Good progress

Steps - hesitant but he did them, up and down.

Open Ditch - very hesitant. He almost agreed to follow Superhubby as he stepped over it. Then I went to a shallower, though wider, one. He could step into and out of it, and he did that the first time and then hopped across it happily enough.

Water - bring it on!! "Wading is my middle name."

We didn't do any bigger fences to speak of (although the biggest I did was probably about 3 feet high and 3 feet wide, so that's fine. He needed some warming up first over some really small stuff that was tiny enough for me just to push him over. I had to do that a number of times. One fence in particular he ran out at several times napping towards home. Another fence is under a roof and he was terrified of the shadows and the roof. We walked around it plenty first and he still didn't want to jump it. In the end he did it because I insisted. Then he was upset for the next two and I had to stop and calm us both down before we could carry on. He'd got himself into a tizzy and was refusing at a seriously tiny pallisade just because his brain wasn't in gear. He was fine when we started again. That's exactly what we needed to be able to work through with our indoor showjumping problems, but of course when you are at a competition you just can't. It will have done him a lot of good to have had that experience today - put it behind you, forget it, and get on with the job in hand.

The final run that we did included the biggest fence and was heading towards home. Superhubby told me I was going much to fast but it felt fine to me :-) and Jazz was really taking me into the fences. He has finished absolutely tuckered out but very pleased with himself. I gave him a bath before I put him back on the lorry and he seemed to really enjoy being hosed all over too.

He was sticky to load to come home - I had to pick up my whip. I didn't use it, or have the chifney on, so that's the measure of improvement that we call that "sticky" these days :-) It's very clear when we load to set off from home that he is excited about what we might be going to do today - you can see it in his face from the moment we start the lorry to warm it up and back it out.

Superhubby says that our problems are now ones of balance and steering and that the best thing to do now will be a showjumping session. I think I agree with that, and we have an arena booked for Wednesday at 11 am. Superhubby is adamant that three sessions in very quick order is the right thing to do, so I will go with his advice. He certainly is great fun to train because he learns fast and he's so physically competent (Jazz, not Superhubby :-)

Tetley began to collect again today. It was very hard work for him, but he even managed some lengthening in his trot. The walk to canter transition is back without tossing the head, as well. He continues to build a bigger and bigger back end, and he should look pretty good for the transfer on Friday.

Zipperoo hasn't torn any rugs recently, though that will probably be cue for Jazz's to be in shreds tonight :-)

If this sun keeps up I'll have to start testing suntan lotion on Jazz and Zip, who both have white noses that will burn. Casper was allergic to the (children's, sensitive skin, hypo-allergenic) lotion, so he had to have a nose cover, but then the headcollar rubbed him. So I'm hoping this pair are OK with lotion like every other white nosed horse I've had has been.

C