Jetset Goerge is in the post.

I had a dentist to the horses yesterday. Not Zip because he is still shedding milk teeth and there is no point in a dentist touching him yet. The chap thought that George is seven. His passport says eight and that's close enough so I think we'll stick with eight. It's a good age for selling later in the year. I'm glad that he doesn't age as six, because it makes people very distrustful if the passport doesn't match the horse, which was one of the reasons why he was so cheap in the first place. That and being "unbroken" :-)))))

George was a very good boy. He may not have been done before, but he was as good as gold. Jazz had been done just before I got him but the dentist broke off both his wolf teeth leaving roots in his jaw and also managed to hit the palatine? artery and had blood everywhere! Given that he'd had a bad experience, he was amazing. The dentist even used a power tool (only to save his own bad back, not because Jazz's teeth were especially bad). I can't say that he was thrilled, but he wasn't stupid either.

The only downer on the day was the dentists fee - £70, £35 each horse. Why isn't the second horse cheaper - he only has to travel once?! And then he did the salesman's trick of an "assumptive close" on me and booked another visit for 6 months time. I asked him if Jazz needed six months and he said he always does them every six months. Well bully for him, he may do that but I've never had a horse yet that needed more than once a year (except Caddy with his overshot jaw who was sold less than six months after I had him done). I come from the era when nobody dreamt of having their horses teeth looked at unless they were eating badly or making faces with the bit. The idea that every horse needs routinely doing every six months is, to me, just ridiculous. In the wild they don't get done at all and they get even more wear to make them sharp. I didn't bother to argue with him, but when he rings in September to confirm his visit then both Jazz and George will have been "sold".

What I don't understand is that there are several trained and qualified dentists in this area touting for business and who obviously want more work. I have a tip for them - drop your prices!

I've had no reaction to riding yesterday from my shoulder, so I will be riding George again tomorrow. I might ride Jazz too, in the barn obviously. If I don't provoke him by asking for anything physically difficult for him, then he won't do anything that would risk me hurting myself in there. Then next week we will crack on with some serious training for George, whose affiliation registration went in the post two hours ago. Once George is underway and needs less training, and my confidence is restored, then we'll restart Jazz and see what the situation is with his jumping or if we need to find him another career.

George is booked for a low key local Combined Training on April 2nd. Just 2ft 3 jumping, but the first time he will ever have faced a competition course in his life. Or a dressage arena! I'm looking forward to it as much as if it was a huge affiliated event :-)

C.