19 March A lesson in clarity

19 March

In the morning I loose schooled Tamtam in the manege then I took him to the washbox for a tidy up. He hesitated on entering but behaved like a gentleman. He is losing his coat. The hair he is losing doesn't look or smell nice. It is strange.

Afterwards Willy asked me to ride the young bay mare that had been so problematical before . You may remember the day that Willy had put her with another mare in the manege and then separated them (a challenge to each mare) and she had been a disaster to ride tossing her head around and generally not going forwards. Well today she was like a completely different mare! Willy told me had ridden her twice since then and swiftly driven her forwards with the support of the whip where necessary. Another successful confrontation! I watched him loose school her first. Fantastic rhythm, great outline, an old pro but only 4 years old!! What a difference when I rode her. Light. Forwards. Working over her back. Super! Only one issue I had was when I asked her to canter. I used too much leg and she shot forward bronking. After that I knew to ask quietly and she did some beautiful transitions.After we took her for a walk up the chemin. Her eyes were on stalks and she felt like an unexploded bomb. But she passed barking dogs, geese, horses in fields and on a walker....Not bad for only her 5th time under saddle!

In the afternoon we worked the stallions in the pessoa in the manege. Willy demonstrated the effect of no contact and contact using the equipment. With a correctly adjusted contact the horse rounded his back and worked properly from behind. With more freedom the outline was continuously changing with the horse going hollow at times and not working from behind. Willy said it is like the mother taking the child out. The mother that takes the hand firmly and says come on we are going out! And the one who has a slack hand and says maybe we will go out....Which one would you trust? Positive. Positive.

Later I talked with Willy about what we had seen during the day. He told me that the horse that doesn't understand feels stress. And that when the horse feels stress it is difficult for him to learn. When we are clear and positive the horse can understand and this reduces his stress. Being "moyenne" (maybe) does not give the horse clarity. It is yes or no not maybe. Black or white not grey. Of course there are always shades of grey but the closer we can get to black and white the better for the horse. I think that it is the same for people.