He was hailed as one of the greatest horsemen of modern times. His long-time pupil and friend, Michel Henriquet, called him "the greatest equestrian intelligence of our age". So what is it that made one man so great?

According to grand prix rider and fellow countryman, Jorge Perreira, Nuno Oliveira was years ahead of his time. He was a true equestrian artist and the core of his art, says Perreira, came from his preoccupation with lightness. He never forced his horses but developed their balance progressively so that, for the spectator, it looked as if the horses did the movements by themselves.

Nuno’s grandson, Goncalo Oliveira, describes it in the following way: "Above all, he is remembered for the lightness of his horses. He wrote about his ideal of a light, happy and obedient horse at the slightest aid from his rider. In an apparently effortless way, he could master just about any horse, and often the horses would seem as surprised as their owners."

The beginning of greatness
Born in Lisbon on 23 June 1925, Oliveira ironically came from a non-horse family. His first exposure to riding came from his father's cousin, Joaquim Goncalves de Miranda, one of the last trainers of the Portuguese Royal School. Miranda's training could be traced back to Marialva, who brought French classical riding to Portugal from the school of Versailles at the time of La Guériniére (1688-1751).

Nuno started riding at the age of seven and became a student of Mestre Miranda at age 11. Riding under Miranda, according to Goncalo, was highly disciplined and "resulted in a seat that would last a lifetime. His passion made him a unique rider and at age 15, he was already working the horses of the Mestre."

In 1940 Mestre Miranda died and his school closed. Nuno started working independently and at age 19, started to present himself in public. Four years later, he opened his school in Póvoa de Santo Adrião. In 1963, in Genève, he presented some of his horses, including Euclides and Beau-Geste. This opened the door of the world to the Lusitano horse, which disappeared from the world in the 19th century, according to Goncalo.

Oliveira received several offers to go and work abroad, but decided to stay in Portugal. Over time he acquired an international following of students who followed his work and discovered the art of equitation. In 1973 he acquired Quinta do Brejo, near Lisbon.

Nuno's father helped him discover opera at an early age and he was inspired by Giacomo Lauri-Volpi. This love affair with opera continued throughout his life. He would start working his own horses early in the morning, with the sound of Verdi spilling out over the hills. He continued to travel over the world, giving workshops and receiving riders at Quinta do Brejo, until his untimely death on 2 February 1989 in Australia.

"He had a thousand little secrets that he shared with his students," relates grandson, Goncalo.

Oliveira had a profound influence on the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art. As the former director of the school, Guilherme Borba, reminisces: "Through his pupils and their pupils after them, he and many of his art were behind the foundation of the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art".

For the sake of art
In trying to understand what it was that made Oliveira great, one should distinguish between dressage as a competition and riding for the sake of art. Then, also, one has to bear in mind the French tradition in which he received his training. As Goncalo puts it: "He got his knowledge from several masters and due to this knowledge, he got several influences from which to develop his own style."

Bettina Drummond, another of his long-standing students, perhaps summarises the genius of Oliveira best in an interview with Wendy Murdoch: "We have seen riders of equal ability and stature, but he was the first to take the classical French root and graft it successfully with the Baucherism in this century ... Also, very few riders have the classical French formation, and the ones that do, because of their rigid mindset which the classical formation puts in, do not tend to dabble in Baucherism.

“Mr Oliveira had the classical French formation and the open-mindedness to combine it with Baucher. That combination, along with his innate riding abilities, is something that happens very rarely. He is the only purely Latin-trained rider that went off seriously into Baucherism, fully committed to it and had the exactitude and knowledge of classical training to back it up."

Harmony is art
Oliveira himself described equestrian art as "the perfect understanding between the rider and his horse. This harmony allows the horse to work without any contraction in his joints or in his muscles, permitting him to carry out all the movements with mental and physical enjoyment as well as with suppleness and rhythm. The horse is then a partner, rather than a slave who is forced to obey a rigid master by constraint."

Henriquet describes equestrian art as follows: "Equestrian art is distinguished from the usual current riding practice in that it educates, rather than merely trains. That is to say, it opens out the horizons of both horse and rider, rather than passing them along a production line ...

"Furthermore, as with other art forms, it is self-fulfilling: The essence of equestrian art is that it is art. The sensation, for the rider, and the sight, for the onlooker, are complete in themselves.

"Equestrian art requires that the two participants, horse and rider, fuse into one entity. This fusion becomes wonderful when it is so complete, that physical communication between two creatures seems replaced by the harmonious movement of a single being."

A man apart
When asked what it was that made Oliveira's horses so spectacular, Bettina Drummond answers: "Exuberance and lightness. To me it goes beyond impulsion and collection. Mr Oliveira's horses never looked schooled. If you asked for a movement such as passage, you always got it. So they were incredibly well trained, but they never felt schooled in that they never assumed a neck position that they were expected to hold and could not move their neck a certain way."

On the subject of brilliance, Oliveira believed that through useful gymnastics, the horse may be made to shine with brilliance in such a way, coupled with the correct position of the rider, that a vision of great beauty will be seen by the spectator.

Not nearly as recognised while he was alive as after his death, the conclusion to Oliveira's book, Reflections on Equestrian Art (JA Allen, 1976), seems particularly poignant.

"Sadly enough," he wrote, "this art is fugitive, as once the horse is dead, nothing, not even films, can reproduce the sensation felt when the horse is seen in movement. Death eradicates all work of the artist, unlike musical scores or paintings which live on to lend immortality to their creator.

“After the horse is no more, only those who have admired him keep a remembrance of his quality in their hearts, which is gradually effaced by time, and others who have not seen him know him only by romanticised tales, recounted, and sometimes embroidered, by those who have truly loved him."