A horse of a different colour

Meeka was grazing outside on the hill when I got to the stable this morning. That was a hint: I'm not going to ride her today... At first, that's always a disappointment, because even if she is not mine, I grew very fond of her over the past few months. But every time I rode another of the school horses, I learned something different.  Some I enjoy riding more than others, but overall, they all are great, even tempered horses that will cooperate with me even if my aids are sometimes far from clear. 

So I got to ride Faïtas. He's a sweet chestnut with the softest coat ever.  This week's lesson was mostly practise for previously learned skills (figures of 8 to learn about swapping the aids' sides for proper bending on the two circles, half-volte with outside aids, extension and collection of the trot...), and I must admit, one of the best cardio workous I ever got. 

Why? Faïtas had something on his mind that had nothing to do with me, but a lot to do with the hay he had eaten the day before. His efforts to get rid of that annoying problem were vain for most of the lesson, making me have to work twice as hard to get him to pay attention to the tasks at hand. And what a relief (for the both of us actually) when mother nature finally took it's course...

But enough said aboud poor Faïtas intestines. 

I made the mistake of riding Faïtas just as I would have Meeka: she needs to be ridden with relatively harsh hands. Whereas Faïtas, who wears (or so I was told) a harsher bit, does not do well with such forceful manoeuvers. As soon as Cynthia suggested using more legs to balance out my aids better, everything seemed to go much smoother. More legs always seem to do the trick for me. First thing I should always try: like rebooting my PC when it goes crazy...

Faïtas also did something Meeka never tried with me: s-t-a-l-l. What a surprise to feel him evade by sneaking back to the barn, or suddenly stopping and walking backwards or even sideways (at which point I heard Cynthia’s tease: “great leg yields Marie!”) to lean on the arena's wall as if to say "You know what? I think I'll just stay here for a while, you go ahead, I'll watch..." How clever but how conspicuous... This called for my new secret weapon, the infamous kick... I still hate it, but it certainly works.

So point taken: if horses are all from the equus caballus species they are still in essence very different from one another and that their tempers differ greatly as well as their willingness to cooperate. It was nice to get to know Faïtas a little better, and to learn that you need to approach and ride every horse in accordance to his own type, tack, personality AND pay attention to his bodily functions...