Solene - december 22, 2014

Work with Solene is progressing well. It is time to make a first assessment of Solene's performance, in order to shape up his training programme over the next months. Our mutual understanding is developing nicely. He is eager to please his rider. His impulsion needs to be mobilized at the beginning of the session, after which his sensitivity and responsiveness is fully available, with a fine degree of subtlety. He needs very light aids, and responds to the slightest touch of the boot. Regarding the mouth, he still needs to get more used to lightness. He has been allowed/encouraged by his previous riders to lean on the bit, and keep a high head carriage. Consequently he can be still disoriented, and clumsy at 'descente d'encolure'. It is clear that he likes it, but he does not completely control his balance when his nose is down to the ground and can stumble slightly at times. I think I will have to go slowly in this process, and understand why it is so. The obvious mechanistic answers such as lack of impulsion, and too much weight on the shoulders do not seem to apply satisfactorily in his case. I tend to suspect that it is more a matter of getting used to it, even getting educated to it; he has to actually learn how to move forward without the 'support' of the rider's hand.
His walk is getting much better, more energetic and he begins to be able to extend it slightly. His trot has always been fine since I have known him. His canter is a joy now: no more any four beats, lovely, light and happy strokes into canter, upon extra light aids: open inside hand fingers, touch with inside leg at girth, outside leg slightly behind, quiet and relaxed seat and.. he gets at once into a supple, light, comfortable, neat canter.
His instant of glory stays with 'doux passage' which I can get now in 'descente de main'. Piaffer on the contrary seems beyond reach at this point.
Solene can give nice square halts, but the rider must coordinate his aids very carefully: legs, pressure on the reins, belly navel forward on a deeper seat. Here, the improvement stays with the rider, not him!
I have started  a study on reining back which I will develop in a further post.
To sum up, I can say that Solene is going to rank about the best horses I ever rode - a dream horse!