
For classical master and World War II survivor Charles de Kunffy, art and horsemanship are one and the same
By Kim F. Miller
Reprinted from the January/February 2022 issue of USDF Connection magazine
Palm Springs, California, may not seem the Mecca of classical dressage and horsemanship, yet thatās where the artās most passionate and eloquent advocate resides. He is Charles de Kunffy, world-renowned and revered as a conduit for the equestrian education he absorbed from European masters throughout his youth and young adulthood in his native Hungary.
His teaching and judging have influenced equestrians around the world. On doctorās orders, de Kunffy travels only 50 days a year now; but through clinics, articles, interviews, and his many books, he continues to ensure that the principles of classical horsemanship are available to those who seek them out, now and for the future.

Inducted into the Roemer Foundation/USDF Hall of Fame in 2013, de Kunffy was born into Hungarian aristocracy sometime in the 1930s (he is famous for declining to reveal his exact age). His parents were prominent horse breeders, and horses were interwoven into the familyās life at their castle and surrounding grounds. He began formal riding lessons from a cavalry officer at the age of seven and progressed under the eye of European masters who were considered part of a golden age of equestrian education. It was an era, he says, when learning to ride and train horses using classical, compassionate principles was part of an upbringing that led to a meaningful, beauty-filled, useful life in the broadest sense.
āGood riding is a metaphor for a life lived correctly,ā says de Kunffy, chatting on a Zoom call from his living room. European oil paintings crowd the walls behind him. He is not wearing the handsome haberdasheryāusually a cap or fedoraāthat perfectly complements the always-impeccable attire seen in any image of de Kunffy, from any year or circumstance. But his hat is ājust nineteen steps across the room,ā he tells this reporter playfully. āI can easily go get it.ā And so begins a conversation that weaves a life with horses into life itself. Which is as it should be, asserts the master: āRiding is not an excuse to forget the world.ā
The Art of Living
Horses were de Kunffyās passion early on. Yet his horsemanship education was always part of a wider world that included many forms of art and philosophy. His mother was a talented sculptor, and a great-uncle was an accomplished artist. The dinner-table discussions of his youth were enlivened and enlarged by the perspectives of omnipresent visitors. āWe never dined alone,ā de Kunffy says. āWe always had a huge number of guests. It was the nineteenth-century style of living.
āMy idols and teachers and the many important people in my life all had many passions and pursued education in many areas,ā he continues. āWe called this āoverall culture.ā It had to do with knowing where you are in history. Knowing when things started, whether it was 10,000 or 10 million years ago, there was a really big feeling of knowing where you are in art, philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics.ā
Brought into the equestrian realm, this concept fosters admiration of the horseās beauty and nature. When horsemanship is learned as part of oneās overall culture, he explains, then itās the horseās correct training that is more highly valued. If itās beautiful to boot, all the better.
De Kunffy appreciates that heās lived in three distinct cultures over his 80-plus years. He describes it as having lived in three centuries. In the first, family and teachers immersed him in nineteenth-century beliefs and ethics. āWe would call it heaven,ā he says of his youth. āIt was a life where we woke up to birdsong and had no fears or worries. We were never threatened, and there was so much beauty, elegance, and appropriate behavior.ā

Then came the unimaginable opposite of life under first Nazi, then Soviet, rule of Hungary during and in the wake of World War II. De Kunffy witnessed unspeakable horrors, including what he refers to as āindustrial murdersā including those of family members āfor no reason other than that they were born.ā His upbringing dictates keeping those memories to himself: āIf you donāt watch out, you can burden the people around you. So you have to be elegant, even sometimes a little aloof.ā
Heās grateful to be living in this current āthird century,ā with justice and peace largely outweighing global strife. However, heās concerned that the concept of horsemanship as an art form is being lost, saying, āThe living arts survive by those who everyday demonstrate that the art is living.
āI wish more people would handle it as an art form,ā he continues, āand put in the much-needed academic preparedness. Any form of character development is going to be more proud and large with the horse than without it. Thatās why the powerful elite of the past always wanted to educate their offspring on horseback.ā
Thatās because āYou canāt argue with a horse when it comes to courage and gratitude, focus and charityāall of those wonderful characteristics that make a nasty little child into a responsible adult. And all those things are happening because riding is an art. Ours is a wonderful performing art that we are involved with. It is going to disappear if one generation starts to display it in a false way.ā
Preserving the Art
Grand Prix-level trainer and competitor Jessica Jo āJJā Tate shares de Kunffyās worry that the art of classical horsemanship could be lost, and sheās doing everything in her power to prevent that. Since she began riding with the man she calls her mentor at age 11, Tate has embraced, embodied, and promoted his methods wholeheartedly.
