So now that I this morning to chill out, I will write Julius's post. As you all know Julius is now back with me and being worked normally. The vet said he couldn't see a lameness anymore and his back has healed very well after his surgery and is really strong from all the Pessoa work. So now I've got him in full work and he is going super!
So super in fact that I took him to a competition on Friday, only two-three weeks after having him back with me, and did an Advanced/Medium HC (as he is graded Prix St Georges) for some fun. He got 70.88% bless him! The most amazing thing about Julius is that he will go to the end of the world to please you and never ever gives up in his work. He will always try the hardest he can, which makes competing a whole lot easier!
Along with his new-found back strength and being pain-free, and my improved riding skills since coming back from Germany, him and I have just clicked like never before. I have always said that it is really difficult to have lessons on Julius because he has such a different way of training to any other horse, and only when you're in the saddle you can feel what to do. Maybe its just because him and I are so in-tune with eachother because no one else has really trained him but me, so we have completely adjusted to eachother. That isn't ideal by all means, but as we are never selling him and he will always be mine to ride and train (even if I hand him over to a Junior rider, he will always be based with me) I don't see anything wrong with him only liking his mummy's training methods!Give it another couple of months to introduce stronger trot work, expressive flying changes and the canter pirouettes and we will be back up in Prix St Georges/Inter 1 and aiming for some Young Rider stuff along with Seb. Julius was nominated for the Addington CDI last year so I'm hoping that this year he actually gets to go. How special would that be - Aussie horse comes over to England and experiences nothing but illness (Anaemia, liver problems, severe colic with surgery, kissing spine surgery, hock problems causing lameness) but after 3 years finally gets to an international competition for Great Britain. After everything, I can only remain that my family and I have made all the best decisions for him and he is the most spoilt member of the family, yet "prince Jules" never takes advantage of that.
