"He's Mega"

Back off hols, boys are fine. George has a vetting on Thursday, only because they can't get him insured without one. "His girl" came to see him while I was away, and rode him on Saturday and got some lovely walk and trot.

Jazz's pulses are coming back under control now that he is used to the omeprazole, so he has been able to go out and get some grass with the others. He is, in the words of the house-sitter "very chilled" and I have to agree with her.

Since he's hardly been ridden since my last lesson I decided to take Zippy today. He's been starting to challenge me lately and I wanted to know how much pressure to put him under. The answer was fascinating - Sonia has me ride him completely differently from how she has me ride Jazz. Chalk and cheese. And she wants him to work harder than I would have asked him to, so it's good to get a feeling of what she thinks is "good" which I can then recreate in training by myself.

They key difference between Sonia and many other trainers is that she does not train for "a good lesson" today. She trains for the right base to progress tomorrow, next month, next year, even if that means today doesn't feel brilliant. Personally, I think that's the only way to make progress. She goes up in my estimation for being confident enough of her own skills to risk that a client that she doesn't know very well may go away thinking that the horse goes better for them without her.

I learnt a lot. One particular thing that I took away today is that she never lets the horse settle on one rhythm. The moment he has got a half circle of one rhthym, we change it. It teaches the horse to always be listening for what you want and never get stuck in an unreponsive rut. The endless transitions also develop the horse's ability to carry itself.

Zippy was very sharp and unsettled to start with and absolutely eyes-on-stalks when the shetland wandered over :-) But he did some good work after ten minutes. We tried to finish on a left canter but he was tired and more interested in people catching a horse in the next field and he wouldn't keep the canter for the circle. He was bucking when I sent him on with the whip! I agreed with Sonia that I would give him a sharp reminder and she would pick up the pieces from the floor :-) Thankfully, I managed to keep him bent so he couldn't buck with any power, and we completed the circle. After that he gave in and did one nice one and we stopped.

Sonia was saying throughout the lesson what a good horse Zippy is, so I asked her how good. Her answer was "he's mega, really mega. The thing is when you have one like this, you are halfway there before you even start". From someone who competes Grand Prix internationally, I guess that's praise indeed. We knew he was good but I think I am only just appreciating how good.

C