I had bit of a confidence failure the weekend before last,took Neddy down to Avranches to do 1m05 preparatoire. Had one look at the jumps under lights on slippy ground with a water jumpa and lost my bottle. I swear my shoulder was throbbing in anticipation of another tumble.
Being too scared to ride is not a good place to be but it obviously shouldn't have been as I'd only jumped once since my crash and Ned has never seen a water jump.
I needn't have worried; as luck would have it when I took Ned and Turnip to use the showjumps at Gavray on tuesday he too had a water jump out and Ned said it was "easy peasy". Turnip didin't see the water extension until he was halfway over it and then did a hilarious midway stretch thereafter jumping it as if it was four foot tall too just to ensure total clearance.They both jumped very well though so it gave me a little confidence to jump them at the Haras du Pin on saturday. Turnip was Mr Superstar. He had one down that I put him right underneath but he made a mega effort not only to jump but be sensible too. I didn't need  a superglue  bum for the first time ever;

Ned was a good boy too, he thought 4am was a bit early for getting up to go showjumping ( we did too) but Turnip's class started at 7(!!!) and it's a fair old trip. Due to his bleary eyes Ned was a bit sloppy in his first round and had a pole down but with a gentle reminder he pulled his socks up to go clear in the second, so he was forgiven. Almost.

Sunday produced another star in the making.I took Charlie down to Brecey to do the 80cm entrainemnent class.We missed it so had to wait to the end to put them down and pay for a few clear rounds. What a star! Charlie is very short on training outings but you wouldn't have known. He was a bit of a stallion for the first half an hour, got his willy out, shrilled his head off and threw himself around but after that he settled. We had our moments, a massive buck that threw me on to his head ( that was cool with him he just carried on cantering round), a wizz off when they all galloped round clapping and screaming for the lap of honour and he was really at odds to understand the horses coming so close to him in the warmup arena. He thought they either had the hots for him or were trying to attack him. Charlie likes little ones.

But the actual course was a dodle for him, he is completely unfazed by fillers and found it all jolly simple. It's a dead shame Mick didn't have the video running as he jumped a couple like he was aiming for the moon. Knocked my hat clean over my eyes and ricked my shoulder properly.
It's fabulous to realise how sane he is and that when things occur that cause me to flop all over him he doesn't shoot away but just accepts he's being ridden by a wobbly sack of potatoes.
We had a wee bonus at the end, we took him down the stream and had a paddle through there, but again he found that rather dull.
All in all a reassuring end to the week, the pat on the back I was badly needing to restore a little faith!