‘You are late’ said Opalino stamping an elegant foreleg on the ground. ‘Sorry’ I said, ‘Forces beyond my control’.

Opalino ground at his bit and laid his ears back momentarily ‘The Maestro was not pleased, he is busy, this lesson was very much a favour’. Feeling nervous and a little embarrassed I untied Opalino and led him to the outdoor school and the mounting block.

‘What do you want me to do?’ asked Opalino ‘Just move over and stand quietly whilst I get on, dear one’ I said, ‘I am too creaky to get on from the ground and my back problem gives me difficulties with my hips, I am very stiff and cannot throw my leg over the saddle’. Opalino was silent but let me get on.

‘Now! ’said Opalino ‘Now! Let us get moving : we have wasted too much time and I have much to show you today’. Opalino drew himself up and pranced and curvetted and was all impatience.

‘No Opalino, steady please!’ the old nerves and panic were starting to rise; Opalino felt my rising panic and reacted accordingly. I called for the Maestro who led Opalino into the indoor school. I sighed, Opalino sighed and I was not sure today was going to be a good day, I felt tired and stressy and uneasy.

‘Walk round’ said the Maestro.

Opalino and I walked the circumference of the school. ‘You are tense’ said Opalino ‘Last time you were not tense, you were relaxed. You are not balanced, I can feel your stiffness braced against my back, this is not good for me’.

‘Just let me breathe a bit’, I replied, taking several deep breaths and watching Opalino’s keen grey ears.

The Maestro called us in to the centre, Opalino stamped a foreleg and circled, and the Maestro laid a restraining hand on the rein and spoke soothingly to the fretting stallion. My stirrups were shortened, new holes punched through the leather and then my position and symmetry were checked. ‘OK?’ asked the Maestro. ‘OK ’I said through thinned lips, the tenseness had not dissipated.

The Maestro shot us a keen glance but turned his back and instructed Maria on a prancing Trunfo.

‘What should we do?’ I asked Opalino. Opalino thought for a few seconds before replying. ‘We walk’ he said, ‘we walk and we walk until you are calm, without stillness we cannot work and today we will move forward. For too long have I been patient and quiet, you are not a novice anymore. I have been too complacent in my teaching and if I do not show you how to manage me with confidence, there will be no point in you having a horse of your own.’

For once I was silent; Opalino had always been my rock, my magic stallion, my inspiration and my joy. The first horse I cantered on in the long 6 years after my accident, the first horse who inspired me to riding ambition and the first horse to remind me that riding was still my passion.

It was abandonment, a betrayal.

After the fifth circuit of the school I started to relax a little and breathe more deeply and slowly. Opalino was more relaxed, more like my old dear friend. ‘Trot’ said the Maestro.

We trotted, we circled, we trotted some more. ‘Stillness’ said Opalino ‘should be in all gaits. Your lower leg is not still, you must drape the leg around my sides, it should not flap like a wounded bird’.

Opalino ground his teeth ‘Your contact is uneven, the left side is too loose and your hands are drifting too close together and too forward’. I did my best to even up the contact.

‘No!‘ said Opalino ‘now you have lost the contact altogether, it is all too loose, think of bringing me together like a spring’.

‘That is better’, said Opalino. ‘Can you feel the difference in me? I am not going as flat and you have brought my hind legs underneath me, I am rounder through my back, can you feel the difference?’

‘Yes’, I said, ‘I can. It is just maintaining that even contact and position that is the problem.’. At this point the Maestro came over and asked me to bring my hands back about two inches, Opalino responded by dropping into the contact with a sigh of relief.

‘Sometimes’, said Opalino to the Maestro ‘I am not sure she listens properly, I try and prompt her but she is not always aware’. A wry look from Maestro. ‘How do you feel about canter?’ he asked.

‘Lovely’, I replied. ‘Marvellous  said with a conviction I certainly did not feel.

Opalino opened his mouth and yawned ‘Canter was something we did when you first met me, you trusted me enough then, what is the difference now? You should be working with more conviction.’

Opalino and I cantered around the perimeter of the school, 20 metre circles at both ends and making sure that pace and cadence were kept at a steady constant. ‘Now‘ said the Maestro, ‘we will do a simple change at X and change the rein’.

‘Confident?’ asked Opalino a trifle slyly. ‘Not very’, I said. ‘I have forgotten so many aids that I feel inept.’ This was met with a snort and rattle of the curb chain. Opalino cantered around the school, the Brazilian groom dropped a rake at the entrance of the school and Opalino shot forward, sideways and back.

‘Ow’ as my back cracked in protest. ‘Alright?’ asked Opalino. ‘Not particularly ’ I answered, ‘my back hurts again’.

Opalino dropped his pace.

‘Canter.’ said the Maestro, so back protesting I cantered, we cantered, we cantered all three.

‘Your transitions have improved’ stated Opalino. ‘I still don’t feel I know what I am asking, I find it difficult to obtain feel’, I replied.

‘I canter do I not, I do the change at X?’ said Opalino ‘So you must be doing it correctly, I respond only to the correct aids as I have been taught by the Maestro and his son’.

Opalino stiffened, ‘Your balance is not true again, you are sitting too heavily on your left seatbone and you have twisted through your body’. The Maestro walked forward ‘Pull your right shoulder back, you are twisting ’,he said. ‘My back’, I said. ‘Can you continue?’ asked Maestro. I nodded in the affirmative. ‘Now’ said the Maestro ‘canter transitions with change at X’.

