These riders gave America a visual image to follow of a beautiful forward seat. These were the genius masters of the last century and the system still continues to get modernized and refined today with some of our great teachers such as George Morris and hopefully myself. It’s primarily a blend of Italian, some French, and some German, which is more dressage based.
The Forward system is different, as it is based more on the rider’s balance in his stirrups rather than his seat. This is a more simplistic schooling technique that suits horses that are galloping and jumping in forward balance, as opposed to the dressage based system, which is based on the rider’s seat and fundamentally suited for horses in central, not forward balance. Dressage riders also compete in small, flat arenas in collected gaits.
That said, of course, the forward system incorporates in more advanced stages some of the collected or, as I say, semi-collected exercises we feel necessary to expand the horse’s education. I think the goal of every rider with high ambitions should be to have knowledge of both systems, both in theory and execution. A top rider should be able to adapt to the horse and be flexible with his/her techniques. A hot blood horse may hate the German system and a colder type warmblood may demand the German system. I was fortunate to learn from some of the best teachers the system of dressage and that I consider a gift!