So smart!

I have worked out why Jazz was pawing at the bottom of the partition so he hurt his feet. He has seen me drop the sprung loaded spike into the hole at the bottom to fasten it. He was trying specifically to knock it out of its hole so he could get loose! If he was just trying to force the partition aside, he would have been using his shoulders like he does on stable doors. If he had just been pawing aimlessly then he wouldn't have looked so much as if he was aiming at the spike which drops into the hole. Which he most definitely was. What a clever horse - I think he may be even more intelligent than Smartie. Which is frightening really, I can 't help wondering what he will work out next, and find myself trying to stay one step ahead of him!!

He was tired and stiff today so I did an easy session in the barn of less than half an hour, mostly walk. He is getting halt, did a good couple of steps of rein back, will do turn on the forehand with persuasion and bends correctly with no effort at all. He wouldn't leave the stable - I think that he thought I was going to make him leave the yard again, so I tapped him with a whip (just a touch) and he came out then OK. He is still acting as if he is puzzled that I don't treat him as if the sun shines out of his backside and wouldn't come to me this morning until I made a fuss of Tia, when he came to see what she was getting that he wasn't. But he is generally very sweet and easy to manage (hacking out aside!). I am definitely getting to grips with how to stop him getting strong on me, and it's all about how to stop him setting his great muscled neck against me. I'm working out the leverage by accident and experimentation and there were several times today when he got strong and I was able to push him out of it. As for him, the jerking of the reins in my hands has almost stopped, and he is accepting the bit really well too. It's great progress on both our parts, I think.

Tomorrow we travel again, to unload somewhere. This time he will have Boas or Old Macs on his feet. I have Boas of Tetley's and Old Macs of Scoobys which both fit him, luckily. So it's a question of which I would prefer to risk being ripped to shreds. I will put him in first and then boot him - don't want to add anything which might stop him loading, like slippery boots on his feet. Superhubby has done the most fantastic job in wrapping the entire column of the partition supports in plastic drainpipe to four feet high, so it is all smooth with nothing to hurt him. I'm kicking myself that I didn't realise he could hurt himself on it as it was, I've had this lorry four years and never seen anything like it before, but he was determined!

Tia was superb today. She is relaxed right from the start of a lesson, provided she has not had several days off. Her walk gets better and better. And today she did some really great canter transitions, in comparison to what she has been doing before. The key today was counter-intuitive - it was to sit to the trot and rise as I asked for canter and canter in a light seat. She stayed in balance for 6-8 strides and then came down to a balanced trot again. She even changed reins and did it on both sides :-) Being a daisycutter she is a dream to sit to the trot. Very pretty, but precious little power, but no up-and-down back movement either, so you "just sit there" and it all goes on around you :-) I am really enjoying her at the moment.

I'm off outside now to move them for the night.

C.