James Fillis on Germinal at the backwards canter (cropped)

James Fillis (17 December 1834 – 3 May 1913) was a British-born French horseman and riding master. He had a profound influence on the development of the ''haute école'' of dressage in both France and Russia. He travelled widely in Europe, and lived for about twelve years in Russia. He believed he had ridden over a hundred and fifty thousand horses in his lifetime.

Life

Fillis was born in London on 17 December 1834, into family of circus performers and horse trainers. His father Thomas Fillis died in 1842, and the young Fillis went to live in Paris. There are indications that he found work in the circus of Louis Soullier, and it may have been there that he met the noted riding-master François Baucher; he was never a pupil of Baucher, but between 1847 and 1850 followed him on various journeys to

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, the Italian peninsula and Switzerland. He left the circus for a time, and found employment as a in the stables of Richard Wallace in Paris. From 1851 he worked as an or horse-trainer for Victor Franconi, the director of the Cirque des Champs-Élysées In about 1855 he began to study under

François Caron François Caron (1600–1673) was a French Huguenot refugee to the Netherlands who served the Dutch East India Company (''Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie'' or VOC) for 30 years, rising from cook's mate to the director-general at Batavia (Ja ...

, a former to the Russian cavalry. From 1859 he was active as a trainer and instructor in his own right. In 1889 there was a suggestion that he might become to the

Cadre Noir The Cadre Noir (; en, Black Cadre) is a corps of ecuyers, or instructors, at the French military riding academy École Nationale d'Équitation at Saumur in western France, founded in 1828. It also performs as an equestrian display team. Its na ...

of the École Nationale d'Équitation at Saumur, in Maine-et-Loire in western France; this did not happen, as he was not a soldier. In the autumn of 1897 Fillis travelled to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

to perform at the Circus Ciniselli; he took four horses, three

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

s and Maestoso, a

Lipizzaner The Lipizzan or Lipizzaner ( hr, Lipicanac, cz, Lipicán, hu, Lipicai, it, Lipizzano, sr, Lipicaner, sl, Lipicanec), is a European breed of riding horse developed in the Habsburg Empire in the sixteenth century. It is of Baroque type, and ...

he had bought in Vienna in 1894. His work with them was much admired, and early in 1898 he received an invitation to court, where the Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, who was at the time inspector-general of the cavalry, asked him to organise a course of instruction for the officers of the Imperial house. The results he obtained in thirty training sessions were such that he was offered the position of of the training school for cavalry officers, with the

military rank Military ranks are a system of hierarchical relationships, within armed forces, police, intelligence agencies or other institutions organized along military lines. The military rank system defines dominance, authority, and responsibility in a ...

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

. He was also put in charge of the stables of the Grand Duke. He retired in 1909, and in 1910 returned to France, where he went to live at

Saint-Germain-en-Laye Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris. Inhabitants are called ''Saint-Germanois'' or ''Saint-Ge ...

. He died in Paris on 3 May 1913. In 2019 a statue of him was raised in the Manezh of Moscow.

Theory and teaching

In his preface to ''Breaking and Riding'' (1890), Fillis states his fundamental principle thus: His motto was "''en avant''", "forward". His method of equitation consisted, in his own words, of: Fillis was also accredited with a particular style of holding the reins of a

double bridle A double bridle, also called a full bridle or Weymouth bridle,Gurney, Hilda. "Double Bridle Pros and Cons." ''Practical Horseman'' Sept. 2007. is a bridle that has two bits and four reins (sometimes called "double reins"). One bit is the '' brado ...

, whereby the snaffle rein passes over the index finger and the curb rein under the little finger, however, he himself referred to this as the "French" way in his book ''Breaking and Riding''.

Published works

* ''Principes de dressage et d'équitation''. Paris: C. Marpon et E. Flammarion, 1890. vi, 376 pages
second edition, 1891
translated as: ** James Fillis, Max von der Zansen-Osten (translator), ''Grundsätze der Dressur und ueber die Reitkunst''. Berlin: Union-Druckerei Borgmann, 1894. xvii, 439 pages, 35 plates; second edition, 1896. ** James Fillis, Arturo Ballenilla y Espinal (translator)
''Principios de doma y de equitación''
Madrid: Asilo de la Santísima Trinidad, 1901. ** James Fillis, M. Horace Hayes (translator)
''Breaking and Riding''
London: Hurst and Blackett, 1902.
''Journal de dressage''
Paris: E. Flammarion, 1903. xxviii, 405 pages, 28 plates.
''Règlement pour le dressage du cheval d'armes, établi en 1908 par la Commission de l'Ecole d'application de cavalerie des officiers à Saint-Pétersbourg. Traduction de James Fillis, ...''
Paris: E. Flammarion, .d. viii, 156 pages.

Life

Theory and teaching

Published works

References

Further reading