Making progress :-)

My intention to start Zippy doing more work has fallen at the first hurdle. Superhubby wanted to go and ride the steam trains yesterday. Jazz was jumping today. And I am working tomorrow with a 50/50 chance of Friday as well.

He continues to puzzle. He is an inherently "naughty" horse who likes to push the boundaries, and yet he is afraid of the result of being naughty - being told off. Today I took Jazz out of his stable to put him in the lorry, and Zip went to go into it. He had his head in the door when I said "Zippy, no!". He hesitated, so he heard me. Then went in anyway. He wouldn't come out, so I was forced to go in with Jazz and chase him out, at which he overeacted and shot out scattering buckets to the four corners of the yard. If I had wanted to catch him then, I wouldn't have been able to get near him, because he was "high" about having been naughty. What a strange mix of adventurous, defiant, and panicky he is!!

Anyway, to the important business. First Jazz is showing every sign of excitement when the lorry is prepared. This is great news, because it means he is upbeat about getting out and doing stuff.

When we got there he was superb. He was jumping spreads and uprights at only an inch off a metre (3ft 2 inches) with fantastic style and great enthusiasm. I gave him several rests so that we could practice restarting after a rest (which you'll remember was our problem last time). I got him up and out in front of me before looking at a another fence and that worked a treat.

Another break and then we tried the double (smaller than the other fences) in a short course. The first part was between four and four and a half strides off the wall, depending on the line you took. The first time in I turned him and he was simply shocked to be presented with a fence so close and ran out, well early. He did that several more times. Then I managed to get him through it, a little awkwardly as he puts two strides into a one stride double when he is uncertain. I tried again, expecting him to flow this time, but I must have misjudged the line off the wall and we were half a stride out. I asked for a long one but he didn't have the confidence to do it and stopped sharply.

Then we had a very interesting situation, which was a great learning experience. He had rattled himself and blown his confidence. His brain had gone into overload and he was unable to see the stride into any fence I put him at. SH and I kept calm and I put him confidently at several easy uprights until he was happy again. Then we did the double, twice, as the last part of two or three fences.

I wanted to try to get one stride in the middle, but SH said he was tired and I should stop, so we did. We both feel as if we have made tremendous progress today. The keys were:

- he did not refuse once until his confidence was broken by an understandably complex fence. This is not an issue it is simply lack of experience.
- he calmed down very, very quickly compared to a few months ago, and jumped fluently again within a couple of minutes. He trusted me when I told him that he was capable.
- the fences are getting seriously big, with spreads at 3ft 2 inches high and wide, and he is totally confident jumping them as long as there are no sudden turns.
- early on, he came around a corner to an upright at 2ft 11 and about five strides away we both knew that we were wrong for it. He said to me "what do you want me to do?" I replied "I want you to jump it anyway, it's not that big and you can do it from a long one" He said "OK, we'll do that then" and confidently carried on and perfectly calmly took off half a stride too early and jumped it nicely. This is a very serious increase in his confidence and ability :-) !

We've had a good start to the year and it's only January 2nd!

C