āIs he still relevant?ā is a question Tate hears frequently. āIn my career, Iāve been privileged and blessed enough to ride with some of the top people in the world, and itās Charles who always brings out the best of my horses and myself. And he does so in a way that you donāt even know you are working so deeply.ā
The patience required for the slow work of classical dressage can be a hard sell today. āPeople are attracted to new and shiny things, but that doesnāt really work in dressage,ā explains Tate, a Wisconsin native now based in Landrum, South Carolina. āThe age-old principles are what we need to hold onto the most, and I donāt know anyone who exemplifies them better than Charles. He is the living embodiment of endless patience and nonconfrontational training methods.ā
A clinic with de Kunffy can be āmore like a meditative yoga sessionā than a conventional riding lesson, Tate says, adding that his methods prove themselves time and again with horses of various breeds and abilities.
This facility, says Tate, may seem less important in the current era of the āsuperhorseāāsport horses bred to be superbly physically capable of dressageās most difficult movements. But she and de Kunffy believe that such gifted equines are a double-edged sword of sorts, because their physical abilities and the willing, kind temperaments for which they are also bred enable and even tempt riders to take shortcuts in the training process. As de Kunffy puts it, āWhat worries me most is that we are in a time of superior horse and minimal rider.ā
āRiders are not taught and trained the correct seat and aids,ā de Kunffy laments. āThere are no longer eighteen months spent on the lunge line, riding behind the vertical, leaning back to send the pelvis forward and build that abdominal grid and lumbar swing that allow the seat to develop.ā
A correctly developed seat, he explains, is an integrated seat in which the riderās presence is āno more a burden to the horse than the horseās skin, eyeball, or left ear. The rider is inside the horseās body in a way that takes us toward the goal of classical riding: to amplify the natural gaits. To make them easier, with less effort. Those things are totally ignored.ā
āThe horse knows how to be a horse,ā he asserts. āThe rider has to be made.ā
Even at the highest level of competitive dressage, de Kunffy sees too few integrated seats. He recalls judging a Grand Prix class with 58 entries and determining that only eight riders had a proper seat. āThe rest just came around to win.ā
More than just ribbons are at stake, he stresses. āThe more fabulous and physical the sport gets, the more it happens that more skills enable the rider to inflict more hurt on the horse. By abstaining from correct riding principles, the rider can become cruel without wanting to be cruel.ā

A Matter of Engagement
Dressage isnāt easy for the horse, physically or mentally, de Kunffy emphasizes. He describes the frequent sight of a āconfused, terrifiedā horse that seems to be poised to bolt at a flowerpot or some other presumably frightening object. But āitās not the potā thatās the problem, he asserts. āItās little Agatha back in the saddle, and the horse knowing that if he makes a move, little Agatha holding the reins with two fists will be snatching at those reins.ā
While the horse is born knowing how to be a horse, he does need to learn from the rider how to have the correct posture for moving.
āThe horse is not just taught what to do; he should be taught how to do it,ā de Kunffy says. āItās beautiful to see a horse moving in big, bold ways; but without correct posture, there is no correct transportation. There is just the horse running with kinetic energy.ā
Engagement of the haunches is the source of that correct transportation, but de Kunffy describes it as largely not taught, even āignored.ā
āIf the horse is correctly aligned and correctly asked, he would use the ambidextrous nature of his function on a circle to tuck under the pelvic structure, giving him more flexibility and allowing him to raise the limbs.ā Then āheād land the leg and sink into it. They need to be able to soften on landing; otherwise they are just beating the daylights out of the arena floor and they canāt yield to the terrain. This is when they are not comfortable: Theyāre hurting and disturbed.ā
This critical engagement of the hindquarters should be introduced at the outset of the horseās training, then developed as the horse becomes stronger and more educated. De Kunffy recalls his grandfatherās advice that forward motion for a horse under saddle should come from the hocksā rotating closer to the bridle. āThe horse slows down and folds under, and every time he surrenders his joints, you taught him to do that. That is the action of a riding horse, versus the carriage horse that runs like hell.ā
Technology and Horsemanship
De Kunffy likes the fact that modern technology has helped to validate what his grandfather and his contemporaries knew about horse training and equine biomechanics.
