I was watching the video of today’s ride. We’re working on transitions from walk to trot, and I spend a long time in the walk before I ask. Getting her balance right first, so the trot has something to start from.
And it struck me: how beautiful her walk has become.
Look at her front end. She’s up.
Two years ago she wasn’t. I went into my archive and pulled a video from back then. Same mare, same arena, same walk.
She’s low in front. Everything about her is going forward and down, into the ground.
But that walk was right, back then. She couldn’t have given me this beautiful carriage then. Her body wasn’t there yet, and neither was mine. Those were frustrating years, because she was so low in front.
You don’t fix a downhill walk by simply clicking a good step and hoping for the best. What you’re seeing is her new balance. And that balance is being built somewhere else. In the groundwork and in the saddle. From the very first targeting lesson to Hip-Shoulder-Shoulder. One lesson at a time, over years.
And half of what changed isn’t her. It’s me.
Because I lean forward too. Blondie leans, invites me to lean with her, and I accept. Then two bodies are falling in the same direction, and all of it lands on her shoulders.
So while she was doing her work, I was doing mine, with my Feldenkrais teacher Nathalie. Learning to stay straight and long when the horse under me is low in front. To fill my back instead of following her down. It takes more effort than it sounds. But she can only lift in front of me when I don’t add my weight to her shoulders.
She can’t hold this self-carriage long. She comes up, and she comes down again, and we walk on. But it comes more often now. A little longer every time.
She’s starting to become elegant.