fuzzy felt horses

Winter seems to be the golden thread linking most horsey blogs at the moment and so I'll join the throng. Tonight the boys are in the barn; it didn't get above 10 degrees in spite of the glorious sunshine and there was a raw wind that made their coats stand up like fuzzy felt boards.
I was overjoyed to see Moo walk up the field sound and then up the steep hill with no problem, the blip , for now, seems to have passed. It seemed a good plan to work him dismounted again and we had an excellent seesion, no expectations is generally a good plan and it certainly was today.
The spanish walk has now progressed to raising both legs (mostly in the right order,lol) and he's got the idea of keeping it forwards too. We did some more pole work and some good stretching down in the trot, the rhythm is good and after using the poles he has a real lift in his back. Excellent stretches again to finish.
Don't want to tempt fate by looking forward to the next session.
My thoughts for the day, week, maybe even the year are Etienne Beudant's words 'Observe and Reflect' taken from  ''Observer le cheval libre, réfléchir et tâcher de bien faire soi-même au lieu d'accuser la mauvaise volonté ou les tares de son cheval.

                   La réussite d'un dressage ne s'obtient que par l'observation et la réflexion sans s'écarter des lois de la nature, tandis que l'application mécanique des théories est rarement juste.

                   Le succès équestre n'échoit qu'à ceux qui observent et réfléchissent.''

This tells me that in order to succeed I must observe my horse's nature (the way he moves, why he moves, from what he moves etc) and reflect upon it to find the true 'dressage' solution for us...the mechanical application of theories is rarely just (as in correct). Beudant rocks ;-)