quelle histoire

Lydia rides at a nearby centre equestre and this morning we popped back to watch the last ten minutes of her lesson.
Now ponies are always amusing, they have such personalities! Today was no exception, amusement came calling!! At the end of the lesson the kids turn , as a ride, across  the centre line and halt; so far so good. Then they do 'round the world' (le moulin here) and dismount...cue two big Friesians (on holiday livery) breaking the fence with a helluva "crash" and cavorting with neighbouring horse. The sound of the crash sent the ponies in all directions, half of them (the half seated backwards at the moment of the crash) got dumped and the other half dived for the ground. It was utter carnage, pony and child spaghetti, lol. One little girl landed with a nasty thud but kids seem able to take the knocks and she's fine. Lydia was giggling and all the girls (why don't boys ride??) had to have a good old conflab in the tack room. Don't they say never work with children or animals?



Kate asked about Etienne Beudant's book from which I quoted, his major work Extérieur et Haute école was first published in1921 and his other work still in print Vallerine (when no longer able to ride his horse Vallerine, he wrote to the friend he gave her to and this is the resulting book) I believe he wrote another but I'm not sure this is still available in French or English. He was a student of Faverot de Kerbrech (himself a student of Baucher) and well regarded by the great Decarpentry.

 

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 ;-)

Greedy guts

Ask for much, be content with little, and reward often" (Captain Beudant) ...





..well today I'm ashamed to say I asked for too much. Yesterday Moralejo was a really good boy and today I was greedy and asked for some more. Should have lunged but couldn't resist riding, big mistake on my part. So I decided to accept that today wasn't the day and we went down the fields for a mooch and had a lovely time up and down the hills and came home quicker than we went out, lol!! I hope I brought us back from the edge by accepting little and then rewarding, he is so forgiving, I do love him. Horses teach us something about ourselves every day, I've just got to be more aware of my lessons.