Medieval Times & The Art of Horsemanship: Joy, Trust & the Old Masters | Mario Contreras | LFRF 55
Live Free Ride Free with Rupert IsaacsonShow Notes
✨ "The best teachers and coaches are the horses. It's important for us to learn to listen to them and see them." – Mario Contreras ✨ "There is a big word I always feel is missing from the training scale — and that's joy. Where's the joy? These are movements that horses do when they feel passion." – Rupert Isaacson Mario Contreras is the head trainer at Medieval Times Chicago, the man responsible for the standard of horsemanship that stops knowledgeable riders cold in the middle of a crowd of beer-drinking tourists who have no idea what they're witnessing. Third-generation horse trainer, born in Texcoco and raised in a family rooted in the Alta Escuela and charrería traditions of Jalisco, Mexico, Mario came to the US in 1990 with no English and a lifetime of classical riding in his bones — and built a 35-year career inside one of the most demanding equestrian entertainment operations in North America. In this wide-ranging conversation, Rupert and Mario cover the deep roots of Mexican horse culture that most American dressage riders have never heard of, how Mario trains complete beginners to become knights performing before 1,500 people in under three years, and why cross-training, liberty work, and genuine joy are the true secrets to keeping horses and riders performing at their best. They also dig into the lost art of schoolmaster training, the in-hand and ground work that underpins everything Mario does, and the vision — still unfinished — of building Mexico a national horsemanship school at the level of Jerez or the Spanish Riding School. A rich, warm conversation between two horsemen who share a deep reverence for the old masters and a conviction that horses teach us more than we teach them.
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What You'll Learn in This Episode • How the Contreras family built a three-generation tradition of Alta Escuela and charrería in Mexico, and how it led Mario to Medieval Times [00:02:35] What charrería is, why it matters, and how Mario's father blended it with classical Alta Escuela to create something unique [00:08:46] The role of Andalusian horses in promoting Mexican culture — and how the Aztec horse breed came to be [00:03:19] Why Medieval Times hires actors and athletes with no riding background — and how Mario turns them into skilled knights in three years [00:20:37] How Mario's brother Marcial pushed him harder as family than he would have pushed anyone else, and what that taught him about leadership [00:27:46]
The value of getting your hands dirty: why Mario still cleans stalls and brushes horses, and why that's inseparable from great horsemanship [00:30:11] The case for in-hand and ground training before ever mounting a horse — and how Mario uses it to teach piaffe, passage, and the Spanish walk [00:32:18] Why schoolmaster horses are the missing ingredient in modern dressage training, and how the old masters always put beginners on the best horses first [00:51:24] Cross-training as the antidote to burnout: how mixing dressage, Alta Escuela, liberty, working equitation, and games keeps horses genuinely joyful [01:34:10] Mario's approach to stallion management, redirecting energy, and why isolation is the worst thing you can do for a difficult horse [01:15:07] Memorable Moments from the Episode Rupert describes watching a rider perform three caprioles in a row at Medieval Times while the crowd sips beer — and no one in the room understands what they're seeing [00:01:32] Mario recounts the moment he first rode for Medieval Times in California and was so hooked he never looked back [00:26:56] Mario describes being deported from the US, spending four years in Mexico without his family or friends, and then getting a call from Medieval Times offering to bring him back legally — via a detour to Cancun as a pirate [01:53:59] Mario was invited to ride Claudio Castilla Ruiz's Olympic Grand Prix horse Jade — in jeans and tennis shoes — during a visit to Spa
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✨ “The principal thing is love, passion, love, passion and passion and love.” – Luis Valença ✨ “The first thing is to communicate with the horse, and for the horse to accept you.” – Luis Valença ✨ “It’s not gymnastics.” / “Our work is like music. It’s the same as listening to Chopin or Beethoven.” – Luis Valença ✨ “I have the same enthusiasm because I love life, I love the horses, I love the family.” – Luis Valença ✨ “Never take the personality from the horse.” – Luis Valença
