Handsome is as Handsome does -- NOW A VIDEO ADDED

Who is Amicus? “Handsome is as handsome does”
Amicus is a chunky Danish Warmblood gelding. I had been looking for an Iberian when I found him, and there was not a drop of the right blood in him, but the markings on his face reminded me of an upside down exclamation mark, emphatically Spanish. That was good enough for me; almost a PRE. And he was so good-looking! With my grandmother’s timeless warning “handsome is as handsome does” ringing all creaky-voiced and portentous in my ears, I bought him three years ago as an 8 year old and moved him directly out to France.

Pre-enlightenment, we used to charge around like this:

And this:

I really should’ve listened to Grandma.
Being used to turnout, life in Maisons-Laffitte did not suit him, where he was stabled 24/7. What “handsome” proceeded to “do” was to take the arts of napping and throwing his rider to their highest forms. Handsome would no longer leave the yard, and took to rearing, running backwards into ditches, spinning and wiping his rider off on trees in the same movement. He liked to turn around on the lunge and double-barrel the lunger – his own signature version of the two-fingered salute. Offers to exercise him on days when I was tied up with family were drying up, when about a year after I got him he went lame with a partially detached suspensory ligament in the near fore and navicular disease in both fronts.

Eight months of box rest with electric shock wave treatment seemed to do the job with the ligament, but of course he became positively murderous to handle. With training and advice from Marengo and support from the likes of JustineJ, I removed his shoes in June 2006, very soon after he started coming back into work, for which cruelty I was asked to leave my yard. It was apparent anyway that proper turnout was needed along with people that would at least “tolerate” shoeless horses, and perhaps help me sort out his mind into the bargain -- so we moved to the Haras de la Cense, a very large NH centre and QH stud.

That’s better! At la Cense, Amicus getting back in touch with nature:

Having his feet tended to by Peter Laidely (actually this is his girlfriend -- Amicus has just been done):

And getting his monthly massage from a fellow Dane:

NH is very good for mixed-up horses in general and for all sorts of riding out
Amicus has been at la Cense for almost eighteen months now, about four months of which were spent mooching around in his field, being taken for walks over different surfaces in-hand and being trimmed by none other than Peter Laidely. Just over year ago he came slowly back into work using la Cense’s own brand of NH, which has helped me enormously in handling his hacking issues… and his feet issues, and his standing issues, leading issues, lunging issues etc. But their rope halter, leave-the-head-well-alone style of riding, while very good for his soul has not, it seemed, been so good for his body. He has taken on a bit of a strung-out look, and just about a week before Heather came I had started to notice a sort of dip in his back where the saddle goes. Could be one of three things (or a combination), I thought:
-   being ridden in the wrong frame
-   being ridden twice weekly by a la Cense teacher using his own saddle of dubious fit
-   having a thick and long winter coat which, when flattened by the saddle, gives the illusion of a hammocky back

No dressage training at la Cense
Ridden lessons at la Cense are great, but still very much centred around winning your horse’s heart and mind. You bring your own riding style and stick with that. Whenever I asked about what I could be doing better, I often heard “you worry too much about your position – it’s fine”.

For months I have been fired up by Heather’s Baucherist re-awakenings, and there is much advice on EE that I have long wanted to put into practice, but to even put a bit in a horse’s mouth is a no-no at la Cense, so the day I dared to use a Pelham I suddenly became the unwanted outsider. It wasn’t just the reproachful looks, I got comments from teachers I admire and continue to rely on, asking why I thought a bit necessary and why such a harsh bit at that. So I put the Pelham back into storage to await Heather’s visit.

Training with Heather
One strung-out horse
Saturday morning I took Trish and Heather to see Amicus. It’s funny, Heather did not have to say anything – just the fact of her being there, it was as if I borrowed her eyes to look at him properly for the first time. Yes, he is now quite strung out, I thought as we groomed him. Tacked him up with his suberpanel Fhoenix, and set off for the indoor school fifteen minutes walk away (it’s a large facility!). I walked him over there in-hand because he can tend to be cold-backed and I like watch him move a little with the saddle on before adding the insult of my butt into the bargain. Once in the school, no sign of the cold back as I mounted – well in fact since the Fhoenix he has exhibited very little sign of a cold anything.

Turkish posting
Heather asked me to “work him in” in my usual way. This proved a dilemma – usually I ride in the rope halter out of respect for my NH teachers but of course this time he was in a snaffle. So I just walked him round casually, offering to show him the spooky corners of the school, leaving his mouth well alone to allow him to settle.

A few minutes in, Heather asked me to gather him up into trot. She immediately corrected my too-upright posting style, whereupon Amicus’s trot freed up noticeably in the space of about ten strides. I felt his back coming up nicely to pop me out of the saddle and staying up to receive my oh-so-light sitting phases too.

Brilliant yet so simple, I had been taught this kind of rising long ago in Istanbul by a Turkish ex-cavalry riding teacher… (but when I proudly showcased it back in “Pony Club England” I was pointedly asked what the tilting forwards was all about. Well I may have been proud but I did know my place so I quickly banished my “Turkish posting” to the bottom drawer of my various riding styles. Now I was only too happy to dust it off for Heather.)

