Horse Racing : Italian instructor Captain Federico Caprilli changed show jumping forever
The Italian instructor Captain Federico Caprilli, born in Livorno in 1868, gave a completely new dimension to the field of show jumping. He heavily influenced it with his revolutionizing ideas of a more precise, economical and adaptable show jumping technique, that is, forward seat position. Federico Caprilli’s technique very quickly replaced the traditional technique of backward position and long stirrups by a forward position and shorter stirrups, increasing the horse’s efficiency and precision, and without affecting the rider’s safety issues. It formed the basis of modern show jumping techniques, and is still widely used in this sport.
Behind the idea of Federico Captilli, there was great research work and thorough thinking involved. He used to take photographs of free jumping horses (without tack or rider) and documented their shape while they jumped the fences. His observations led to his theory about the rider that formed the basis of his ideas; which said that the rider’s position should be such that it neither interferes with the horse’s jump nor should it touch its’ mouth. This was based on important observations that after the horse jumped the fence, it always immediately came down on its forelegs.
Caprilli’s further mission was to avoid “spot jumping”, a kind of jumping where the rider gave immediate instructions to the horse before the fence and lengthened its stride accordingly. To train such a horse which could think on its own, he tried allowing the horse to lengthen its stride itself rather than giving it immediate instruction and crossing the obstacle stiffly. The next step was to position the rider in such a way that it satisfied Caprilli’s theory. For this, he positioned the rider forward to resemble a lengthened frame of the horse. The stirrup was made short to allow the seat to stay at the same level above the saddle. The rider’s support in this case came from the thigh and lower leg.
To make jumping easier, care was taken to place the rider’s centre of gravity exactly above the horse’s and making sure that the rider leaned a little forward while jumping, allowing his hands to follow the horse’s mouth, and not interfering it while jumping. The forward position continued to remain the same while coming down.
This technique worked not only over steep, straight hurdles but also in all other kinds. It ensured minimum interference from the rider to horse during jumping, which now made the horses to jump more freely and willingly. The Captain’s resistance against the previously used inefficient method of jumping made him lose his position as a Lieutenant in the Italian military and he was sent to Southern Italy as a punishment. However, as his methods gained popularity and people got to know about its efficiency and economy, he was reinstated in North Italy’s cavalry schools as an instructor. His training methods met with tremendous success and proved to be a great benefit in the training.
As the training methods gained more success, their popularity spread greatly throughout the horse riding world and the trainees from Italian cavalry began to grab all positions of success. Riders from all around the world came to Italian schools to study this system. It greatly helped the riders to improve the horses’ efficiency and improve the jumping skills while ensuring maximum safety. This style gained even more popularity when Caprilli followed the same method and rode himself in the Olympic games of 1906.
He died in 1907 as a result of an unfortunate accident, when his horse slipped on cobblestones and he fell off it.
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