Eole - june 18, 2009

Small indoor arena. Alone with Coquin's owner, and a young lady-coach new to the school. I rode Eole in double bridle, as usual, but without the small polo ball spurs (that I had forgotten..). Good discussion with the coach throughout the session. After relaxation at walk with usual flexions on extended, low neck, the trot session (sitting) was devoted to shoulder-in on the large side alternating with trot extension on the diagonal with change of hand then shoulder-in on the other hand. Repeated on a few cycles, it is quite effective for achieving a good, energetic cadence during shoulder-in, and more broadly to generate impulsion in roundness. Then, canter session was the main part of the course. The first part was devoted to improving strike-off from walk (straight, smooth, clean, round) . We walked spiral circles with haunches out, starting from large diameter (10m) and gradually reducing it to one horse length, and enlarging it again. At the end of this cycle, the horse was put back straight on the circle, and canter strike-off was asked. Eole responded quite well. We did this exercise on both lead a few times, and the quality of strike-offs did increase all the way. I found this exercise quite effective, perhaps even better suited to Eole than practising shoulder-in at walk before asking for canter strike-off, as I often do.
Then, going deeper into canter roundness study, we worked shoulder-in at canter on the large side, then putting the horse straight back again on a 10 meter diameter circle at the inception of the small side, slowing down to VERY small strides, while looking for 'sitting the horse' on the hindquarters with the outside rein and inside leg at girth. Still keeping on the same circle, speeding up the canter on one or two cycles, and slowing down again to 'petit galop'. I lost Eole only one or two times down to trot - I guess I would have liked to have my spurs which would have given me the touch of accuracy that was missing at that moment. But after these little incidents at the beginning, Eole performed beautifully, with regular cadence and no stiffness/resistance. We did the whole sequence on both leads, a couple of times each. The new coach was surprised that he could do so well at slow collected canter, because of his rather long back. I was less surprised of course, since I had seen his ability to come close to pirouette before.
This was a very good session, and I enjoyed the way the coach had designed it. She will no doubt become quite a successful teacher.