This brings back memories of the first full-time horse job I ever
had. The woman had a classically trained Lipizzaner she did demonstrations
with. However, he could be rather explosive at times, leaping into the air
and contorting his body. I suppose with more training it would have
become a capriole, but really, it was just leaping up and waving his legs
around. She would tell the announcer, "any time he does something strange
that doesn't appear on the script, just call it an 'apuyez' and everyone will be
impressed." It was just a nonsense word, but now anytime a horse does
something weird and airborne, I find myself thinking "apuyez!"
Chip (with fond memories of Maestoso Bonita--"Bones"--who taught me
passage, piaffe, and apuyez ;-) )
