Pacha - march 16, 2012

Lovely weather, when you feel Spring is round the corner. Empty large arena. F. with Milha and I with Pacha.
Walk with snaffle reins, with some light lateral work (alternating LY in 'fish bone' on the middle line). A few good halts. Then relaxation with loose draw reins only, low head and neck. Walk at constant speed, looking for straightness on the large side as well as on 12m circles, using bust only to direct the horse on the circle. Some LYs, low head. Then trot , making sure that the head and neck do not move up during the transition. Oliveira wrote ' horse's head and neck raising during transitions is the antithesis of horsemanship'. So true!
Continuining trot session with low head both hands, varying speed, many transitions to walk and halts - a few rein-backs well accepted by Pach, low head on loose draw reins. After 15' of this work, canter strikes in that same spirit on loose draw reins. Despite hot, Pacha kept under control and downward transitions obtained with belly button moving towards fixed hand were OK.
Taking snaffle reins again, progressive extended trot. Pacha did quite well, keeping steady horizontal neck set and increasing stride amplitude and hind legs rpm while maintaining cadence. F. and Milha followed us, and after a while, Pacha trot was so powerful that Milha fell into canter to keep up.
Return to calm at walk, loose reins. Before returning to stables, first attempt to ask for a jambette mounted at halt with a stick. Pacha has always been very fidgety when feeling hands doing unusual thing when on his back, and it was the first time that I tried the stick. Went OK except when passing the stick from one hand to the other, when a hint of panic was shown by Pacha. I could calm him down with soothing words. Touching each foreleg knee did produce a begining of jambette at halt.
We ended there and went back to stables, happy and relaxed. Pacha was dry, with nice lipstick on his mouth. He had had a soft mouth during most of the session - no lower lip flapping at all..
A good day.