Champion the Wonderhorse

We have decided that Jazz is Champion the Wonderhorse. Why? Because he is such a wonderful horse? Nope. Because every time you take him out you wonder just what you're going to get this time :-))))

Mind you, I have to confess that today it was the jockey's fault. I couldn't see a stride to save my life. I was weak and wet and whingey and failed to tell him what to do. For his part, he took advantage until I got my act together, by throwing in a number of refusals. Nevertheless, we have made progress yet again this week and things are looking very good. The breakthroughs this week were:

- whilst I couldn't see a stride to save my life, that failed to upset him, and when he was willing to jump the fence he was judging it pretty well all by himself.

- he was much better with a couple of tricky lines off the wall, much more confident than he has been before.

- when the flourescent sheet came out at the end, he really couldn't be bothered to do more than just about register that he had seen it. It didn't stop him jumping at all.

- SH had sneaked the spreads and uprights up at the far end of the arena up to a metre high. I knew he had, but the increase in height did not upset either me or Jazz. He was jumping them really superbly and felt as if he had plenty more scope to go a lot higher yet. Of course we don't need him to, but if he is jumping a metre spread indoors, then under three feet (90cm) outdoors is going to seem pretty darned small come the beginning of April. The physical challenge of jumping is something that he has completely conquered.

- perhaps the best of all - when Jazz used to get upset about a fence, he would go into what we call "fried brain" mode. That would make him lose all his confidence to jump any fence, not just the one he had been silly about. We used to have to coax him back to full confidence over ten minutes or so, before we could carry on. That "fried brain" stuff has all but disappeared. Partly, it hardly happens at all now, and partly the jumping is becoming burned into his brain wiring, so he can jump even if his brain is not fully engaged. This was today's major breakthrough.

In addition to his progress, I am making progress myself. I used to be so scared of horses refusing, that I caused them to refuse. I used to believe that if they refused once that they wouldn't jump the next time. Jazz refuses so darned much that my fears in that respect have gone right out of the window! He's a 49% horse. If I supply at least 51%, then he jumps superbly. If I fail to make it absolutely clear what I want, he doesn't come 2% in my direction, he just doesn't jump! He certainly teaches you how to ride with conviction :-)

I'm hopeful that next week the jockey will be on better form and we can stop the refusals from happening at all. If the weather stays good I'm also planning a cross country schooling session before then.

C