Yes I did feel a little like I was heading out the front door at first (and with Amicus’s usual spooking style, it is out the front door that one tends to exit), but Heather somehow had a calming effect and Amicus was not in a spooky mood that day.

Helping Amicus to carry his rider
Time to address the next task, getting Amicus into the proper frame. I needed to correct his head carriage with the light rein corrections backed up by a nudge from the legs just as described on many a Heather post on EE. Whilst talking me through this, Heather persuaded herself that this was a good time to show me what she meant and to feel for herself how Amicus was in his snaffle, so she popped on board. (I should mention that I got off first, but I think you know that.)

Starting at halt, Heather politely asked him to lift his head. He looked surprised, but re-arranged himself accordingly. Hmmm, did I really need him to grow any taller? Still, the shorter back looked very good!

She asked him to move off very slowly, explaining that his walk tends to lateralise, like so many warmbloods. That counted walk! How slow is it? Slower than slow. Don’t try it if you’re in a hurry to get anywhere, it will drive you mad. But it works! A creditable collected walk with the horse in proper balance. No more ambling for you, Amicus! Shoulder-in at walk on a fifteen metre circle in balance, Amicus looked very different to the slung-out thing I had brought in from the field. Well stone the crows, he looked like a Baucherist horse, a horse that could do some proper dressage once again. I realised that it had been a very long time since I had seen him in that outline; funny how unwanted changes can creep up insidiously over the months.

Responsiveness to the leg with Heather (and the NH recipe for lightness)
Heather nudged Amicus into trot. She would like him much sharper off the leg, she observed.

(My fault for not performing my customary “la Cense” reminder lesson before mounting. Silly me! I actually do know that with Amicus you need to re-establish this each time. This lesson really just serves to remind Amicus, from the ground, what the lightest leg aid means. You place the back of your hand at the different leg positions, apply a little pressure, and the horse is required to move away. He learns to do this smartly and with energy because he would rather avoid an escalation in the cues. Escalating the cues does not mean thrashing your horse –and if your timing is spot-on, your horse becomes light to the aids. In my excitement I had neglected this routine procedure before mounting, so Amicus assumed he could go back to his pre-la Cense wicked ways… ignoring the leg, moving into the leg even if he wishes, wiping his rider off on the boards.)

Heather’s trademark slapping of her boot with the dressage whip did not seem to worry Amicus too much, so she tried swishing the whip through the air, and the sound produced was obviously sufficiently unpleasant to do the trick. Heather’s answer to the la Cense “escalation of cues” – proof that almost everyone uses some form or other of NH.

Moving off into counted walk:

A different horse already, but Heather needs to exaggerate her rein corrections (they are still very gentle):

Moving off into trot -- this horse needs help:

Getting a little more freedom in his movement already:

Improving the movement
Moving into trot in the new improved outline, Amicus looked very different, but not quite there. What was missing? Heather thought his movement seemed choppy -- how upsetting for me, since I know he used to move really nicely. Will he ever get it back? Is he choppy because of incorrect musculature resulting from strung-out riding? Heather thinks so – he is definitely not lame. I know that if left to power around on his forehand at the trot he moves more “fluidly”, but his footfalls these days seem heavy and there is very little suspension. I know Heather would not rate this kind of movement very highly. Conclusion: he must be choppy in the new outline because he is not properly muscled up for it.

Trish volunteered her farrier’s view that a lot of navicular cases are due to too much riding on the forehand. It seems plausible that this could compound the evils of toe-first landing in horses experiencing minor heel pain. Amicus’s feet look good right now, and his EPs tell me he is not landing toe-first, but the evidence on his hooves suggest otherwise – they wear at the toes and not at the heels. At best I have decided that he is landing flat-footed and is wearing his toes down during breakover… I have just discussed this with Marengo and she thinks I might be right…

Contact through the reins
Heather liked the contact on this horse. It is true that a puller or leaner would not stay that way very long with me, but in fact Amicus has always had a lovely happy mouth. Still, always room for improvement, so on with the Pelham to see how he felt with that. Just that extra bit of finesse with the Pelham, Heather thought, though Amicus did do a little munching and tongue-pulling and would have been even better in a Portuguese WE style Pelham. And Libby’s reins!!! The ones I had bought for the Pelham were stiff, slippery even when dry, and too short. Another one for the Christmas list…

Heather knotted the snaffle rein on Amicus’s neck and tried riding with just the curb rein to demonstrate its effect. A good thing too because whenever I ride with two sets of reins I make a point of taking up only the snaffle reins and riding with the “hard-core” reins so loose as to be completely ineffective. Let that be a lesson to me that the curb reins have a purpose and my hands ought to be trusted with them!

