Captain Vladimir S. Littauer (January 10, 1892 – August 31, 1989) was an influential horseback riding master and the author of books on educated riding and the training of horses. I got interested in him because the SBC Library owns some of his instructional films and an original manuscript. Captain Littauer was very influential in the development of the Sweet Briar College riding program and in the creation of an educated hunt seat. I wanted to know more about this important riding instructor.
Littauer’s riding instruction was in great demand during his lifetime by both riding instructors and amateurs and he was an early, important and controversial advocate of the forward seat riding system. He wrote more than a dozen books between 1930 and 1973 which sparked vivid debates among experienced riders of various backgrounds. He also wrote many articles on forward riding (nowadays referred to as “hunt seat”) for notable equestrian magazines of his day. His methods continue to be taught here at Sweet Briar College and at other prominent riding programs.
During my research on this fascinating man, I was lucky enough to be able to talk with his son, Andrew. Andrew provided many interesting memories of his father that have never been published before. For example, Vladimir Stanislavovitch Littauer was born in the Ural mountains of Russia. His father, Stanislas, was a mining engineer and his mother, Sophia Bachmetova, was a housewife. Although the couple lived in St. Petersburg, Andrew told me that Vladimir was born during a trip to the Urals to visit a goldmine that Stanislas Littauer owned.
Vladimir Littauer grew up in St. Petersburg. In the fall of 1911 at age 19, he entered the two year officer training program at the famous Nicholas Cavalry School in St. Petersburg. During his time in the school, Littauer’s equestrian training was based on French dressage as taught by James Fillis. During the summer Olympics of 1912 Russian cavalry officers who had spent time in Pinerolo, Italy learning methods pioneered by Captain Federico Caprilli distinguished themselves and excited much interest in Caprilli’s new system of “forward riding;” a system which represented a repudiation of traditional manège-style dressage techniques. Littauer took notice. Around 1913 senior coronet Vladimir Sokolov introduced Littauer to Caprilli’s revolutionary method of riding.
On August 6, 1913 Littauer entered the Russian Imperial Cavalry as a 2nd lieutenant and became a hussar. During the nine years he served in the Russian Imperial Cavalry Littauer reached the rank of Captain. He fought in the 1st Sumsky Hussar Regiment through World War I and also fought for the czar in the Russian Civil War. Captain Littauer’s war-time experiences demonstrated to him the impracticality and limitations of dressage for field riding and combat. He was later inspired to write, “The method of riding in the Russian cavalry was of the manège type, which today is usually called Dressage . . . This artificial system worked well on the parade ground, but not across country, and the experiences of war disappointed even its most ardent supporters.”
He left military service, and his Russian homeland, in the early spring of 1920. After coming to the United States in 1921, he took factory and sales jobs in New York City to help him learn to speak English. In 1927 he happened to meet two fellow former Russian cavalry officers in New York: Sergei Kournakoff and Kadir Guirey. Together the three founded the Boots and Saddles Riding School. Littauer, Kournakoff and Guirey started the school teaching principles of dressage they had learned in cavalry school, but soon they began experimenting with the radical and progressive Caprilli methods. The forward riding precepts of Caprilli proved more practical and accessible than traditional manège-influenced dressage for their civilian riding students who had limited time for riding and varying levels of fitness. Despite the Great Depression, the Boots and Saddles School throve, adding a new ring and stables in New York City and offering summer instruction in Westchester County at the Pocantico Hills John D. Rockefeller Estate.
Littauer began writing, publishing Jumping the Horse in 1931 and The Defense of the Forward Seat with his co-founder, Kournakoff, in 1934. In 1937 Littauer left Boots and Saddles to begin working with students on their own horses and to offer riding clinics at schools, colleges and hunt clubs. By this time he was recognized “as one of the most influential teachers, lecturers and equestrian authors in the country.”
Littauer continued to teach and write for the next thirty years. He was a frequent guest lecturer here at Sweet Briar College where one of his students, Harriet Rogers, founded a riding program for the college. Over the years Captain V. S. Littauer conducted original research which, through his writing, resulted in major contributions to the sport of riding. In a 1972 speech, Rogers referred to Littauer as “the outstanding proponent of Forward Riding in this country”. Former Director of the Sweet Briar College Riding Program and author Paul Cronin called Littauer “the most influential author and instructor in America in this century”. Long-time Chronicle of the Horse contributor George Morris cites Littauer in his list of “the greatest American authors” on riding.
A few of Littauer’s significant contributions to modern riding include his accurate analysis of the gaits and mechanics of the jump; his recognition and advocacy of controls as a component of a forward seat riding system; his development of three levels of control for teaching riders and for schooling horses; his advocacy of the voice as an aid in schooling and in riding; his definition of the concept of stabilization; and his philosophy that encourages riders to feel empathy for their horses.
Although Littauer retired from teaching in the late 1970’s, he continued to write until the early 1980’s. He died at his home on Long Island on August 31, 1989 at the age of 97. His personal library, including his instructional film and manuscript collection, resides at the National Sporting Library in Middleburg, Virginia.
Vladimir Littauer was married to Mary Aiken Graver Littauer in 1935 in New York City. They had one son, Andrew A. Littauer of Princeton, New Jersey.
Over spring break 2010 I will be at the National Sporting Library doing more research on Captain Littauer by studying his personal papers. I also plan to apply for a John H. Daniels Fellowship to do further research there in the coming months.
To see a photo of Captain Littauer, please visit my Wikipedia article at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Littauer
–Liz Kent
