Classical horsemanship, which is virtually the earliest natural horsemanship, dates back to 400 B.C. to the time of the Greek Xenophon, whose training techniques employed insight and kindness to horses. He was later followed by the Francois Robichon de la Guérinière in the 1700s who fostered the concept of humaneness instead of force. The Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria, employed these concepts since inception and to this day.

Guérinière’s goal was to develop a horse that was obedient, quiet and supple, while moving with brilliance and comfortable for the rider regardless of the work intended for the horse—hunter, jumper, dressage, cavalry or school horse.

The Spanish Riding School follows the same theory, and some of the school’s basic philosophies can be broken down to the following:

• Work forward and straight as the basics for the young or green horse
• Change exercises frequently to keep the horse from anticipating
• Give the horse the time and opportunity to understand what is asked of him
• Understand the horse’s physical and mental nature and treat the horse as an individual without destroying his character
• Realize that an equine's insubordination is often caused by overwork, fatigue, pain, unjust treatment, fear of rider, lack of understanding of what is being asked and the (perhaps physical) inability to perform what is demanded of him
• Determine if punishment is appropriate and to what extent
• Reward successful work

According to the practices at the Spanish Riding School, riding work should be divided to give the horse breaks in work with rest periods. The horse should not be exhausted and should still be sufficiently energetic at the end of the schooling ride. The horse’s work should end on a positive note. Sometimes, this might mean ending a ride after 20 minutes because of a breakthrough in a training exercise. The greatest reward for work well done is an end to the work though additional rewards are often in order. The former director of the Spanish Riding School, Colonel Alois Podhajsky noted that for a reward to be valuable, it must follow the exercise. “Sensitive and affectionate horses will be satisfied with a caress, but more materialistic ones prefer sugar or tidbits,” he wrote in his book “The Complete Training of the Horse and Rider.”

The Spanish Riding School is the oldest of its kind in the world. The name derived from the original Spanish horses used at the school, for which the resulting descendants are the Lipizzaner horses ridden there today.

Records refer to such a riding school as early as the 1500s; however, documents show that the current riding school hall was conceived and built in the 1700s. Daily training and performances are open to the public at the Spanish Riding School.

Colonel Podhajsky became Director of the Spanish Riding School in 1939. Thanks to him and to U.S. General George Patton, their efforts during World War II saved the Lipizzaner breed. In 2005, when the Spanish Riding School returned to perform in the U.S. on the anniversary of the saving of the Lipizzan breed, General Patton’s grandson attended in the audience.

Around 400 B.C., Xenophon said that “Young horses should be trained in such a way that they not only love their riders, but look forward to the time they are with them,” according to by Podhajsky. This is the same concept of many current natural horsemanship trainers.