Eole - march 12, 2009

Outdoor arena. Fair weather. One other rider and the coach. Focus of the session was about straightening the horse with bending exercises. At walk, shoulder-ins and quarters outside on the track, and on circle. Eole was quite warm. At trot, after relaxation with descente d'encolure at posting trot, same bending exercises, plus shoulder-ins on the middle line. I noticed that Eole had a tendency to come behind the vertical, and I used a few half halts to rectify this. I think that, like many horses which are very light on the hand, he can fall into this defect if not watched properly, and I regret that one of his other riders seems not to pay enough attention to this. Then, at canter, we tried to achieve rigorous straightness on the large side, the coach checking it from one end. Eole natural bend is on the right, and this showed again in this exercise. Whereas there was no problem at left lead, on the right lead, I had to bring shoulders slightly to the inside, and to contain the right haunch with a 'vigilant' leg slightly behind girth. It did put him straight this way, with quarters not bent inside at all; but clearly this was a demand on him which required an effort - that he gave with his usual goodwill.
I found him perhaps less light than usual, and a tat on his toes. But I guess it was my fault, since I felt rather stiff in my joints. As some one said, a good horse is like a violin: not only it must have been tuned to the right keys, but the musician should play it well - and I the musician was not at my best yesterday!