They've been at it again.

I left them out last night because there was simply no reason for them to be in. It wasn't warm, but it wasn't terribly cold either, and there was very little wind. They have never been out this late in October in the whole 16 years we've been here.

When I went out to feed them this morning Zippy was hot again and had been running around and sweating and Jazz was warm. So for the second morning in a row they had been frolicking before I got out there. I'm not at all worried about Jazz running about now. If his throat isn't strong enough now, approaching six weeks, then it's not going to be, so he may as well stress it a bit.

I wasn't going to ride after the marathon hour and a half he did yesterday, but I was supposed to be working tomorrow so I thought it would be best if I did. As it happens tomorrow was cancelled (so you can all go straight to Saturday :-) but I had a nice ride on each of them so I'm glad I did.

Jazz and I did his last day of walk-only work. Nothing to report, he did some nice stuff but nothing we haven't talked about before.

Zip was interesting. I specifically wanted to get some decent quality trot out of him because he has been scrappy lately. What I found was interesting. If you try and gather him up too soon all he does is resist and poke his nose. But after a certain amount of time of flinging himself around the arena strung out and unbalanced, then you have to give him a contact on a surprisingly short rein. He then balances himself, rounds up, and produces something elevated, rythmic and seemingly effortless. Too early, or too late, and he won't do it at all.

The length of rein is very different from Jazz. Jazz takes the same amount of rein as Tetley, who was a much bigger horse. But Zip needs a much shorter rein and isn't comfortable with his balance until you give him that contact. Once he's got it, he goes beautifully into the rein with a light, even contact and a super rythmn. Without it, he's all over the place. This is chalk and cheese from Jazz, who is balanced and rythmic totally within himself, whether he has any rein contact or not. Zip, though, needs the help to balance and seems to actually like the support, if you judge the timing right.

All good fun, and what a bonus to still be riding outside without a coat at this time of year!

C