Catharsis.
Oh wow, Jazz has found his gallop. For people who've never started a baby horse before, they don't normally gallop with a rider on straight away, they usually take time to learn it. While Jazz has had an amazing lengthened canter which really covers the ground I have never felt him gallop properly - until tonight. I brought them in and then just fancied riding. I took him up on the hilltop in the dusk, s-oooo atmospheric with all the lights of Manchester twinkling in the distance. We had a lovely canter on each leg, so easy, so relaxed, so within himself and not dependant on me for balance. Then I took him to the far corner of the field and sent him on up the hill towards home - and boy oh boy did he go. I was afraid I wasn't going to get him back before the wire fence or the gate, or that I was going to have to turn him sharply downhill to avoid them. I got back in control just in time, with the hugest grin all over my face. He felt like he had one on his face too :-)))))
I'd already ridden George, and yet again the little fella amazes me with how his learning "sticks". He now stops, starts, circles, trots, walks, all in a lovely long low outline with a flexed neck and a beautiful contact on the bit. What a lot of fun the little tyke has already been - worth every penny just for the new experience :-)
Zip felt left out but it was too bad - it was tea time. Just my share of a bottle of wine now, and all will be right with the world again.
C.
posted by cptrayes @ 6:59 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
What a good day.
Its right that they have to learn how to gallop. Another brick in the wall for Jazz.
When is the first competition?
Judith
It must have been a good day for a gallop. Tetley fancied one too and I let him go. It would have been nice to have more space though. What fun!
ML
29th or 31st of March Judith but don't tell the burglars...
I miss Tetley's jumping ML, it's so fantastic to be taken into a four foot fence by a horse that wants nothing more out of life than to be allowed to jump it!
C
If you really want a shock, when I got PJ, who was an ex-race horse he didn't know how to gallop! Honest. No wonder he never won. The first time he figured it out, he left every other horse in the dust and he used to practice in the pasture every day. He'd walk all the way out to the farthest fence and then gallop back!
George is a honey. Zip needs to have his ego checked every now and then, so being "odd man out" is a good humbling experience.
Good cheap horse then Jean! I like the ones that don't actually know how to race, there's not so much to undo before you can make them into an all-rounder. PJ was obviously a gem.
C
Post a Comment
<< Home