Three's company

I had a lovely time this morning. I thought I was going out for lunch with a friend so I just gave each of them a 20-25 minute session concentrating on one important thing only. It was great fun.

Zippy was first. The aim was relaxed work. He was great. I think Judith was right when she suggested that his cold back might be related to teething pains, because he isn't doing it at all any more. He was relaxed right from the start, and he has begun to produce a trot with something approaching Jazz's power, put together with his own cadence and lightness. Cor blimey, it's a new level of riding for me, that's all I can say!

Jazz was next. The aim was a forward walk without dropping onto his forehand. He finds this difficult in the small space in the barn. He tried hard and did well. The quality of the halt once he had the walk right was immensely improved from his normal shuffling offering. Super!

I turned the two of them out and then rode George. George was very unhappy about the other two being out and him having to leave them and work, and he threw a paddy. George's "throwing a paddy" ????? He poked his nose. Yup, that's all. Oh, OK, OK, he jogged a bit. And poked his nose. He was obviously quite upset by being worked last, but his total reaction was to do hardly anything. What a sweet and easy baby he is.

I tried serpentines to relax him. No good. I tried trotting but he ended up on a two metre circle, kicking himself rather than balance himself properly. In the end I got it with walk/trot transitions - I asked him to trot, he shot off with a rigid neck and couldn't sensibly turn the bend. I ran him straight into the wall. He did that five times, and then suddenly flexed, bent, and did a fantastic trot circuit on each rein. The down transitions were great and the walk was loose and free. Well done George. I think he'll have learnt a big lesson from that about the futility of going stiff as a means of protest - like, it's too much hard work and actually much easier to go nicely.

I have just ordered him a saddle, because I'm fed up with compromising trying to share one between Jazz and Zip. In theory, he will more than pay for it when he is sold, so let's hope he stays in one piece! But since I'm unlikely not to have another third horse at some stage in the future, it seems to make a lot of sense to have a saddle that will fit it. It's also going to give me a chance to get the new event seat on my jumping saddle, which I have wanted for a while. The flat seat that I have now will be perfect to turn into a GP/VSD with moveable blocks, which I can make work for any horse that I have in the future with a change of gullet plate and air pressure.

C