Hi this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride and today I wanted to share a very special moment with you.In the video, we are showing Bailador, which you have watched come along for a while now. Bailador had extreme mental and physical problems. He was the horse that we showed you that had huge holes in his back. Today is very special because it is the first day that he has ever connected across his back!

It has taken Bailador a year and a half to get to this point. Notice how his neck no longer has a break in it and he is able to bring his neck up for the first time. I’ve literally had to ride this horse with his nose to the ground for the past year and a half because he just could not raise his head, and if he tried he would completely fall apart. Notice how we still have the side reins on the horse, that is because we are transitioning this horse from the double bridle. He used to be a pretty dangerous horse and would spook very severely. In the beginning he needed to be ridden with a double bridle just for safety sake, you’d never know when he was going to have one of his meltdowns. So we are transitioning him into a snaffle. As you can see, he is beginning to be relaxed and in the zone.

I wanted you all to see this, this is the moment that we wait for. When you look at other horses such as Legolas that have not been damaged, you see how quickly they can come up, but if you have these horses that have been going around for several years with hollow backs and have never been connected, it’s going to take some time. If you put the time in, you can see how lovely they become. I have never seen a horse in my life that couldn’t become relaxed, if worked correctly. If you go back to Bailador’s previous videos, you will see he always had a crimp in his neck and is overbent all the time, so we just had to let him stay out there until he became strong enough over his back. Look how beautifully he is moving over his back now! He is floating beautifully over the ground and he is getting in the zone and is relaxed.

So once again, this is Will Faerber from Art2Ride showing you this very special moment for Bailador!

Art2Ride Bailador classical foundation connection dressage San Diego horse training Will Faerber