Horses on Barbier farm: Foedista, the white puffy cloud
Posted By Iris on April 2, 2010
On Barbier farm I got the privilege to ride Foedista. He is 18 years old and a GREAT teacher! Sitting his trot is like riding a puffy cloud…
Foedista is a half Lusitano, half Thoroughbred and he has been at Barbier farm pretty much all his life. I saw a video of Dominique where Foedista was only 4 years old! Still grey in the video… Foedista is a very very kind horse, with the kindest eyes, but he can be stubborn too, when he wants to teach you something 
Foedista has been trained very well, back in the days. So he knows exactly what the aids are, and he is stubborn enough to let you know when you don’t use them correctly! There are many ways in which he can show it, one of them being, just refusing to do what you have in mind. The best example is when you want to turn left (on right is even more stubborn then left). If you have read my article about turning, then you understand how we turn our horse with French Classical Dressage. (Turning left; the right side of the hip a bit backwards). If you think you can secretly snoop in a slight rein tug on the left side or a balance shift of your body to the left, just to make him go a bit better or faster, think again! As soon as you so much as touch your left rein, Foedista stops every slight turning that you might had established and he goes straight again! Bummer… The same with your body position; if you think you can help him turn by turning your shoulders and basically disturb the balance, bummer, Foedista goes straight again!
All the aids you might have learned before in your life (steering with the reins or by turning your body), just better not even think about those on Foedista, or he will ‘teach’ you! He WON’T do it! And this can be very frustrating (after all, we are only human). Down side of getting frustrated; you will definitely not succeed on Foedista! As soon as you get frustrated, he ‘wins’, because you are definitely not acting like a ‘leader’ anymore…
Because here we have come to a second point on which Foedista is an excellent teacher; you have to be absolutely certain of what you want from him. If you doubt or get frustrated, he will certainly NOT do it… On the contrary, if you start to doubt or get frustrated, Foedista will push your painful buttons a bit more, and he will keep pushing them until you let go of them. As soon as you get very calm, pretend he is not testing you and just think: “This is what I want, I want to go left (for instance)and we are doing it now”, and of course ask it with the right aids, that is the moment he will do it. And if you are very calm and very sure of everything, and don’t let yourself go with doubt and frustration, he will even let you get away with making small mistakes when using the right aids, as long as you don’t touch that left rein though!
The turning is just one example, he has more tricks 
Foedista has taught many students this way and I think many are very thankful for this great white cloud! He taught me wise lessons that span beyond ‘just’ horse riding, lesson about life and how I deal with ‘problems’… for that he has a special place in my heart forever!
[...] he will walk without you constant pushing… And as I explained in my other articles about ‘doubt’, as soon as you doubt, they horse is less inclined to see you as a good leader and in turn will [...]