Hi this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride once again and thank you for joining me for my book club! Today we want to talk about a book that I’m very excited about called “Thirty Years with Master Nuno Oliveira” by Michel Henriquet.

This is so exciting for me because it was Michel Henriquet who helped me understand what it was that Nuno was trying to do. When I was 23 in 1976, I was studying with Nuno for the first time. When I went there he had just come out of retirement after about 10 years and had nothing but young horses that he was working and all his old horses and exhibition horses were all school horses. While they were good and you could learn a lot from them, they weren’t mature horses in their prime able to do everything that they were capable of at one time.

At one point Mr. Oliveira set up a a visit for myself and a few friends of mine to go and visit Michel Henriquet. I think I understand now why he did that because when we went there and watched Michel Henriquet work his horses, we realized this was the result of years and years of correct training. Nuno Oliveira came to his place four times a year to train with him for over twenty-five years! So we had the opportunity to see horses that Nuno had trained in this method for many years in the primes of their lives and they were so round and so soft and it was just amazing to watch them. It was really an eye opener for us because as I said, for many people of my generation who went to study with Nuno Oliveira, it was a bit confusing because as I said he had been in retirement and had come out of retirement and he really didn’t have any horses  in their prime that he was training. He had mostly young horses and old horses that had become school horses. So it was seeing Michel Henriquet’s horses that really helped me put it together of what this training would do over a period of time.

So once again, it’s called  “Thirty Years with Master Nuno Oliveira” and it includes photographes and notes between the two of them over a thirty year period. It is very interesting, just a great opportunity to look inside the minds of two great horseman. This is Will Faerber from Art2Ride with my Book club today and thank you for joining us for  “Thirty Years with Master Nuno Oliveira” by Michel Henriquet. Pick up a copy and read it. See you next time!

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