"I told you so"

I can hear a chorus of "I told you so" from all around the world. You told me that these warmbloods were mentally slow even if they were physically capable. Oh boy you weren't wrong, were you :-) ???? Jazz has done exactly the same today as he did in his showjump training last week. 50 minutes of obstruction, sulk, knockdowns and refusals. One absolutely soooooooperb round, at 3ft 1, with 2 doubles. Spot on at every fence. I rode the whole round saying "spot on" three strides out from each fence, it was that obvious that he was right on the button.

We've decided now that we have to change the strategy to get rid of these early refusals. We tried today by putting the practice fence up higher than the course, but it completely blew his nerve to jump that high so soon (a metre - only 2 inches bigger than he was doing perfectly confidently only seconds before, but clearly in his mind "too high"). He did it twice, badly both times, and then just refused to even try, even when it was put down. Eventually we had to go right back to an upright at 2ft 6 to get over the, by-now, purely obstinate refusal to go over that particular fence.

Next time we train, we are going to put the round at 2ft 9, which he should really enjoy jumping, then at 2ft 11 and then at 3ft 1 which he finished at today. Hopefully, that will break the habit of the early refusals, we'll see. I would love to be able to work out what it is that finally clicks in his brain and makes him jump one perfect round after 50 minutes, but it is eluding me. I think it's just the length of time he takes to warm up. It's fantastic when it happens, which is why I don't just give up on him, it's all there for the future and I'm not giving that away lightly!

Meanwhile, I'm almost grateful that this has turned out to be a terrible summer for competition so far. I'm sorry for the rest of you, but it has completely taken the pressure off me to have Jazz ready for anything. Our next affiliated outing will now be August 11th, so we have plenty of training time!

He has restarted his jabs today too, so he will be "legal" after another jab in 21 days and a 7 day delay on top of that. Them's the rules! I toyed with forging the dates in his passport, since it was no risk to anyone, but the paper is so thin there was no hope of it not being obvious.

I rode Zip this morning before we went. I'm still having trouble getting him to stand while I get on, but we manage it after a number of tries. He is absolutely super to ride. He's nowhere near as naturally balanced as Jazz, but he is so "fluid" and forward. His natural neck carriage is forward and round and he is already building a crest on the top of his neck and muscle in a band over his loins behind the saddle. He's also lovely and gentle when he's been ridden - he likes to stand by me and put his head near my chest and say "I've been a good boy haven't I?". And indeed he has!!

So, don't hold your breath folks, I think Mr Complex is probably not going to get his act together before the beginning of NEXT season. I hope you're enjoying the story of training him, because the competitive results are certainly less than thrilling :-))))

C

ps when we got there today I realised that I had forgotten to do up any of his ropes in the lorry. He was so good we never even noticed!