Such a NICE boy.

I have just hacked out on Ace to a new field down a new track, through some sheep and lambs. He is such a sweet, nice boy. He is worried, but he keeps it to himself and is as gentle as one of the lambs. He is also developing the most superb mouth of any horse I have ever been on, so soft and responsive. This was one of the things I tried to buy for, but I did feel that I had compromised on it to get a horse who moved so well. You can see from the original video that he was unsteady in the mouth. He had also been being ridden in something of an unyielding fashion, and I was concerned that was because he had no  mouth to speak of at all. All my fears have dissolved, I've never had a more responsive mouth on the end of a pair of reins in my life.

He is, though, something of a prince, and has clearly never been on uneven ground in his life. He has to work very hard to manage his body and balance us both, so I did not stay out long. I did, though, have one big trot circle on the right rein, including a loss of balance as we came down a slight slope, with no trantrums, bucks, kicks or panics or any suspicion of one. Great news!

Prince-wise, you have to picture this. I have got off to open a padlocked gate and he looks down a very rutted and stony track that is now facing us. He looks at me, and tilts his head, he looks down the track, he looks back at me and clearly is saying "you're having a laugh, aren't you? You can't possibly expect ME to go down THERE, can you?" In the end I had to tap his bum gently with the stick to get him to move to somewhere that I could get back on. :-)

We'll be doing a lot more of this kind of thing. One because I am now certain that he is a horse who will be bored easily by schooling, becuase it is all too easy for him. Two because if I school too much there will be a terrible temptation to ask him to do too strenuous work too soon for his immature body, because it is all too easy for him. Three because I think it is absolutely brilliant training for flexibility, balance and strength to go up and down hills and negotiate tussocky grass and rutted tracks. Four, because we will both love it!

I haven't ridden Jazz yet today and I am holding back at the moment. Because I keep running through in my head how he suddenly, yesterday, did that gear-change medium trot and it was absolutely thrilling! And addictive - and I don't think that I should pressure him to repeat it today. I have been training him for medium trot for 2 whole years. It is not his natural pace and he would always rather just canter than trot bigger. Just under a year ago, the person who told us last Wednesday that he had changed such a lot saw his, then, inadequate attempt at a medium in an Elementary test and said "he'll have an awesome medium". At the time I thought she was just trying to find something nice to say. Now I realise that she saw in him  what he suddenly produced yesterday. She has a great eye! Unfortunately she's a great rider but a dreadful trainer - my friend used to go to her and I went to watch a few times.

I do hope you can picture what I mean by the "gear-change" trot. Alongside tempi changes, it has been a long term goal of mine to ride a horse who could suddenly, from one stride to the next, go from full on collected trot into full on medium without any intermediate steps. It was perfectly clear yesterday that in the not too distant future, that is exactly what Jazz is going to do.

Hey guys, you know those of you who have been telling me for five years that dressage could be as exciting as jumping? OK you were right!

C