My Time with the Mestre – Forty Years Later
The true Mestre is a person who directs and changes your life. Renowned champion of classical equitation principles and bestselling author Dominique Barbier names the revered Portugese equestrian Nuno Oliveira as his. “Through great discipline, scholarly, serious inquiry and analysis, and a nonstop relentless passion, he formed his understanding of the Equestrian Art,” says Barbier. “As any student of Mestre Nuno Oliveira will know, he was anything but a simple man.”
Over several years Barbier had the unique opportunity to form an intimate relationship with Mestre Oliveira, and in this deeply personal book he chronicles their time together. Beginning in a tiny, dimly lit riding hall in Póvoa de Santa Iria e Forte da Casa, Portugal, where seminal moments of Barbier’s riding education dawned under the watchful eyes of many luminaries of the European riding elite, it then explores what came later when Barbier studied with the Mestre in Avessada and traveled with him to Belgium, France, and Spain. Barbier’s recollections are complemented by those of three other equestrians who studied with the Mestre: Dany LaHaye, Bettina Drummond, and Luis Valença. The result is a remarkable and insightful retrospective of one of the most extraordinary horsemen of all time.
