Working For Maestro Nuno Oliveira

‘Working For Maestro Nuno Oliveira’
by Alastair Gordon Scott for Piaffe Magazine March 2008
Nuno Oliveira – A Ge nius in the Saddl e, Admired Worl dwide
Portugal’s most famous riding master Nuno Oliveira (1924-1989) was a genius in the saddle and
is, in most circles, one of the most admired classical riders of our time. Two contemporaries were
schooled by him and tell us of their very personal impressions.
Followers from all over the world made their way to him in Portugal in order to understand the
art of dressage riding and to learn from him. Many of them came back year after year. He
demonstrated his elegant and fine art of riding on many journeys abroad, fascinating the spectators
with his performances on the Lusitanos, which had often been trained to high school level. There
are only few contemporaries left of the “Mestre”, as he was called by his students, who were trained
by him over a longer period. To acknowledge his lifework hippologically would require many
pages of a book. To convey at least a small impression of his personality, two “Oliveira disciples”
talk to Piaffe – Manuel Jorge de Oliveira and Alastair Gordon Scott.
Image © Alastair Gordon Scott 1981 & 2008
A Temple
April 25, 1974 Portugal had its bloodless revolution. Eight short years later I arrived clutching
my letter from Maestro Nuno Oliveira inviting me to work for him. Like many eventing riders, I
needed to improve my dressage and as an Australian I reckoned “Start at the very top”. His
summons plunged me into a strange, charming country that was light-years from today’s Europe,
and in those days Avessada was in no man’s land – no signs or asphalt roads and hitch-hiking was
fruitless, a myriad of gum trees the only familiar feature.
Nuno’s was like a temple rather than a riding stable or an equestrian accademy. Looking back
at my photographs, Avessada does not look luxurious, however, inside his hall and stable the light
was velvety, sounds melodious and the atmosphere always positive.
I am not claiming some hitherto unnoticed intimacy with the great master, but I was lucky
enough to watch Nuno ride at home, just the two of us alone, and also to school some of his
stallions my way. He taught students in the morning after his solo workout, afternoons could be
spent sipping white port and soda, the cool of the day allowed for training, and nights were spent in
company with biblical plagues of mosquitos.
Style
We rode or schooled stallions that arrived from wherever Nuno found them, instead of him
breeding or buying a certain bloodline. The Maestro bought to type and even there he was flexible.
This should not be seen as a clue to the popular opinion he was hostile toward the now sadly
financially troubled Vienna School, for in so many ways Nuno was not so much at the opposite end
of the classic riding solar system, more that he was revolving around a different sun.
Being schooled by the great master was the best way to loose points in dressage tests. If riders
adopt Nuno’s leg position, slouched shoulders and elegant slow ground speed they are inviting
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© Alastair Gordon Scott – all rights reserved – München, Germany, 2008 (reproduced verbatim from Piaffe)
‘Working For Maestro Nuno Oliveira’
by Alastair Gordon Scott for Piaffe Magazine March 2008
fierce words from their instructor. I have never claimed to be a dressage expert, although I do train
dressage horses and riders, however, something must have rubbed off. Years later a Portugal
dressage team member watched me riding in London – I dismounted and my German wife Claudia
took to the saddle and I schooled her using a dozen cones, placing and replacing them to push her
mount Maverick into a smooth yet extreme leg yielding exercise. Louis climbed over the rails “I’ll
bet you ten Pounds you’ve ridden and schooled with Oliveira.” Astonished, I asked “Why?” “Well,
there’s an Aussie attack that’s not so classic, but the stamp of the Maestro is all over it.”
Don’t be fooled by Nuno’s relaxed style, for haute école airs are demanding on horses and he
was no hobby rider. Yes, his mounts were devoted to him and he had a beautiful light touch,
nevertheless he achieved airs with verve whilst convincing horses he was ‘asking’. Standing alone
together as he fed Polo mints to a tall salt n’pepper Lusitano, he said “You can’t make eight
hundred kilos do anything. You’ve got to ask… If you gently demand, tricking him by imposing
intellect, and employ your natural horsemanship paired with honed skills, you can improve any
horse… and a good one will triumph.”