Opalino flattened and trotted and ran faster ‘No Opalino’, I said. Opalino ground his teeth. ‘Canter Opalino ’,I begged and still Opalino ran on in silence. I slowed him to walk.

‘I cannot do it’, I said, ‘I have lost it completely’.

‘You are too tense’, said Opalino with annoyance, ‘Tense and you have drawn up your lower leg and thigh and you are tilting forward, you are making me run on to my forehand and I am unbalanced’. With a flash of temper Opalino sidestepped and turned and sidestepped and turned and ran backwards down the full length of the school.  ‘This is unacceptable’, he flashed. ‘This is not good, such clumsiness makes me angry’.

I made the fateful mistake of taking away all contact on the bit and pressure of the leg. Opalino in a fit of temper leaped and bounced and twisted and turned. ‘No! NO! NO!’ he screamed, ‘Never, never do that to a Lusitano stallion, it makes me nervous, you are not supporting me, how can I have guidance and know what you want from me without contact? I am not one of your silly ill-behaved English horses who panic at control’.

Opalino was beside himself with panic, the Maestro came over ‘Pick up the contact’, he said quietly. ‘Put both legs on and sit.’

As soon as Opalino felt the contact and the support from legs and hands he slowed his mad waltzing, although he was tense and unhappy. ‘You fool’, he said with anger. ‘I expected better’. I felt saddened at my sudden inability to ride and at Opalino’s reaction. ‘You frightened me’, I said. ‘I did not expect that’. Opalino thought for a moment then answered, ‘But you rode me, you corrected yourself, you brought me back under control, you did not fall’. Unconvinced I nodded, unseen.

‘Do you want to have a go at passage and piaffe?’ asked the Maestro. ‘OK’ I said wearily.

Opalino felt like a coiled spring, his ears were back. ‘Bring him to the wall’, said the Maestro. Opalino went into trot but still felt very tense and fretful, he was silent. ‘Trot’, said the Maestro ‘and take up more contact on the left rein and left leg’. Opalino exploded sideways.

‘Back to the wall’, said Maestro, ‘back into trot’. Opalino by this time was feeling like a rocking horse. ‘More contact’, said the Maestro.

Once again Opalino shot forward, then sideways and then back and then circled. His mouth was clamped firmly around the bit.

‘Again’, said Maestro.

More explosive action from Opalino.

‘Can I stop?’ I asked the Maestro ‘I can’t do this’.

‘Back to the wall’, said Maestro. The cycle of wall, explosion, wall, explosion carried on for what seemed a lifetime. Somehow eventually, we got a very few steps of each movement. It was not one of our finer moments. I felt frustrated and disheartened. ‘Maybe I should stick to being a happy hacker ’,I said to Opalino who was still fretting as I walked him around the school. ‘A what?’ asked Opalino. ‘Oh you know’, I said, ‘Just walking around the countryside’.

Opalino was incredulous. ‘Don’t you want to ride?’, he asked. ‘Like this, in the Portuguese tradition?’. ‘I am no good’, I said, ‘I cannot do it anymore, I will never make a rider’. Opalino made a sound of disgust and swished his tail. ‘You talk nonsense’, he said. ‘Do you think the Maestro would have made you persevere if he thought you could not do it and lacked the ability?’ I shrugged.

‘Anyway’, said Opalino, ‘You impressed the Maestro earlier’. ‘How?’ I asked with some surprise.

‘You got on me from the mounting block’,said Opalino with a chuckle. ‘I know’,I said surprised, ‘I cannot get on from the ground any longer’. ‘Ah’, said Opalino, ‘You don’t understand the significance. I am not a school horse, I am never mounted from the block, I have never been taught that, yet you brought me to the steps, you made me stand and you got on. Never, never have I had to do that, last time the Maestro had to hold me at the block for you, he is impressed!’

Maestro came back into the school with one of the riding horses on the lunge. He spoke quietly to Opalino. ‘Now,’ said Opalino, ‘The Maestro is going to give your friend a lunge lesson. He has asked that we practice canter’.

‘Oh’ I said ‘OK’.

I walked Opalino around for a half circuit, then trot and a perfect canter transition. Back to trot, then walk and then walk to canter and canter to walk. Every transition was perfect. ‘Bravo’, said Opalino. ‘You can do this’. ‘I don’t understand what has changed’, I said. Opalino sighed. ‘ Isn’t it obvious?’ ‘No’, I said.

‘Let me explain’, he said, dropping into a beautiful rounded well cadenced canter. ‘We are relaxed, we are no longer uptight, you are sitting more evenly, you have achieved perfect stillness in the saddle and your lower leg is now correct and still’. He was thoughtful for a moment. ‘Is there anything you would like to try?’ he asked.

We flowed through beautiful canter pirouettes on both reins.

Opalino was sweating hard, we had been riding for over two hours.

‘Enough now’, he said as I brought him to the centre of the school and dismounted. I hugged his neck and kissed his aristocratic Lusitano nose.

‘Never forget’, said Opalino, ‘That I am Veiga, never forget that I am a Lusitano stallion. I have given you much support when you were nervous and unsure, but now you have become a rider. You have progressed and the Maestro says you have improved, that is praise. It will not always be easy and perfect, for if it was, there would be no need to learn and no need for the Maestro and I to push you forward’.

Opalino looked at me. ‘That will do’, he said.

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