What a lovely boy!

Ace gets better and better.  In his second test it will be easier to tell you what he did NOT get a 7 for, the scoresheet was a string of them. He only lost marks for a  wrong canter strike, slightly off square halt, free walk curling up a bit and one cumulatives for engagement. 67% in an Open class with an affiliated judge,  which I am well chuffed with. In his first test he also scored sevens, but he blew BOTH canters by insisting on taking the wrong leg, and staying on it too! In the second test I put him in shoulder in for the transition, a cheat, but it worked.

He was very quiet, but inside he is nervous. It only shows when he poos a cow-splat, or when he tries to cuddle up to another horse in the warm-up arenas. If his outward behaviour got much more laid back he'd be asleep, but it's a stress reaction in him to cut off. He almost went over the top just before our second test - carbbing badly to stay with another horse. I was thrilled with the effort that he made to work with me when we were in the ring.

His straight lines were massively improved, as was his rythmn and the steadiness of his contact. Best of all, the judge asked me about him and was very impressed with him, with the written comment "super horse with talent". Another person in the warm-up asked me if she had judged me two weeks ago. When I said yes, she said she wanted to jump out of the box and ask me about him because she was so impressed by him. I had to explain his parentage and why he is so physically immature for his age. She said that she thought he was a very good horse in the making. How nice!

Part of the reason why he was attracting so much attention today, apart from the fact that in the brilliant sunshine his dark coat was shining fit to blind you,  is that in the last few weeks he has packed on muscle and substance at a rate of knots. His legs are thicker, his backside is bigger, his neck is deeper and he just looks altogether like a much taller and MUCH more substantial horse. There will be no mistaking him for a TB next year, that's for sure.

That's it for him now until next year, I think. The arena won't be ready for a couple of weeks and then we are on holiday. By the time we are ready to go again in late October, the weather will have closed in and there is nowhere within the distance that I am prepared to travel with a covered warm-up and competition arena. Since you can't do entry on the day in dressage, the weather is simply too much of a risk.

Next spring, after a few months training at home on a big fibre surface, with his increasing strength, I suspect we will go very quickly to elementary and possibly even medium if he has the talent that we expect him to have for half pass.How exciting to look forward to that over the winter.

C