Eole - october 8, 2009

It has been almost three months since I last rode Eole. It was therefore with much pleasure that I groomed and prepared him and went into the small outdoor arena. I was alone with JC, our coach. As soon as we began the walk session, I recovered the good feelings that Eole has been providing me ever since I met him. After alternating mellow neck extensions with 'cession de machoire' on elevated neck, we did a few lateral flexions. The strides were energetic, the horse tranquil, with a light and responsive contact on the hand.He was gently chewing his bit with a touch of bright white froth on his lips. We took a more collected walk and did several halts on the middle line. Most were square, and Eole remained at a standstill for as long as I asked him to start again. Then the halts were followed by three reining back steps. Again, most were very straight with no resistance and keeping the ramener with this lovely, soft bouncing back on the fixed hand when reining back was requested.At the leg signal (whisper) the horse intends to move forward, but as he feels the fixed hand remaining softly fixed, he reverses the movement backwards before he would have made any actual forward move.This is a particularly subtle element of dialog with the horse, since it deals with changing neither positions, nor rythm, nor directions, bending etc.. but immaterial INTENTIONS. This is why reining back, when done in such a way is so useful to training the horse. After three steps, immediate re-start at walk first then trot.
We then worked shouder-in on the small side followed by extended walk on the diagonal, then changing hand, shoulder-in on the other hand on the other small side, extended walk on the diagonal etc.. We did the same at sitting trot. This sequence is quite useful to build up impulsion, get the back up and confirm lightness.
Then came the canter session. Start on the large side from walk after a few strides of shouder-in. Variations of speed on the large side, with slowing down on the small side without letting the neck drop down with the help of a few half halts, and using the outside rein in conformance with Nuno Oliveira's principle: 'The outside rein sits the horse, the inside rein bends him'.
We ended with a study of pirouette, starting from a spiral with haunches-in till reaching a very small circles at slow cadence. Not quite a pirouette because the hindlegs were on a very small circles themselves, but what a feeling! It worked very well on the right hand (his 'easy' side). But for the first time, we tried this on his other side (the 'stiff' one).It was more difficult as expected, with less engagement of the inside hind leg and several drop downs into trot. At times, my back did not remained behind the vertical with belly forward, and leaned even slightly forward which is of course quite wrong. We went back to calm through walk and after a short while, started again. We succeeded in achieving half a turn on the haunches on the left hand, at slow canter, keeping the cadence until we went out of the circle, on a straight line.
I was very happy of this result, because Eole had done his best on his difficult side in this very demanding movement.
As a reward, we walked outside in the woods for 20 ', with loose reins, enjoying the Autumn fresh air and beautiful colours. He was dry when we came back to stables.
As I groomed him after this wonderful session, I thought of Montesquieu's quote 'I never had any sorrow that one hour of reading would not have healed'. I believe that horsemen can easily paraphrase it in replacing reading by riding.