Ace is perfectly sound and working very well. He starts off very sharp in cold weather, looking for a spook, buck and nap back to the gate. I'm beginning to find it very irritating and I wish he would grow up now. I will seriously consider selling him next spring if he continues with this sharp behaviour, because it's just not what I want to be riding these days. I really miss the solidity of Jazz. Ace is beautiful, but he is so airy-fairy to ride that I am not sure that I really enjoy him. I have begun to sit to the trot so that I can keep him out in front of me and also to keep control when he spooks. We'll see how we get on with that, as it's new for him and I hope it will help him focus better.
Radar is getting lots of work this week because I can't ride him next week, so I'd like him very fit before I go, so that he can still hunt on the Saturday when I get back without having worked for a week. He seems quite happy to do more, so that's OK.
I am thinking of buying another horse. They are so ridiculously cheap at the moment and it would be good to have a back-up for Radar. I couldn't possibly hunt Ace, because of his temperament ridden in company and his value, and I feel very exposed without Jazz here this winter.
Just off to check Horsemart :-)
C
Just laughing a bit here, mostly because I remember several years ago when you were just sure you couldn't manage three horses at once. Times have changed.
ReplyDeleteI also remember Jazz not exactly being a steady ride. Here's hoping Ace settles down. But I do know how you feel. Tucker is not as bad, but certainly not an "easy" ride and if he were still my competition horse, I'm not sure I'd be happy about it....he's one of the reasons I stopped showing. But now that I've stopped, it's just fine and I am very happy.
You are in a totally different set of circumstances with ambition to train and compete. It's no fun when the primary horse is so unpredictable. How long did it take Jazz to mature? Maybe you could better gauge Ace's progress by that. We need to go back and check your blog posts. Ace is such a good horse otherwise, it would be a shame to get rid of him but I certainly, definitely, completely understand...after all, I have a Tucker.
I really don't want three to look after Jean, but it was a mistake, maybe, to specialise with one horse for one activity and one for another. And prices here is the UK are utterly ridiculous at the moment.
DeleteTwo specialists means that if either go wrong, there is no back-up. Jazz was a good hunter, just not brave enough for the big stuff, but fun to ride and well behaved. Ace would be one of those lunatics that reverse up into barbed wire or buck and rear when they aren't allowed to go. In any case, given what he is worth, I just couldn't take the risks that you have to take with a hunter. Jazz was unsellable because of his difficult behavour anyway, so there was nothing to lose by hunting him.
Jazz behaved very badly at times, but he was always so solid underneath me that by the time he died I used to think it was funny, not dangerous. Ace is built so very differently that he is never going to feel like that powerhouse, and I really miss it.
At the moment, Radar is a lot more rewarding to school than Ace is. Everything is so physically easy for Ace that it just makes any tempermental issues magnified, somehow.
So it's not really that I want three horses, it's just that Ace is not the right second horse at the moment. It's a question of how long I wait to see if he becomes the right one. It is too early to give up yet, he should mature a lot more this winter as he approaches seven, but rigth now he does not have a permanent place in my heart. I know what a superb horse he is, and he is beautifully affectionate, but something isn't gelling right now.
C