More Ace Ace.

I have done a nice session in the barn with Woody. Although he was sticky to the left, arguing with the bit as normal, at first, he ended up with some beautiful walk on both reins. He does have a really smashing walk and a beautiful responsive mouth when he puts his mind in gear.

It is a joy to watch him become more and more confident in himself as he gets more and more confident of his feet. Gone is any suggestion of finding frozen ground difficult. And any tentativeness putting his feet down anywhere at all. And his character is changing too, and he is much less "bottom of the pile" with the other two than he used to be. He sometimes walks into the barn first, which would have been unheard of a month ago.

But Ace. Well. On the lunge yesterday I saw him moving for the first time in a long time. I am normally on top, of course. I knew that he had changed, I could feel just how enormous his stride was becoming. But on the lunge I could also see that to achieve that stride length, he has started bending his hocks and his knees much more than he used to. I know he is mine, and I am very biased,  but honestly he did look like a truly elite horse. 

I'm looking forward to riding him again but the forecast is huge amounts of snow tonight, washed away by huge amounts of rain tomorrow. Heaven knows when poor Radar will ever get to jump a hedge again :-(

C