For many years, Dressage by Henry Wynmalen was my bible. At the time, a mere handful of books were available on dressage in English, but it was much more than that. I found a resonance which I frequently find as soon as the concept of 'lightness' becomes the cornerstone of the work presented. A resonance that I carried with me into my work in the decades that followed when I read Wynmalen's words.

"The rassembler is an unlimited achievement, wherein the bridle, horse and rider have become absorbed into one entity; the bit possesses a limiting effect no longer, the forward impulse travels right through it, without let or hinder; actions of hands and bridle-effects have become mere messages to the horse's nerve-centre."

This became my goal. Looking for "An unlimited achievement."

Keeping the forward impulse unstoppable.

A merging between me and the powerful horse beneath me.

When I read Wynmalen, that is what I heard.

But the one statement that stayed with me always was the possibility that we could achieve what some would say was impossible that "The bit possesses a limiting effect no longer." -

I went looking for that. I wanted a horse without limitations. But more I wanted to experience a time when bridle effects had no limiting effects. I wanted to experience that.

I wanted to be 'absorbed,' to become one with my horses where "bridle-effects.. become mere messages" to the horse's nervous system.

I reread his words on rassembler and mise en main again and again. Every moment on my horse was the search for the 'unlimited achievement.'

It became my holy grail.

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