Eole - may 14, 2009

Small outdoor arena, with four riders exercising. Good relaxation at walk, 'nose in the dirt' while walking in impulsion. Lateral flexions. Halts on the middle line, after a doubler from the long side. Eole halts are getting better and better. No more haunches deviating at the last second, not hind foot lagging behind. Square halts with elevated neck and good placer. We did some backreining with three back steps before moving forward. No resistance, nor neck opening. Shoulder-ins were mellow at both hands. Froth came soon. A promising start. Trot session was good, including shoulder-ins on the middle line. I have to think of not looking down, which happens more frequently now (is it age?!). It is a bit odd - but in effect I do like looking down at my horse head rather than far away to the horizon. There has been a lot of discussion about Oliveira's position in his later years - not that I dare any comparison! Back pain has been invoked - and the Mestre himself did say that he was not happy with his head position. But I fancy suspecting that perhaps he took pleasure in looking at the head of his companion when executing his wonderful equitation. After all, when there is such a superb communication between two beings, it may be natural to be tempted to look at the head of your partner...
Canter session developed around spiral turns narrowing down to very small circles. Eole did well, whereas the other horses had some issues, and one did even take neat exception by throwing his rider down..I could not though bring Eole as close to the pirouette as previously, due to my inner leg which probably did not maintain sufficient impulsion at the very end. As a result, he kept not uphill enough and his shoulders were not enough off - loaded. I interspersed this collected work with extensions at strong working canter on the long side, which he gave nicely without boiling up, and with smooth downward transition.
After the course, I worked a little on corners at walk, following a discussion with a friend horseman as to how riding a corner as a doubler and not as a quarter of a circle. I think a counter shoulder-in (head towards the wall) may be a good solution, because you can bring the horse deep into the corner and turn on the haunches with the outer hind leg (vs SI) as pivot. Some food for thought...
We went back to stables in good spirit. Eole was almost dry, which was not the case for my shirt after all these good exercises!