Dancing with Pirate

[april]

I warm Pirate up by riding him through circles, half circles, serpentines, figure eights, going long around the arena and down center line. He moves like the show horse he is, with long, free, supple strides, his neck reaching out and his muscles relaxed and supple, moving rhythmically. Like he always does, Pirate gives me his all. He's got even better impulsion then when he was a racer I'm sure, and his transitions, extending, and collecting couldn't be better. It really is like he's dancing. His muscles have developed alot since I started training him, but he's so supple he could be a piece of string the way he bends. I work in some new figures designed to help him be even more supple and more in tune with me and to channel his momentum. We work on bow tie and ribbon candy serpentines, which are patterns of circles and serpentines interlaced. He responds to my aids practically before I give them, and he's so sensitive he responds to the slightest touch. I know all those skills are what dressage is really about, not just learning the steps, although he dances through them effortlessly, as if the difficult steps were his idea and the most natural thing in the world. He’s really listening to me today, and I feel more in tune with him than ever. We’re a real team. I’ve heard of horse whispering, and used what the practice preaches, but I feel like this is real whispering, softly suggesting ideas to Pirate which he accepts eagerly. The lightness and ease of his movements make it clear that he’s having as much fun as it's possible for him to have without being on the track. He loves even the most difficult step, or rather he loves them because of the challenge, and he goes through them like he can't imagine anything more natural, moving as supplely as a piece of string blowing in the wind. He’s really mastered the basics at all the walk, trot, and canter. There's only the piaffe and passage left for him to learn, and those are required at only the highest levels of dressage. After asking him for everything from the simple leg yield to the zig zagging half pass with flying lead changes in between to the difficult pirouette I cool out my beautiful ballet dancing friend with a big smile on my face