✨ "For me, competition has always been real feedback, not what I think is good." – Sinead Maynard ✨ "There's nothing about me that's gonna make you do this. You gotta love it, and we gotta love it together." – Sinead Maynard Sinead Halpin Maynard was born in Fort Worth, Texas, to Irish immigrant parents and grew up in South Carolina, where she stumbled into eventing via a hunter-jumper barn that didn't approve of her mother's black saddle. At 15 she drove herself to Middleburg, Virginia, as a working student, went on to train with David and Karen O'Connor, and after losing a horse on course, moved to England to ride for William Fox-Pitt. On the French-bred Manoir de Carneville ("Tate"), she finished third at her first five-star at 30, was first reserve for the London 2012 Olympics and rode on the US team at the 2014 World Championships in Normandy. Today she and her husband, Tik Maynard, run their farm in Florida, teach clinics, and Sinead commentates on top-level eventing and serves as a US team selector. Rupert and Sinead talk candidly about the money and hustle behind a competitive career, why she still loves competing, and how she uses competition as honest feedback on her partnership with the horse. They explore sports psychology and narrow-versus-broad focus, whether riders have the right to ask horses to compete at all, and the difference between training from fear and training from play. Sinead explains retreat and approach, why she'll swap a bigger bit for a rope halter, how rider selection now weighs horse welfare, and why fitness and varied terrain are the foundation of a sound, happy horse. A frank, funny and wide-ranging conversation between two eventers at heart. FREE Helios Harmony Intro Course: https://longridehome.com/onoutpout
✨ "Dressage should be for the horse — the horse should not be for dressage." – Mark Russell, quoted by Patrick King ✨ "Speed is the enemy of balance." – Patrick King Patrick King is a classical dressage trainer based in Lexington, Virginia, who came up through Western horsemanship — 4-H as a kid, an apprenticeship with legendary colt-starter Ray Hunt, then mentorship from the late Mark Russell before he found his way, like Rupert, to Luis Valença and the Portuguese school. He's since studied with Charles de Kunffy and Bettina Drummond, earned bronze and silver dressage medals, and now teaches through his online Academy for Classical Horsemanship and clinics from his farm. He and Rupert trace how diagonal balance actually works and why the word "driving aids" gets lost in translation from the German, why competition pressure changes how horses and riders move, and how Western pleasure and saddle seat drifted from practical function into pure fashion. Patrick also walks through his simplest test for good training — could the horse explain to its paddock mates what you just asked of it — and why he stops mid-exercise to wait for a full diaphragmatic breath before asking a horse to go forward. It's a wide-ranging, technically rich conversation between two horsemen who share a mentor but arrived from opposite directions — and it's only part one. They run out of time before finishing, so a follow-up conversation is coming. FREE Helios Harmony Intro Course: https://longridehome.com/onoutpout All Books Mentioned: https://longridehome.com/books What You'll Learn in This Episode 00:01:50 – A shared mentor, Luis Valença, connects two very different paths into classical horsemanship 00:04:21 – Patrick's apprenticeship with Western horseman Ray Hunt and learning to "get to the mind through the feet" 00:08:29 – Mentor Mark Russell's insight that the feet are an extension of the spine 00:19:49 – The real difference between submission and relaxation in horse training 00:34:28 – Mark Russell's guiding principle that dressage should serve the horse, not the other way around 00:45:00 – Training the test versus testing the training, and how competition pressure changes the ride 01:23:06 – Diagonalization explained: how horses balance on diagonal leg pairs, and what that means for every transition 01:31:18 – Luis Valença's "position, balance, execute," and why "prepare, don't repair" beats fixing a movement mid-stride 01:36:36 – The "driving aids" mistranslation from German, and the physical, mental, and emotional dimensions of the half halt 01:54:37 – Why "is my horse breathing?" might be the most overlooked question in training Memorable Moments from the Episode 00:13:44 – Patrick's story of an abusively trained Western pleasure horse that once cornered him in a stall as a teenager 00:27:38 – Rupert's breakdown of dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, and oxytocin, and why riding this way feels so good 01:06:52 – The surprising history of dressage as a European import tied to wealth and status 02:01:00 – Two hours fly by, and Rupert and Patrick agree on the spot to record a part two
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