Nightmare!!!!!

I ache from head to foot. My back is ricked, my shoulders hurt, my hands are aching, I don't think there's one bit of me I can't feel. Radar was a nightmare in the jointed pelham.

He was pulling madly on leg 1, shaking his head from left to right violently. So at the check I got  off and tightened the martingale and the curb chain. He pulled even worse on leg two, so at the check I got off and put a strap from his breastplate on as a flash noseband, and tightened the curb chain even more. On leg three, he bolted. I had no brakes and no steering and I was heading at a flat out gallop towards four feet of upright timber that would have been lethal to take (and misjump!) at that speed. Only the fact that one of the joint masters stopped because he knew I was in trouble made Radar hesitate for a moment, and he just about let me circle him.  I think he thought it was the field master because he is very good at stopping whenever a red coat stops in front of him. I think it probably saved my neck!

At the next check, I took off the flash strap and loosened the curb, figuring that he was going to kill me anyway, so he may as well go back to what we started out in. On leg 4, I was stunned. He was suddenly listening to me and we did all the hedges, which were FAB! A lovely height, all cut down to around 3ft 6/4ft, with a clear place to jump them. Leg 5 was brilliant too, more hedges, one with a fairly big drop on it. Leg 6 was leg 5  back the other way - only leg 5's drop was now a pretty big hedge - he did it brilliantly!

On the return to home he was tired and overexcited and returned to violently swinging his head left and right, and his shoulders with it, and almost unseating me to try and get away from my control. I checked his mouth back at the lorry and he has horrible red swollen/blistered patches on the outside of the bars. So even my attempt to stop him damaging himself failed.

If he is going to damage himself anyway, of course, we'd be better off back in the Liverpool with more control. Guess which bit he'll have on next week?

C

ps someone was sympathising with the difficulty that I was having controlling Radar and another man who was there said "it takes two to tango". Considering that the man rides a 20 year old teddy bear of a full draft in a snaffle on a long rein, I thought it was a bit rich!  He goes into hedges at a trot and the game old boy just jumps from nowhere. In retrospect I should have offered to swap rides with him, or maybe pointed out that it isn't me who bust my shoulder joint last season. I settled instead for saying "I take your point Peter, but I've owned and  ridden plenty of horses who don't do what this horse does", but I could have done without comments like that at the time!