Once my horse can perform basic body control movements at the halt, I then incorporate those movements into the walk, trot and canter. This allows for more suppleness in their body and better rideability, especially when riding a jumping course.
In these sessions, I thought that De Luca needed to learn how to be more forward thinking, and so I was quick and sharp with my questions, hoping that he would become sharper in his responses. However, I didn't realise that he wasn't physically able be sharp because of issues going on in his body, and in hindsight, this is quite obvious. At the time, however, due to still being in my learning journey, I was more focused on the training aspect and wasn't aware enough to realise the issue went much deeper.