Join Up and Jacket Joy

Right at the very moment I was posting the last entry moaning and whingeing about the Ebay jacket no-show, blow me if it wasn't being delivered! There it was, poof! appeared like magic the moment I clicked Publish Post. What can I do but set matters to rights.

And it truly is a lovely jacket. Brand new as advertised, still with tags and a sticker for £153 - what a bargain, since I paid only £62! Its ink fleece lining is so warm and soft I could snuggle in it for hours. And that pony-girl and I could both fit inside it, zip it up and have room to spare for a third is an added advantage - how handy it will be on sleepover nights if someone forgets a bag.

It would really have come into its own on the night we went to see Monty Roberts live at a local equine college, which was the coldest night in February. RPD speaks rarely, but one thing that can crank him into action is the mention of MR - "that was the coldest night I've ever.....hours and hours..." Pony-girl and I had a wonderful night, saw Monty work his magic on a horse that had never loaded without a fuss (which I trust was not the same horse which had never loaded without a fuss at his previous venue), back an unbacked 4 year old in 20 minutes, and relieve a spooky pony of its terror at the sight of black plastic. All this was achieved with the help of Monty's patent Dually Halter, which works as a no-pain method of controlling horses (" See how I simply put the halter to the less comfortable position..." )

Monty seems like a great man and I love his ideas of learning to think like a horse, to use its herd instincts as a means of modifying its behaviour, rather than continually whacking it about the head as was the norm in Black Beauty days. Since owning Clyde, even pony-mum has become unwillingly fond of the difficult old blighter, trimming the tops off his carrots and cutting the pips out of his apples, but pony-girl has followed Monty's methods for years, and would love to try a Dually Halter on Clyde. Since Clyde is a skilful escape artist, I have my doubts as to whether the DH, even in the less comfortable position, could ever replace his chifney bit - but I'm tempted to order one as a surprise for Christmas. Only this afternoon, my finger was twitching over the Bid Now! button on Ebay for a Dually Halter in blue (to match his boots). I told you, some people never learn.