Is it that light? So gentle? These are the questions that arise as I try and show a student the work in hand. Well, no, it is really much lighter when your hand is not between my hand and the horse.
It is really quite astonishing and then again of course it is that light. A horse can feel the legs of a fly and so then, why do you needs to have any more? What makes it work is not your aggression toward the horse, but rather the horse’s mind which moves its body.
It is intelligence which brings about the elements of dressage and not your aggressions. To work at this level you must prove you are intelligent to the horse by working with its intelligence and not by increasing aggression. Simple? Yes, but you must have the confidence in gentleness and always work in kindness.
There is no action which you make that does not work, but there are lots of actions which have no obvious results. Especially at the start, the results are invisible. 3 to 4 actions in gentle cadence do not work at the start, but there is always an effect. To this end, it is useful to place a gentle accent to the final beat.
Thought and feeling move way more at the start than the body. Learning to work with the invisible is difficult because you lack belief.So too does the horse lack belief in you. Both of you must meet in the invisible first. This is good dressage. It pleases the blind and one does not mind having a conversation with the deaf. It is the deaf and blind that first finds the poetry.
A funny dressage, in the world of the deaf and blind, but a good poet does not mind. Sing your song sweetly and the horse will hear and eventually see. This is dressage which is not found in a book.
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