In those days the alumni of Le Cadre Noir de Saumur claimed “Oliveira has the deepest seat in
history”. Apparently nowadays chitchat concerns Nuno’s leg position and stirrups. I have a inkling
why he rode that way – bulls. How many fans know he began training horses for bullfighting? In
Portugal the matador is held in lower esteem then the cavaleiro, and in turn, the horse in higher
regard than its rider. Could the rider school his or her horse to attack a bull head on? Cavaleiros
began at ninety degrees and by gaining the horse’s confidence and with superlative riding, the
cavaleiro gradually came at smaller angles ‘til the most brave and best trained would go straight at a
bull. Muhammad Ali said “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” and this Australian can assert that
short stirrups are a habit the smart stockman adopts in the Bush, for it allows fluid movement whilst
controlling heroic horses keen as mustard to duck n’dive near bulls.
How is this interesting to classic devotees? Same reason for all sports riders… flow, or what I
call ‘Fluss’. I tell my students a little Zen Buddhism goes a long way. Nuno’s style was akin to a
mountain stream – he was not a leaf floating this way or that, but the actual river. The goal is to be
the water, forever with energy, sometimes flowing aggressively, and crucially, always calmly and
lightly and at one with the horse over ground, be it a ménage or a frightening cross-country course.
Greatness
In what way was Nuno great? Finding greatness in his mount and giving riders ‘room to move’.
His horses were bold and willing with lofty characters. There was a young Russian race-horse
stallion and in that house of stallions he was the new kid on the block. His stable mates were harsh
and without anthropomorphizing he felt emasculated – he was becoming a handful and his training
worse not better, even under the Maestro. A new angle was needed, and if nothing else, that was
why I was there, so Nuno told me to work the Russian.
I began with my two eight metre ropes, gaining respect and dialling in his confidence. Work in
the pillars would have been more classic, however, Nuno saw my logic, always encouraging me with
signs of approval when needed – taking command in the presence of God was somewhat nerve
racking – yet he always gave enough slack so I felt free and also nurtured. That’s great. Both his
horses and his pupils adored him.
Doubled lunging the Russian came next and I turned up my radar for the faintest hint of
temper tantrums. The trick is thus: first, discover very precisely the specific negative displacement
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© Alastair Gordon Scott – all rights reserved – München, Germany, 2008 (reproduced verbatim from Piaffe)
‘Working For Maestro Nuno Oliveira’
by Alastair Gordon Scott for Piaffe Magazine March 2008
behaviour the horse wants (for example, escaping your dominance by changing leads from canter to
counter-canter and back), then get it doing a positive action you want (perhaps a very slow
collected canter) making sure you keep the horse there, and last, very carefully allow it tiny
portions of a positive displacement activity (increased ground speed maybe, which is normally an
escape) whilst convincing your steed this new displacement action is what it wanted in the first
place. Result? A happy horse, in hand and looking for more from its trainer. Seems easy enough,
however, the trainer must be able to control the animal and have tremendous feeling for
infinitesimal variation so that the horse has not twitched a nerve before being caught.
My schooling under the watchful eye of the Maestro had (I prayed!) got to where we had
wanted, so Nuno had him saddled. “What’s good for him?” “Make him proud” I said and he calmly
moved away in a graceful trot. The horse was listening instead of fighting and Nuno began
serpentines, sliding into ever more deeper curves. Commentators rightly remark on Nuno’s
astonishing suspension times with airs, but his transitions and lateral movements were special too,
and curves and circles could have been railway tracks. Down into a walk now, he got that gloriously
disobedient beast doing its first Spanish Walk within three walking circuits of the hall. The Walk
was fabulous and yet those minutes watching him ride leading up to the Spanish Walk were very
very special. That’s extraordinarily great! Years later my eyes water thinking of the rhythm of
Nuno’s riding and his domination of that young stallion with a gossamer delicate touch.
Karma
There were four hi-fi speakers bolted in the ceiling of the Avessada hall. Whenever Nuno was
riding by himself, usually before breakfast, me or a student would play his scratchy old opera LPs.
He hated sopranos, so our task was lifting the stylus, occasionally adding to those scratches moving
to a preferred song.
The great master could look asleep in the saddle, even when performing astonishing haute
école airs; levade, capriole, terre à terre, whatever. One morning as a fog burnt off and the
eucalyptus essence began its wafting, I was sitting up in the gallery and I said to a beautiful student
“He’s snoozing!” As Nuno passed us he slowly cranked his head toward me. Smiling like a
mischievous young lion he whispered “Not yet.”
Image © Alastair Gordon Scott 1981 & 2008
Alastair Gordon Scott, Munich 2008
www.BushRiding.eu
www.piaffe.eu
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© Alastair Gordon Scott – all rights reserved – München, Germany, 2008 (reproduced verbatim from Piaffe)