Pacha - august 5, 2010

Alone in the large covered arena. Fair temperature. Snaffle and draw reins. We started with a long working session at walk, looking for straightness and impulsion, with well drawn figures. Pacha has got rid of his fears regarding banners and arena gate. His walk was fine, long neck on light contact. We stopped often, looking for square halts (not always obtained) and reining back for three or four steps after cession de machoire at halt and terminated with immediate forward movement. Definite improvement on reining back: Pacha does not raises his head anymore, nor braces against the request. Most of times the reining back is straight and on the hand, with back raising upward. Shoulder-Ins, small circles with haunches out and in, leg yield with outside bend across half a diagonal. All this went well, a little lipstick showing on Pacha's mouth. After 15', work at trot (sitting) concentrating on cadence and clean geometry of figures. Frequent transition down to walk over 10 m. Several halts with or without reining back and restart ('bouncing back') at trot directly. As I realized that Pacha was doing all this in calmness and without nervousness, I decided after 15' minutes to start canter work straight away with two novelties for Pacha: no preparatory impulsion build-up at posting trot, neither raising on the stirrups at the beginning of the canter session. Instead, sitting deep in the saddle on long stirrups, I asked a canter strike -off 'à la Ph. Karl', i.e. on long neck and aiming at getting his 'best canter' at once. It worked beautifully, with round, cadenced canter, slow cadence and no sign of restlessness. We went on the track and did several arena rounds, with no change in stride and position. I used one or the other draw rein in isolation from time to time at the beginning when I felt an attempt to raise the head or a risk of alteration of the cadence. We spent 15' minutes on this work which delighted me. For the first time in two years, Pacha was really round, light on the hand. I had the wonderful feeling of sitting on a soft ball, smoothly rocked by a soft and quiet back. My own body was completeley relaxed, belly button forward, chest erect, legs soft and completely down, arms and hands in ' the mayonnaise' as my teacher used to say. When you sit like this on a horse cantering in this fashion, you feel like weightless and with your body airborne, completeley free.
A great milestone again in Pacha's training. I can see the end of the tunnel and the bright light of dressage d'ecole around the corner. We went back to stables, Pacha with not a single hair wet and quietly chewing his bit and myself in high spirits. A very special day indeed!
I believe the patient lunge training I have been giving Pacha over the last months is largely reponsible for this result. It has helped in two ways:
-building Pacha muscles without constraint
-increasing his confidence and self-reassurance. Undertanding that canter is not a panic gait for fleeing away from frights, but rather a comfortable and relaxed gait where communication with man is at its finest.