Bourgelat, equerry and instructor
Claude Bourgelat was the son of a distinguished citizen of Lyon. In 1740, when he was 28 years old, he received his warrant as Grand Equerry of France and was made Director of the Lyon Academy of Horsemanship. The Academy at that time was a school where yound noblement learnt the equestrian arts and swordsmanship, together with mathematics, music and 'elegant manners'.
Four years later, he published his first work : the 'Nouveau Newcastle ou Nouveau traité de Cavalerie', (A new Treatise on Horsemanship). This original, instructive publication which put forward a new approach to horsecraft quickly brought him considerable recognition, some even going so far as to call him from then on 'First Equerry of Europe'.
