Yesterday's post

I posted this yesterday but it's disappeared. So here it is again.

I am having a laugh at the shenanigans going on out in the field through my window here. Tia is in season and she fancies Jazz like mad! All summer I have never noticed her being in season once. She thought Caddy was a waste of space and drove him off all the time. She loved Tetley but definitely as a brother, not as a prospective mate. But Jazz? Oh boy, flirting like crazy, tail up , legs akimbo - come on!!! - gimme a baby!!!! She's squirting, fluttering her eyelashes, nuzzling - what a tart :-) I'm not the only one who thinks he's a cut above the rest, am I??? He's totally unfazed. He's flopped his willy out and made some "flehmen" stallion faces, but he's more interested in grass than her advances. It's been better than telly to watch it going on though - Neighhhhhhh-bours, everybody needs good nei..............

I've been back to a normal routine today and really enjoyed it. I wanted to take Tia out down the road but I thought that it would be unwise to be out of earshot of Jazz, since he is making a fuss about being parted from her. So I rode her in the barn and apart from a few squeals he was fine. In fact he was worse when I was grooming Tia, so there is some jealousy mixed up there too, I think. He certainly does love attention! The housesitter fell in love with them both because of their whickering and interest in humans. She says I'm very lucky. I think I agree with her :-)

Anyway, Tia schooled well until we tried shoulder in on the second side, to the left. Then she decided that she had had enough and it took me 20 more minutes to persuade her to do an attempt at it. She did everything to avoid working straight and over her back, but I kept my calm, changed my approach every few minutes and finally convinced her that my request was reasonable and that all she had to do was attempt it and we would stop. She did it, so we stopped. It's not the exercise itself which she objects to, it's the change of rein and being asked to do some more. Funny creatures, aren't they?

I did some in hand work with Jazz. Walk to halt is a weak point and he has to be told to stop with the bit. Standing still seems to be beyond him, he simply can't stay in one place! I think that's age related. He got turn on the forehand immediately, both ways. And he was brilliant at "back". When I was sure he wasn't going to dump me, I got on. And to my delight, the turn on the forehand had translated through into the ridden work with an instruction "over". And so had "back", which he has previously been completely flummoxed by.

Yet again I am astounded by how easy it is to make him turn into a donkey, but how light and flexible he is if only his rider stays light and flexible. He's in a French link with long cheeks and going well. He does snatch at my hands but most of it is lack of balance. I am beginning to restrain him when I am sure it is a temperamental thing, like in a halt. He'll get the message some time.

As leading training, I took him into the barn through the little door, which he was undecided about but did it after some hesitation. And I led him back out through it with Allan working under the lorry. He refused two or three times and then did it for me with no fuss. Then I led him up to the "headless man" who was fixing a new battery to the lorry and with a great deal of snorting, he did it for me. Then he took me for a walk out of the gate and up the road, out of sheer curiosity! I had to ask him to stop and turn back to home - not only that, but he had chosen to turn right, which is the way we have never yet been. To me, that says he is a hugely curious and extremely brave horse. That'll bode well for eventing, won't it? I think we are getting a long way with the leading work now, and I hope that it will transfer into loading well in the near future.

I'm dead keen to have a canter but he is so strong it has to be somewhere safe. The arena is too open and unfenced, with a severe drop off the far end. The close by open fields would be too difficult to turn a circle on if he takes off because of the slopes. I am planning to get him up onto the rising 1/3 mile level field over on my neighbour's land soon now. If by some amazing chance he is not knackered enough to stop at the top, then there is room to circle until he does :-)

It's good to be back!

C