The best of both worlds - "Relaxing the Soul"

We couldn’t have asked for better weather this weekend –absolute gorgeous Michigan fall days, where the trees are ablaze with color and the sun makes the yellow leaves shine like gold.  

Friday we had a lovely trailride to the ‘other side’ of the park. That entails negotiating steep hills, climbing over fallen trees, and of course, encountering lots of wildlife. Chambord sure has an in-built GPS, he knows exactly which way to dinner and his steps are definitely livelier towards his ‘gamelle’ (in this case: food dish).

Saturday we set out for lessons at Sandy’s – only to find after arrival that the tack room of our trailer was locked and the key was at home! After some heated discussion “Who left the keys at home???” Sandy came to the rescue and offered to borrow a saddle and bridle from her. We were no worse for the wear – Saumur worked beautifully. He went straight into the work mode, even after spending most of the previous week on the trails in a rubber Pelham. We worked on the collection in the canter, where I really have to remind myself to move my left hand more towards my right hip (not crossing the neck, of course) and taking my right hand about an inch from his neck to the right in order to keep him straight. “When he is straight, it’s effortless”.

Our trot half-passes are increasing in difficulty, the steeper angles (for example H to B) require more precision and I have to remember to aim his chest at the letter. I was really happy with how good it felt, Saumur was right with me the whole time. To finish we worked on the pirouettes. Sandy reminded me to think of them as really small circles. Our turns on the haunches received “9”s from different judges this summer, so that’s a good start. Unfortunately, I get Saumur ‘stuck’ sometimes, so I have to focus on keeping him moving.

Barb came with her trailer to pick up a horse, when she heard about our plight with the locked door she suggested we try her key: Low and behold – it opened our door! Just in time, so JP and Chambord had their own gear for the lesson. But how scary, there you lock thousands of dollars worth of equipment in your trailer – and somebody else’s key opens it! Lesson learned: No more leaving our saddles in the trailer at shows, that’s for sure.

JP and Chambord had an excellent lesson, too. I am amazed how far they both have come. Chambord is rather opinionated (as is his rider J), they are a great team and really fun to watch.

Ah, and our trailride yesterday… in German we say “die Seele baumeln lassen”, which means “to relax the soul” – and that’s exactly what all four of us did. It can’t get any better than that!