Dorkus dorkius again :-)

Radar is such a berk! I thanked my lucky stars again today that he isn't wanted for dressage. We were schooling indoors because of the drizzly weather, a space which you may remember is 90 feet by 36 ft, 28 metres by less than 11 metres. He gets half way up the long side in an uncommitted trot, realises that he is going to have to work out where to put his feet to turn the bend at the end and ....... stops to think things through?.......slows to take the bend steadily?........blows his top and bolts into the end wall? Yup, the last one.

What size is his brain? Certainly not a walnut, maybe a peanut. It took me 45 minutes to get him to take a nice trot and trot a circuit on each rein. Meanwhile, he ran into the wall more times than I can count. I rang the changes a few times by hauling him in the teeth instead, but basically I just had to wait until his poor fried brain caught up with his feet. Once he had it, he had it, and gave me some quiet transitions and some very reasonable, relaxed trot. What an idiot he is. I have never, ever had a horse take sooooooooooooo long to learn to manage his own body and brain!

Jumbo meanwhile did one superb right to left flying change in that tiny space and one really good attempt at left to right. I couldn't help remembering that when we were riding inside at the end of the winter he was only just getting to grips with canter to walk. His canter/walk now is sublime. All I have to do is stop my seat from cantering, and he drops immediately into a walk. It brings a smile to your face.

I put them in the barn, where they have stayed during the day for the summer. I forgot to shut the outside gate, but when I checked them two hours later, they were still happily munching haylage inside. Well actually Butterkist was asleep, as normal!

C