What a surprise - you'll never guess.

I gave Jazz a pedicure and trimmed some flaps off his frogs and a tiny edge of flare off all four feet. They are growing very fast, but they also wear fast. If he didn't have nail holes in his front feet I wouldn't realise what was going on, but they are all but grown out after only 5 weeks. His feet are white, of course. In spite of what the books say that white feet are not weaker, it does often seem that they are to me and my friends.

I would have liked to have taken Jazz down the road today, but I didn't for two reasons. One is that I thought his feet were not quite up to the wear. The other is that I didn't think it would be good for him mentally to lose another battle today. He had a hard time realising that he wan't going to get his own way yesterday. There's a limit to how many frustrations he can take in a row without having it damage him psychologically, I think. His confident behaviour is a delight, I don't want him squashed flat, I just want it toned down a bit.

I tried on some travel boots that Linda has lent me and he didn't give a damn about them, so I'll be using them tomorrow. I gave up with travel boots after a second horse injured itself trying to get them off in the lorry. I haven't had a single problem in the 14 years since (and years when I have done most of my travel, at that). But this horse was always going to be different, wasn't he?????

Then I let him off for the day today. I turned him out without Tia because when we go showjumping on Sunday I wanted to be able to leave him in the field and not locked in the barn like I have so far. There was screaming, box walking and poohing for Britain. But was it Jazz? No, it was Tia! This was something of a surprise. He hadn't exactly been quiet as a lamb when shut in the barn without her so it was really good progress on his part. I had expected pawing at the gate at the very least, or even an attempt to jump it :-0 I took Tia out for a ride and thought that our footsteps on the road would bring him over to try and join us but it just didn't happen, either when we set out or when we came back, by which time he had been on his own for about an hour.

Tia and I went out for a little whizz and we had a very nice time. She hasn't had a nice long canter in the open in ages and she and I really enjoyed ourselves. It didn't even start to rain until we were nearly back. She was very confident on her feet on a track full of nasty sharp stone.

Tomorrow Jazz and I go to Linda's which is 2 miles away. We are going down to town first, and then back out, a total of 8 miles so he will not know how close he is to home. I am going to unload him and put him in one of Linda's big, solid stables with bars on the doors, where he can safely stay for an hour while we have tea and a chat. Then, hopefully, we will load and come home. If he does that OK, then I will continue to travel him twice a week until he is fully used to it and stops sweating on the journey and pawing madly to get out when we stop. We won't need to unload, because we will know that it's not loading in a strange place which is the issue. Then we are all set to go to our prelim dressage and see how we get on in company on December 3rd. I'm really looking forward to it, in fact I'm about as excited as a little girl going to Pony Club camp :-)

C

ps I'm slightly aware that I don't know who reads this and that someone could easily have worked out my location by now and can find out when we are here and when we are away competing (not that they can't spot the lorry missing, but then they don't know if I've gone alone or we are both in the lorry). Anyway, for any would-be thieves that are planning to visit while I'm out - smile for the cameras, we have them up everywhere, house, yard and tackroom. So when the police come in response to the PIR burglar alarm, they'll be able to pick up your pictures even if you've gone by then. And if you try and search for the recording unit, you'll still be here when the police arrive even if it's a week later :-)