The mirror to your soul - do I want to see myself?

I started the day with 'Buck' - that's the only way I can stand ironing: by watching a good movie. I've seen 'Buck' umpteenth times by now, and still, I am fascinated. My first instructor, Julie Arkison, is a disciple of Buck and his methods. Thanks to her learning from Buck a lot of Saumur's issues could get addressed (i.e. trailer loading: from 8 hours to self-loading)

Buck's movie is full of pearls of wisdom, some of my favorites are "I don't help people with horse problems - I help horses with people problems". And the best: "The horse is a mirror to your soul - sometimes you might not like what you see, sometimes you will."

I guess that was a good prelude to our rides: all three boys were awesome! Remy's trot work was really good, and his canter produced a huge smile on my face. We finished with a great walk, soft and swinging, stretching correctly. JP recorded our ride, so I can revisit the fun.

JP and Chambord also were on a roll: these two are getting more and more in tune, their respective stiffness' is loosening considerably, and they had quite a blast in the canter. I already envision the trail rides in the Spring: A big white butt (Chambord's!) galloping off into the sunset, with Saumur (or Remy) happily giving chase.

In Saumur's lesson, Sandy changed our routine. Usually we warm up in the walk, then do the trot work, followed by the canter. This time we went right into the canter after the walk warm up. Saumur has become quite the 'cantering machine', he now stays collected, light in the bridle, with good transitions. We worked on canter half-passes, changing to leg yields, as well as canter - trot transitions. At first I was a bit surprised, because I thought "Canter - trot, that's young horse stuff". Sandy explained that it is actually hard for the upper level horses to do it, because they are so used to canter - halt, or canter - walk. The canter - trot transitions are part of the GP test. Well, I am glad to report we nailed them.

As a cool down we finished with a variation of 'The Box': Shoulder in across the arena, haunches in in the corner, shoulder in across the arena, haunches in in the corner, and so on. That really teaches the positioning of the horse's shoulders and the rider's legs.

During all our work Saumur stayed relaxed and happy, with excellent self-carriage and contact. No spook! So I can honestly say that I really liked what I saw in both of my mirrors, as did JP in his. I decided to check my mirrors frequently (and hopefully continue to like what I see).