Summer!

I made the most of summer today. I've had two lovely hacks. One on Radar this morning up to a friend's for coffee and a ride of her horse and one on Ace this evening.  He is getting braver and will, eventually, be a nice hack but he is very nervy when he is out. He is almost as bad as Jazz, but without the violent reactions and uncontrollability. I think he is a horse who will take his courage from me, unlike Jazz, so I send him on strongly when he is being silly about a wet patch on the road or a lamb skittering about in a field.  He is definitely improving and no longer spins to go home. On the way home he did relax and stretch out for quite a lot of the time, which was lovely.  I am having trouble with his saddle slipping back on the hills and I tried a breastplate today. It still slipped, so I will have to see if I can tighten it up a bit without strangling him :-)

Radar was his normal hacking self, powering along the road, happy in his own sheer physicality.  He is getting much more cuddly now that Jazz has gone. Several times in the last two days he has come over for a hug, and that's something he has never done before. It's not insecurity, because he's doing it more the longer we have been without Jazz. I wonder if it is that he knew that Jazz claimed me as his own and that he would make him angry if he muscled in on "his" person?  Whatever it is, I like it.

I am working tomorrow and we are competing again on Wedenesday. Ace is in full work now, so I will be warming up properly this time and hoping for a couple of good scores. We'll see.

C