Good horsemanship has been around a while.....

It is comforting to know that despite centuries of harsh handling of horses by man, there were some enlightened horsemen out there before "horse whispering" became fashionable.......I went to Bolsover Castle last year and saw the manege built in the 18th century by William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle. He wrote a book called A General System of Horsemanship in 1743, which is a fascinating read.

This is from the introduction:

There are some people, who, as soon as they have got upon a young horse, entirely undressed (untrained) or untaught, fancy, that by beating and spurring they will make him a dress'd horse in one morning only. I would fain ask such stupid people, whether, by beating a boy, they could teach him to read, without first shewing him his alphabet?

Ony problem is the book is reprinted in the original typeface so the letter s looks like an f, makes it tricky to read:

I would fain afk fuch ftupid people......

Cavendish built the most magnificent stables for his horses, you can see them in the background of these pics from the book

And when we visited of course, Ali had to try out the manège!