Because I can.

As I turned them out this morning Jazz stuck his tail in the air and took off down the field and out of sight in canter - towing Zippy in his wake. He hasn't done that before in the year that I have owned him, and I strongly suspect that if I could ask him why he did it, he would say "because I can!". On top of that, I came out (on time!) this morning to find that the pair of them had been having a wild time running around in the barn and in spite of it having been a pretty cold morning, were sweated up with wet rugs. Jazz appears to be having a great time testing out how much breath he now has.

As for his behaviour ridden, there's no doubt that he is full of energy and enthusiasm that were slightly lacking before. I'm cautious of attributing too much of his increased bravery to the operation, because if you check my blog for just before it was done I was posting saying what a nice hack he was turning into. But I don't recollect feeling he was braver, just that he was more obedient. Today I hung my coat where I knew the wind would blow through the door as we worked. He spooked once, then went over to look at it and as the wind was blowing it, stuck his face into the folds of it and then tried to bite the collar and pick it off the hook. And every time he does something like that, he feels so pleased with himself that he has been so brave. I'm trying not to hope too much for it to carry through into jumping, but I can't help it until we've tried it.

And that poses me a problem. Because the better he gets the less I want to risk him hunting. Don't get me wrong, I love hunting (when it's not raining) and I have no fears of how Jazz will behave out hunting. But it would pose considerable risks of him getting hurt, because that'show hunting is - over a hundred people some more and some less out of control jumping trappy fences (often with wire in and usually with nails) and crossing ground which can have all sorts of dangers lurking (harrows left lying in long grass are a favourite of farmers). If he can be taught to jump without hunting, I am so besotted with him that I would prefer not to risk him.

Besotted because of how he is working. We are currently working on canter to walk, halt/trot/halt, and canter/trot/canter with a short trot phase as a build up to flying change. Today we did canter to walk for the first time and he is already only doing a couple of trot strides. Those are to get his balance and not because he's not listening to the aid. We did halt/trot perfectly and we're so close to trot/halt too. And we also did lengthened strides inside the tiny confines of the barn. The only way to do that in that small a space is to do a very slow, short trot and then lengthen that. He is trying so hard to do what I am asking. He's listening, responsive and incredibly light to the aids. He's powerful, balanced, enthusiastic and he feels so fantastic he leaves a smile on my face for the rest of the day. And he's still only five :-0

C

ps Zip was fine too!