Nuno Oliveira

"Equestrian art is the perfect understanding between the rider and his horse... to establish a conversation on a higher level with the horse; a dialogue of courtesy and finesse. The rider obtains the collaboration of the horse by the slightest hint of demand; and the spectator can then see the sublime beauty of this communion. He will be touched by the grace and form and capitvated as if he were hearing grandiose music.

It is at this point that a conversation on a higher plane becomes established which the horse will never forget, even if separated a long time from his rider. He will reply to this coversation easily the day he is reunited with his pedagogue.

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Equestrian art, however, is something else, which involves complete harmony between horse and rider, and that makes the rider feel that there have been moments of beauty and greatness which makes a flight possible from all that is ordinary and mediocre. Art is the sublimation of hieghtened technique, and art is only possible if the person in question forgets vanity and searches only for beauty, and is enthusiastic and loving."

Nuno Oliveira (from his meoirs, published in 1981, translated from the Portugese