A 4 year-old 6 year-old

It seems that Tuxedo is the most green-broken 6 year old going. A very frustrating and somewhat scary ride at the moment, I find myself a bit exhausted and sore this fine Sunday afternoon. Yesterday was our first ever jumping experience together and (luckily) I chose a clinic with World Cup showjumper Sandra Tremier as the place to do it! He was a complete nutcase. Apart from a more extreme version of the rearing, sideways, piaffe/passage and pig-rooting that is now a normal part of our day, he also threw in charging around as a new experience.

We started off working fairly well, that is, big trot to little canter with lots of head tossing, back to big trot. Couldn't trot over the poles, had to canter. Couldn't trot towards a jump, had to gallop the last two strides then gallop away. Wouldn't halt without a lot of head throwing work. The most memorable feeling of the day was that of his forelock grazing my nose. Not noice.

The peanut gallery were very supportive and nice but not particularly helpful. "You're a braver woman than me!" was Gay's best line. But she's always the most positive person. When we bounced a one stride double she yelled out, "Well, he's going to be a great eventer!"

I was, I'm almost ashamed to admit, reduced to tears by the middle of the second session. We were working on a little course, and it was just so damned exhausting being on this crazy horse, tearing around the place, barely keeping his feet in the wet. Did I forget to mention it was raining the whole day??

But. And there's a big but. There were moments of brilliance. For one thing, he does have the most incredible, powerful movement. And he's not worried about the jumps per se (no shying or cat leaping). And, after taking out an upright on his chest (Sandra jacked them up to about 80 or 90cm because he just wasn't noticing the littler ones), he actually calmly popped over it the second time. Then bolted off, but not as out of control as before!

So, there is some serious talent in that nutcasey thoroughbred brain. And Sandra (and Ben Netterfield) stated pretty baldly, "You've basically got a 4 year old, and a green one at that. He doesn't know anything so you'll just have to teach him." Awesome.

On a bright side, his feet are fantastic. Had Kirsten the trimmer extraordinaire out this morning and she thinks they're brilliant feet. Big frogs, becoming concave and the flare is growing out quite quickly. All in all very good. Rose's are getting flat under the growing weight of that beautiful big foal in there. You can see it moving in her belly sometimes. So exciting. I feel like it's a filly so I'm trying to think of names for her. Suggestions?

Still planning our first event to be Harden doing Newcomers. I'm tempted to enter Intro but I think that might be a mistake. Our control issues really need to be sorted out before we really need to worry about the jumps at all.

Happy riding! Hell knows I need it!