Bettina Drummond: The Artist as Rider
By Lynndee Kemmet
While much of the dressage world seems in conflict over the question of whether dressage is art or sport, classical trainer and rider Bettina Drummond faces no such conflict. For her, riding has always been art.
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“Art is the overlap of words, sounds and feelings. The key of art is not getting lost in it,” she said. "For centuries, artists have recognized the horse as a work of art in itself. As a rider, my goal is to allow the horse to express its own artistic nature." The recognition that riding is in itself a form of art came early to Drummond and it was Oliveira who inspired that recognition. When she was 10 years old, she sat one day reading a book (A Collection of Lectures on Literature by Nabokov). As she was reading a passage where the words evoked the idea of lightness and form, she glanced up and caught sight of Oliveira on horseback silhouetted by the sun. It was at a moment when he and the horse were in perfect balance.
“What struck me was how immobile was his body and how in balance he was with the horse. The vision fit the force of the words,” Drummond said.