Georgie Porgie is here!

We picked up George this morning and he loaded like a little lamb. We backed the lorry into their yard up to a pile of stuff and there was no room for a decent approach at all but he still went in. He travelled well and the boys were terribly excited to see him. They don't seem at all snobbish about the fact that he doesn't know who his mummy and daddy are and they do :-)

We left him in a stable with the other pair talking over the door and went for lunch. When we got back all was calm, so I tacked him up and rode him. Yes I thought that might surprise you!! We just couldn't really see any reason not to.

He doesn't give the impression of being a horse which is newly backed at all. He stays out on the track, which no horse I have ever backed has done reliably until it has been ridden for several weeks. The people that I bought him from did not know what he had done, so they treated him as unbroken and started him from scratch. They got as far as sitting on him and leading him off, but no further. He and I had a walk and trot, stop, turn, circle, and finally leg yield. He knows it all. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he hunted at three in Ireland and can already jump.

He pokes his nose and doesn't know the word "dressage" but he is incredibly free in his movement for a stocky little chap, and much, much, MUCH more forward than I had any right to hope for. SH has seen him chasing Zippy this afternoon, and said that George was keeping up. In his words "he's no slouch!"

He is incredibly wide - I have a gullet plate wider than any saddle that I have ever used in my life and it's not wide enough. My knees felt like they were a yard apart!His back is like a football pitch. He's bum high (and what a bum) until he stands proud, when he reaches 16 hands and looks a different horse.

He has a panic button, which I found when I measured him, and he burst past me to get away from the stick. I held tight, expecting him to run to/through/over the gate to get to the other two who were watching. He never even hit the end of the reins, he just circled round me. So he has a very, very strong sense of join-up with humans.

All in all, I couldn't have asked for anything more from him. He is such a solid, honest fellow; more inately gymnastic than I thought he would be; further forward in his training. What a bargain he looks like he will turn out to be.

Meanwhile, Jazz has been in the barn this afternoon while the other two race each other around. He is less lame today and was even less so after he had been out all morning. If the turnout has no ill effects in increased lameness, heat or filling, then they will all go out tomorrow. After I've ridden George again, of course!

C.