āIn the good old days, people knew the value of starting a piaffe from a halt,ā he notes. āNow you can put this info into a sophisticated machine and the machine will say, āUncle Johnny was right.āā Infrared systems that track movements and impact forces āprove that the old peasant who was your stable man in 1812 was totally right in the way he insisted on training the horse.ā He appreciates the work that renowned equine-biomechanics researcher Dr. Hilary Clayton has done in this realm, noting that āShe is also a very good rider!ā
At the same time, de Kunffy has found advances in communication technology to be a mixed blessing for horsemanship. āItās a two-bladed knife,ā he says. āIf somebody has their horse behind the vertical and the horse chewing on their own chest and you spread that to 57,000 riders, you do great harm. If you are spreading correct techniques, then it can be very good.ā
De Kunffyās own horsemanship education was rooted in experience, reading widely, and working closely with mentors. Those pillars remain the gold standard. Although 30-year mentorships of the kind de Kunffy and Tate enjoy are rarities, books, videos, and clinics make de Kunffyās teachings available to those who seek them out. Of his six published books, Tate recommends Dressage Principles Illuminated as the best place to start for those new to classical horsemanship.
āItās my dressage bible,ā she says. āTheyāve just done a new edition, and I am really proud to have myself pictured in it. Itās an excellent book that really brings the feel of working with Charles to life.ā
The Athletic Development of the Horse is one of Tateās favorites. All of de Kunffyās work is a focus of the online Team Tate Academy that Tate launched in 2020. Geared for āthe new generation of classical riders,ā the Academy presents among its educational offerings live streams of de Kunffyās twice-yearly clinics at Tateās South Carolina facility.
āIām excited that so many people can see him in action,ā Tate says. āTo see him is to believe him. Heās like fluffy, fluffy, fluff; then you watch it work with a horse thatās come into the ring looking possibly a little off, its tongue hanging out, et ceteraā¦then, within fifteen minutes, the horse is moving over its back, the rider is able to sit the trot, and the horse looks totally different. Until you watch him do his magic, you canāt believe it. Thatās one of the main reasons I created the Academy: because I know the process he teaches works.ā
Scenarios like the one Tate describes confirm one of de Kunffyās frequent jokes with his longtime student: āHeāll say, āAm I right? Or am I always right?āā she says with a laugh. āHe likes to say that heās a fortune teller because what he teaches always works, with any horse and any type of rider.ā
An in-person classical-horsemanship academy in the United States was actually a goal of de Kunffyās for many years. āCorrect training should be institutionalized,ā he says. āIt should be our common daily diet.ā After his 2013 USDF Hall of Fame induction, he says, many expressed enthusiasm for the concept of an academy, but few felt that such a venture was financially feasible.

Lifesavers
Since he suffered a heart attack 12 years ago, de Kunffy has obeyed strict doctorās orders to stay out of the saddle and to limit his travel to 50 days a year. He enjoys giving clinics during those 50 days and encourages riders to get in touch early if theyāre interested in having him visit their area.
In his memoir A Riderās Survival from Tyranny, de Kunffy credits horses with saving his life. During the Soviet occupation of Hungary, he recounts, his riding abilities were valued because the Soviets wanted to show them off to the world. His compassionate training methods, he and supporters say, are all for the good of the horse. In that way, heās been returning the favor of his life to horses throughout his time in America, which he has called home since 1957. That life has also included attending the University of California, Berkeley and, prior to embarking on his US equestrian career, 13 years spent teaching philosophy and psychology in the San Francisco Bay Areaātwo topics he would like to talk more about as he moves into the twilight of his life.
āI want to talk about other thingsāethics and culture. I want to talk about the private self and the public self, art, and aesthetics,ā he says.
Because horses have a permanent place in de Kunffyās āoverall culture,ā there will always be talk of horses and the time-honored methods for bringing out the best in their natures and those of their riders.
Kim F. Miller is a California-based content creator and ambassador liaison for Haygain who freelances as her time allows.