before a Prince 3 Min Pattern Review

The goal of this month was to practice making a three minute long pattern, filling out the score sheet, and reviewing the rides together to practice the process and judging.

Leo 3 Minute Pattern

Scoresheet can be found here.

Libby 3 Minute Pattern

Scoresheet can be found here.

Bam 3 Minute Pattern

Scoresheet can be found here.

RBaP 3 Min Pattern Review

June 25, 2024

Riding Before a Sultan

This is Mistress Bridget Reade of Dunvegan's (mundanely Jennifer Jobst) Riding Before the Sultan class taught in August 2024.

She discusses Arabian weapons handling, the tradition of training a horse, and the differences with the later European Ride Before a Prince.

Mistress Bridget Reade of Dunvegan also taught Riding Before the Sultan in July 2024 for the Known World Equestrian Meet Up.

A webpage of some references she used can be found on her Wyvern Oaks Research References Page.

Ride Before a Prince Judging Practice

The goal of this month was to practice judging. We all recorded our rides beforehand, practiced judging individually, then discussed why we made those judging scores. I used the same patterns as the June Ride Before a Prince exercise.

Leo Judging Practice

Scoresheet can be found here.

Libby Judging Practice

Scoresheet can be found here.

Bam Judging Practice

Scoresheet can be found here.

RBaP Judging Practice

October 15, 2024

Trotting Ride Before a Prince

This month’s Ride Before a Prince is all about walk/trot — how to make it interesting for viewers, how to show off your skills and your equine’s skills, etc.

We challenge you to make a small pattern just using walk trot— 3 minutes or less.

I used the same pattern for each horse:

Esse Serrato, Corte, 1573
Going Aside, de la Broue, 1602
Tourni, Grisone, 1550

This is very much meant as a touchstone moment in training and a WIP for both horses for riding with one hand and sitting trot.

Bam Trot Before a Prince

Leo Trot Before a Prince

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