Fast Forward

Most of the time, one strives to go back in history, either to better days, or to change something you'd have done differently, but I wish sometimes that I could fast forward the clock and watch this scenario pan out - Louis as a trainer, and Sophie as a jockey. Today, it was really slippery underfoot where the ice had melted, and still frozen in other parts of the training areas, so we took the opportunity to do some trainer and groom training, with Sophie leading 'Jaguar' at the perfect pace and distance after his gentle workout on a lunging rope, aping Naoka-san (one of Sophie's heroines). To get to that stage itself had been quite an experience today, with The Difficult One in a particularly foul mood when he was getting tacked up - he gets sleepy, and then goes into his default mode, which is basically short-tempered bad ass with a touch of crocodile thrown in. But it's all good when one considers it as part of the learning process - if you can handle 'Jaguar', you can handle any horse, and the rewards when he snaps out of it are always worthwhile...