Flap flap flap

I have an 08.48 dressage time on Wednesday. I will have to be up at 5am and out of the yard at 6am. I was supposed to be working tomorrow and need to go and walk the course because there's no time on the day - 08.48, 09.43, 10.33 and home. Oh flap flap flap.

I managed, thank goodness, to get someone to take on my court sitting tomorrow at very late notice, so suddenly everything is much more relaxed again and I don't feel so bad that I didn't ride Jazz this morning. I desperately wanted to take him out for a whizz, but there was so much rain overnight that it was unfair to go on my neighbours' fields so I couldn't.

I rode George instead and we were in side reins again. He just doesn't want to go forward to the bit. When he hangs back, he won't half halt and he can't turn. He speeds up. He stamps his hind feet. I get mad. Never mind, we kept it all together somehow and I put the sidereins on and he ended up doing some very nice flexible bendy stuff.

Great news for Jazz I forgot to tell you about. I had planned that he would go to Stafford in July, because there are three that I can do that month, two with George and the middle one with Jazz. I looked it up and to my surprise, Stafford has one of the ten Trainer classes in the whole country - 80cm (2ft 7ins) max. Now if Jazz can't do that, we'll put him in foal and breed from him :-)

Also more great news. The training centre that I go to in the winter with the indoor showjumps is moving them outside for the summer. And it's situated so that we can park the lorry right by the fence. That makes it feasible to take two horses, and have 45 minutes each horse. Jazz will be in sight, so we'll know if he's upset. And the lorry will be so close that we won't lose unnecessary time changing horses. Suddenly it's so much easier to train two horses for the same season.

I'm nervous and tetchy now. I so much want not to screw up on Wednesday!

C.