Piaffe without betraying your horse? At CHI, Antonella Joannou wants to show that “dressage can be done with respect”

Published on December 14, 2024 at 10:38. / Modified on December 14, 2024 at 11:41.

7 mins. reading

Toes curl up in socks, fists clench in pockets: December is out that Tuesday at the Ecurie de la Ruche in Founex (VD). In the center of the quarry, a horse walks, its neck high and its ears moving, against a background of a mouse-gray sky. His attention lingers on a tractor, then slides towards a wheelbarrow, finally focusing on the human on his back. The rider neither prevents nor urges him. “I often start by hanging in my stirrups, with the reins in one hand. I give as little information as possible to observe the state of fitness of the day, what is happening naturally under his feet,” she comments.

Little by little, the bodies come together. The reins are tightened, the leg is placed. The horse gathers itself, the back rounds, the hips and shoulders slide, the front legs extend. At a trot, then at a gallop. Passage, pirouette, base of piaffe. Under the saddle of Antonella Joannou, Gina, the black mare with velvet nostrils who mischievously stretched her rump to have her buttocks scratched just a quarter of an hour ago, becomes Santa Georgina, the athlete. A 10-year-old Grand Prix dressage horse, six of whom spent training with the Genevoise, a member of the elite cadre of the Swiss team for several years.

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