It gets better and better.

Jazz's behaviour continues to improve and improve. Today I was able to persuade him to go past some dead fireworks with just a tap of a short whip. And he was concerned about some parked cars but when I told him not to turn away he went right up and sniffed them. A new sheep feeder surrounded by headless sheep, which would have had him in a total panic a week ago, did not even make him raise an eyebrow. I really think that we have turned a corner in his baby behaviour and that he is beginning not only to trust me when I say that things are safe, but to believe it for himself that things are safe and not worth making a fuss about. If this transfers through to his jumping, then no-one is going to be more thrilled than me.

There was one incident worth mentioning - I'm riding along a piece of road which is only just over one car wide. A chap draws up in front of me on my left - the wrong side of the road in this country. I didn't know what he was playing at, because he had just passed good passing space, so I waited to see what he was going to do, as I was reluctant to pass on the wrong side. He moved to the right, and stopped still. But as I was just going to pass him he started to move forwards. I asked him to stop. He didn't. I asked him again, louder. He didn't. Bear in mind that I have at this point about three feet between a barbed wire topped wall and his wing mirror, if that. I went to yell at him to stop and he wound his window down and, very politely on both sides, the conversation went as follows:

Man - What are you trying to say to me?
Me - I was asking you to stop because this is a baby horse.
Man - you shouldn't be on the road with it if it's not safe.
Me - how can I get him safe on a road if I never take him on a road?
Man - silence ..... then - well you shouldn't be on the road at all, look at all these fields, why don't you just stay in the fields?
Me - I don't own those fields. I don't have permission to ride in those fields.
Man - silence. Puts the car in gear to drive off even though I am still alongside him in a very narrow space.
Me - you are in a National Park on a single track road and you don't expect to meet horses?

I have to say through the whole thing Jazz was absolutely perfect, which is more than I can say for the ignorance of that man!

Zippy was good and bad at the same time today. He was very, very jumpy. He'd scare anyone lacking confidence at all to death. But at the same time, he actually does nothing much at all, except feel twitchy. He fiddled his feet a little at a couple of cars, but behaved really well with three different motorcycles, two of them old ones which make popping noises and smell a lot different. He didn't get any better when we turned for home, and I ended up taking up quite a short contact. This isn't my usual approach with a youngster because the constraint will normally make them boil over. But not Zip, he is reassured by it. In fact, after a minutes or two when he pulled at the bit until he realised that it wasn't going to be released, he was much more relaxed than he had been when he was allowed to sort things out for himself. He is such a worrier, and what settles him one day is not right the next. The joy of babies I guess, working out from day to day what they need.

C.