I told you so!

Look, I told you all that I was too big for her and you still wanted me to keep her - but I swamp her over a fence see:

The bit was too big, yes. And I had just done a very tight circle to the fence (yes, that one, the one I got faults at!) so that's why it's hanging out of her mouth, not my bad hands or her mouth. That photo was taken on September 23rd 2006. It was sent as a proof and order mid December 2006. It arrived March 13th 2007!!!!! That's why you haven't seen it before.

I must admit that I was dispirited about Tetley when I took off his rug this morning. He's fine, well, happy, fatter ...... but I have memories of that wonderful crested neck and muscled back when he left. They took me six years to build and I can't get them back in weeks. They'll take months, maybe even more.

Then he went and did some super work for me - beautiful shoulder in and travers and superb half pass. Then some fantastic slow trot (it was VERY strenuous to trot that slowly) and really nice trot/halt/trot. And some great walk/canter/walk as well. It took several attempts to get a canter transition where he was stepping up into it from behind instead of chucking his head up to pull his shoulders through. But the canter/walk was sublime. All you do is stop your seat following through, and he drops straight into walk. Marvellous. So I felt a lot better once we'd finished, and as usual he had plumped right up with the work and this time he had barely sweated.

I rode Jazz and was laughing half the time. He started off in such a temper! The tail was flashing and he wouldn't walk nicely. He just wanted to run around :-) I halted and he stuck his bum out to the right. I put his shoulders in line and over went the bum again. I moved the shoulders again and ...... Eventually he worked out that I wanted the halt straight, so then he started doing a "Spanish Walk" paw of the ground with his front feet. What a card he is :-)))))

After a while he groaned and moaned and then suddenly snapped into some seriously good work. Shoulder in, travers, slow/fast walk, walk/trot/walk, walk/canter/trot/walk. We took a break on a long rein and he even came back up from a leg aid without the reins, and then carried on with more good work. I was so chuffed with him when I'd finished. I don't think I've ever had a horse this long without once losing the feeling that I'm the luckiest person in the world.

Ran Arbel rang this morning to say he had a newly broken four year old for me to see. Of course I told him that I had already found Zip. He may be younger and weaker than I want right now, but he is going to be one handsome devil. He already has quite a chest. But he stands slightly toe-out all round, and I do believe that's because his chest is going to go even wider and pull his feet straight. If I'm right - well, what a horse!!!!

C