ABSTRACT
This chapter examines first of all themézair, that is, half on the ground and half leaping. The Maneige Royal provides us with useful indications so that we can visualise the movements of the ballet and imagine its aesthetic quality. A horse ballet was devised by Antoine de Pluvinel who took part himself and who has left us a very precise account in his posthumous work. Pluvinel advocates a moderate use of aids, explaining that it is preferable to ask the horse to perform courbettes by word of mouth. The term 'horse ballet' appeared in 1559, describing a carrousel given in the rue Saint-Antoine in Paris. To Pluvinel is given the invention of both the double and single pillar. A horse ballet that is, making the steed's dance, seem to have originated at the end of the equestrian event: after the battle of balls, knights made their horses dance just as they had done at the end of jousts.
