“Hope the horse isn’t too confused about that many Flat and Jumping sessions.”
Well, I suppose three day eventers have to practise dresssage, cross country and showjumping. I had been sniggering to myself about the Hill’s gentle stalls practice, popping out, cantering a few strides across an indoor arena and pulling up (had to smile at Frank Hickey’s description of lads falling out of pubs quicker) but in hindsight it makes perfect sense if you want to keep the horse relaxed for a potential champion hurdle start and it didn’t really matter that he broke slowly in the flat maiden. It’s probably easier to move on to razzing them up to ping the start like a greyhound than it is to go the other way and blunt a hair trigger.