Halloween?

Well I suppose halloween might explain why Zippy was so spooky out on a hack today. Or maybe it was a biting east wind and the fact that he's only been out eight or ten times in his life so far :-) ? Anyway, the fact is that he is a very spooky/looky horse, but that he continues to spook past things, and never tries to go home. He couldn't be any more different from Jazz in that respect. He's going to be a lovely comfortable hack once he's more used to being out and about.

The wind was too cold and defeated me when I tried to take Jazz on the outdoor surface to get some room to do big movements. I retreated indoors, where I got him to do some walk/canter from a collected walk into a very "sat down" canter. He found it very strenuous work, so I didn't make him carry on for too long. He did really well and tried hard. He kicked out a couple of times in protest, but accepted a correction well. He tried to be silly about fizzling welding noises coming from SH plating the lorry chassis in the yard outside, but accepted head-down-leg-off immediately and pretty much totally.

I'm really happy with Jazz right now. He is back on the improving plane of performance that he was on before we brought George in and upset everything by demoting Jazz. We'll never know if it was ulcers, Sonia's training, Jazz growing up at last, George no longer being top horse because he'd stopped eventing, or what. I suspect a combination of all of it. But I can cope with what we have now, progress, even if it is still very slow progress compared to other horses.

No more news from George today, but he goes on his first hack tomorrow, out on the roads with some company.

C