Mostly copied

From yesterday's comments in case you can't be bothered to read them.

Scooby was a class athlete, and like all class athletes he had a mind of his own. He would accept you telling him what to do, but if you did you had to be 100% right. He was happy to have things less than 100% right, but only if the mistakes were his own and not yours. So basically, you leave him alone to do his job and he is superb. You fight him over the jumping and he will refuse to work for you at all. He is a Porsche compared to Tetley's Rolls Royce. He is such a class horse that it is a real shame to see him failing so badly. At five, Tim Stockdale said he was borderline International standard, but at the moment he is performing like an old nag. I feel so sorry for Paul, but I do wish he would swallow his pride and go down a level.

Interestingly, his trainers are both British team trainers, one junior jumpers and one dressage. He wins outside the pressure of affiliated eventing in dressage and showjumping. It has to be nerves at the big events, I can't see what else it can be.
Judith's situation was worse, seeing a horse she had owned look uncared for. I am assured that Scooby currently looks absolutely magnificent!

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for the Dressage Queen. Drama Queen was more like it today! She insisted for 40 whole minutes that she could not simply trot a diagonal. She dived left, dived right, ran for it, cantered, stopped and did absolutely ANYTHING but trot. We got one in the end, and I stopped to reward her and hope she keeps that connection in her daft little head :-) I wouldn't mind so much but she had already run through the whole test once quite well, she just decided she wasn't prepared to do the second half a second time.

I didn't get time for Caddy. Tetley was happy out on a hack but squiffy in trot, particularly downhill. I think it's about time to acknowledge that he is missing the devil's claw and cider vinegar, so he is back on it. Interestingly, the lameness was not severe but appeared to be swapping from one hind leg to the other. Now that's new ...... we'll have to see where this leads, but it may just be him levelling up each leg to the same point of the disease. There has been an increase in bone formation on the less affected one recently, until they are now just about equal in lumpiness. So it makes sense that he would be feeling each one equally.

Oh I DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO hope they don't come in as dirty tomorrow as they did today. Caddy and Tia were head to foot mud, they obviously scrub themselves in it :-00000)))


C.