Steph has a go
I had seen what to do; now I needed to feel the difference. But wait! Heather had lugged the new Vogue all the way to Paris for Trish to try and I was not about to let anyone try it without at least having the “courtesy” of warming it up first. So we changed saddles. By this time the la Cense Stage Four students were re-entering the indoor school, looking quite lost bemused at our choice of bit. Had they actually passed through straight from lunch into a parallel universe? That poor horse, look at how high he is holding his head, he’s obviously uncomfortable!

Undeterred (and in no doubt that Heather would have known just what to say if challenged), I vaulted back on nimble as a teenager (OK maybe that’s not quite how it happened) and tried out my new improved Amicus. Higher up in front at halt, walk and trot. The rein corrections needed to be applied quite frequently because he was tending to let his head come back down. I let him stretch out in front a few times for a rest. Could we do the counted walk? Sure we could and I loved the way it felt. Much more balanced and measured.

Trying shoulder-in on the circle, I discovered that I do not yet hold the key to this exercise on a dead-to-the-leg Amicus, but nonetheless was able to go SI down the long side of the school and slow him right down. Anyone else would have told me off for loss of impulsion but it did not feel that energy was lacking at all. This re-assembled horse is going to be a great ride!

Lively, light downwards transitions
We did not make it to canter, but had some fantastic revelations on walk to halt and trot to walk. Considering Amicus was still getting used to carrying himself properly, I would not have expected miracles here, but I did get two minor ones. Heather had me forget about bracing the back into downwards transitions. For trot to walk, she kept me rising all the way down into the walk, the cue for walk being merely to slow down the rising until the horse stepped into walk. Here I had the immediate gratification of a lovely balanced and lively transition down with none of the “falling into” the new pace and subsequent lumbering off that I am used to. Amicus’s back stayed up underneath me and the quality of the walk he stepped into was lovely. He looked very happy about it too.

For halting, Heather asked me to just clench my buttocks. Saucy devil! So sceptical I was of her real motives, it took me a while to actually find my Buttock Muscles Control Centre (which had never knowingly been deployed while riding), but it was worth it when I did. Although I am pretty sure Amicus has never been taught to halt this way, somehow the Buttock Clench is intuitive enough an aid to need no explanation – I had immediate results with a squarer halt. Nice! No shuffling, dropping of the back or bracing of the neck.

Trying these BCs right now on the chair in an attempt to decipher their secret, I am still mystified. When I clench my buttocks it feels as if my seat lifts ever so slightly as my seat bones rock inwards towards each other and the whole pelvis may or may not be tilting forward ever so slightly. My thighs might be stiffening too – so to summarise I am not sure why, but on the horse it works.

Neater turns with the inside hip
Heather had shown me how she could get Amicus to change directions seemingly by just thinking left or right. She was in fact merely advancing her inside hip without actually twisting at the waist, not forgetting to apply the outside leg to assist the turn. When I got back on I’m not sure I made a very convincing job at this… this is one for me to practice a bit more after a search on here for more clarifications and tips.

Back at home
Back at home that night Heather, Trish and I played “find the contact” with snaffle bit and reins while Rob served us drinks and rolled his eyes heavenward – I mean, he had already heard a lot of horsey talk but this was taking the biscuit. I also enjoyed the intimate privilege of getting in touch with Heather’s pelvis while she cantered gamely on my sofa. Not as kinky as it sounds, honest. All in the name of absorbing the movement!

Continuing the EE way
I have ridden Amicus again twice since my lesson with Heather. Great as it was on Saturday, he was even better on Tuesday and Thursday since I duly performed my la Cense re-connecting exercises with him before getting on. So the up-in-front horse is now awake to the leg and getting a little lighter on is feet with each ride. My Thursday ride was so good I felt like jumping off about fifteen minutes in to reward him for his efforts. EE-style transitions, turning, counted walks, shoulder-ins, not a hitch. Popped up into canter from walk a few times, (sorry Heather but I couldn’t resist, he did feel in perfect balance, he offered it, and we just did a few strides!)

Then we went out for a triumphal tour of the la Cense grounds and had no naps at all! We forded two streams going out, and then again on the way back, and this alone would normally have been occasion for major irresolvable naps of the sort that drive me to despair and make me wonder why I ride.

Homework – getting Amicus “Baucherist fit”
Over the coming weeks, Heather has advised against cantering quite yet, and suggests regular lunging with a Portuguese roller, bringing the side reins gradually up to the highest rings. I will be doing that on days I don’t ride, and will report back when I have more questions or some major milestone to announce.

A lingering question, a biggy really
As good as he feels, I cannot help wondering how a simple re-positioning of the head should eventually improve his back. Do the withers always come up with the head, in turn helping the back muscles form that strong bridge to carry the rider? Or is there more for me to do later? In fact I used to believe that correct head carriage came from working correctly behind. Anja Beran says riders should leave the head alone, and concentrate on working the hindquarters correctly (although admittedly she says this in reference to the evils of draw reins). Sorry Heather, but I have forgotten the thinking behind this, and if anyone can clarify, I would be grateful.

PS I reserve the right to add more pictures once Trish has sent them to me. She very kindly took a few of me on board and a fair few more exciting ones with Heather up too!