How a Grand Prix dressage rider
competed at the highest level before finding her way to liberty work, and the
extraordinary lessons that molded her perceptions, understandings, and feelings
along the way.
"In my eyes," says former French
international dressage competitor Alizée Froment, "dressage is the journey to
perfect communication and absolute harmony between horse and rider." Her own
journey began on the backs of Shetland ponies under the watchful eyes of her
mother and then found its way into jumping competitions, and later on, dressage
arenas. Along the way, many horses entered and exited her life, each bringing
with them a depth of personality that steadily built her understanding of the
relationship a rider can build with an equine partner.In her deeply personal and
strikingly beautiful book, Froment traces her evolution as a horsewoman, a
dressage competitor, and now a world-renowned performer and trainer of liberty horses--horses that perform free of anything on their bodies.
Readers meet the ponies she learned on, and the challenging mounts that helped
her grow as a junior rider. There were horses she immediately loved and horses
she had to work to connect with--and eventually there were Mistral and Sultan,
who she calls her "yin and yang," and who elevated her aspirations both beside
and on the back of a horse. It is with these two special souls that Froment
further explored riding the Grand Prix movements with only a neck rope--no
bridle or bit, and often bareback as well--and demonstrating to the world the
potential that is there for all riders to enjoy, if they are open to the
experience and are willing to take the time for it to evolve.
Readers will be entranced by
Froment's willingness to bare her soul, powerfully articulating her feelings
when confronted with jealousy, with performance expectations, with the
possibility of losing the horse she loved to an unknown buyer, with retiring a
beloved partner, and with the changing circumstances and altered allegiances of
her heart when her daughter Louise is born. As tender as a story about riding, competing, and performing with horses at the highest levels can be, The Horses Who Made Me is
first a story of one woman's personal journey, eternally questioning herself,
and second, an inspiration for anyone who is forever striving for a better way
of training horses, because of the profound beauty you just might find.
About the Author: Alizée Froment was the child of two riding
instructors and grew up in the stable, discovering dressage as a young rider,
and eventually competing successfully internationally at the Grand Prix level,
as well as training the French National Dressage Pony Team. Since 2009, Froment
has been sharing her philosophy of working with horses in beautiful performances
where she demonstrates that even the most technical dressage exercises can be
ridden with only a neck rope (no bridle or bit). With over 90,000 followers on
Instagram, almost 50,000 on Facebook, and close to 130 million views on TikTok,
she has become famous for integrating the neck rope into her everyday training
with horses of all levels. She shows it is not only a way to strengthen the
relationship with the horse but also a way of testing if the dressage training
is progressing correctly. She has been called "The French woman on a mission,"
as she is always looking to better understand and discover new things in the
relationship we can build with horses.
