A glimpse into my training with Nevada – our journey towards a deeper layer in training & fitness.

Sometimes You Train for Years for a Moment That Lasts Only a Few Seconds

During our latest training sessions with Edward Gal, I felt something beginning to change in Nevada. Not just physically. His body was becoming more connected, but at the same time, something was shifting within him. He became bigger. Prouder. More confident.

The energy that once sometimes threw him off balance suddenly started to become strength. As if he was no longer simply performing what he had learned over the years, but was beginning to truly feel and understand what his own body is capable of.

And perhaps that is exactly the layer we are growing towards together. No longer training just to become stronger or to perform an exercise better, but gradually gaining access to the whole horse: physically, mentally and emotionally.

Keep working towards what you believe in

This October will mark two years since Nevada and I had our first lesson with Edward Gal.

Even when I was young, I already knew: one day, I want to train with Edward. That alone feels quite special to reflect on. To me, it is another reminder that something you truly believe in and continue working towards can, sometimes years later, simply become reality.

These past two years have strengthened Nevada and me enormously. Of course in what we are capable of together, but perhaps even more in refinement, feel and trust. Learning to trust more and more what I feel underneath me. The smallest change in his body. And what Nevada gives back to me in response.

Because Nevada really is a horse you have to understand.

He asks for patience, feel and sometimes quite a bit of puzzling. And that is exactly what I enjoy so much about working on this together with Edward. We have a lot of fun during our lessons and continue searching for ways to help Nevada step more and more into his own strength.

Beyond the exercises

After all these years of dressage training from the ground, Nevada now understands almost all the dressage exercises very well in liberty too. This means that during our lessons, we can increasingly look beyond the exercise itself.

The question is no longer simply: can he piaffe?

But: what is happening inside his body while he is piaffing?

Can I activate his hind leg while maintaining the use of his back? Can he engage his abdominal muscles and trunk? Can he carry his chest and withers more effectively? And can all those different parts begin to work together more and more as one connected whole? That is the next layer for us.

To me, fitness is not simply about strengthening a muscle or performing a particular exercise. Of course, we want to develop mobility, stability, coordination and strength. But ultimately, it is about something bigger: gaining access to the whole horse, physically, mentally and emotionally.

For me, that increasingly means learning to communicate with the entire body. Understanding which part of the body we want to reach, and learning to influence it with more and more refinement: a shoulder, the chest, the trunk or a hind leg. And from there, helping all those individual parts work together as one.

Because being able to perform a movement is not the same as having the whole body truly work together within that movement.

These are exactly the kinds of puzzles I take into everything else we do as well: treatment, bodywork, Gua Sha, electrodes and our fitness training from the ground.

Sometimes one thought changes everything

One small but very important insight for me came through the trot and passage.

Nevada’s natural movement pattern tends to bring his chest down rather than lifting through his chest and trunk. As a rider, it therefore comes down to millimetres: feeling which posture and position help him use his underline more effectively and connect his whole body.

With Edward’s guidance, I started searching differently for the connection between Nevada’s front and the rest of his body in trot. Less focus on his head, and more on the base of his neck: can I feel that coming more towards me while keeping enough relaxation, so the energy from his hind legs can continue to travel through his whole body?

When he can keep his chest more towards me and carry his shoulders further back, it creates more space for his front leg to move freely forward. His front becomes bigger, his trunk feels more connected, and he can come back onto his hind legs more easily.

A proud posture

And this perhaps brings us to the most important part of this phase.

I don’t want to spend every second organising Nevada’s body for him. Ultimately, I want to help him, allow him to experience something, and then gradually give him more space to search for, find and maintain the right use of his body himself.

And during our latest lesson, that is exactly what happened.

Nevada was suddenly able to maintain his body and carrying posture for much longer. I actually started laughing and couldn’t stop smiling because everything suddenly felt so easy and fluid.

And I think Nevada felt it too.

He became bigger and more confident, and you could simply feel that he realised it himself. Of course, we rewarded him for that.

For me, it was one of our best lessons ever.

For longer stretches, his body stayed connected towards me while he was able to carry his neck. Normally, there are still regular moments when he falls back into his old pattern and I first have to rebalance him before we can continue. This time, he was able to remain in that new feeling for longer and longer.

But the most beautiful part wasn’t even what happened physically…

He became proud.

And perhaps that is exactly where strength and expression come together for me. Not creating more spectacle. But a horse discovering: hey, I can do this. When physical strength becomes mental strength. That is one of the reasons I love dressage so much.

When a horse becomes stronger and develops a better understanding of how to use his body, something can also begin to change in the way he carries himself. In his confidence. In how much responsibility he feels able to take himself.

Nevada needs to feel safe enough to explore. Confident enough to truly dare to use his strength. But at the same time, he has to learn that when a question becomes difficult, he doesn’t always need to fall back on his old solutions, like shutting down or occasionally rearing. 😉

And that is exactly where training becomes increasingly interesting to me.

Not endlessly repeating, but allowing the body to discover another possibility. And then seeing whether, little by little, that new possibility can truly become part of the horse himself.

On paper, we can know an incredible amount about anatomy, biomechanics and training theory. But in almost every training session, there is a moment when you suddenly feel something you previously mainly understood.

So, with plenty of new inspiration, Nevada and I will continue working over the coming month. Training, feeling, experimenting and discovering which pieces begin to fall more and more into place.

And I’m already looking forward to our next lessons — and to discovering what we will refine next.

Sometimes you train for years for just a few seconds in which everything comes together. And those few seconds show you what you can grow towards together.