Hoof Blogs

Flossie's 83rd Lesson

FLOSSIE'S 83rd LESSON

I used the new cones I bought for the first time today. Of course
Flossie had to stop at every one and give each a sniff before approving.
I had her circling around them, weaving in and out, crossing over from
one side of the circle to the other, at both the walk and the trot. It
was too easy. She's used to working around the trees in the same
way so it really wasn't new to her.

I took a movie of Flossie when she was standing at the fence in the
yard. She didn't do a lot of moving, but it was so neat to catch
her on film that way. Horses were whinnying in the background and the
recorder caught one while I had the camera rolling, which only added to
the atmosphere.

I didn't work Flossie hard, not because it was hot, because it
wasn't hot nor humid, but because I hadn't ridden last week.
After working on the track in both directions, I had her doing
serpentines in the paddock as well as straight lines from one end to the
other. I took her over to the dam, which I seldom do, and found a large
tree branch to have her walk over. Since we had worked on that sort of
thing before with the log weeks ago, she knew exactly what I wanted and
stepped over the branch in stride without hesitation.

The bulldozers that are working on the housing development next to
Des' property were working loud and clear today. Flossie ignores
them now that she can see them so well. The neighbor's bay gelding
was stomping around near the railroad track on the other side of
Des's fence and, later, when I mentioned it to him, he was
surprised. I was too, actually; it's no place for a horse to be
turned out.

I talked to Des for a long time after my ride on Flossie. I gave him
the refrigerator magnets I bought him while in Bourke and he was both
surprised and delighted with the gifts. He had placed a tub of water in
the yard and Flossie knocked it over, so I told him it's empty now.
Then I told him Flossie's feet need a trim; especially her left
front hoof. The toe has broken off and part of the side. The others
are jagged and need to be filed. I also told him the lump under her
chin is not going away. He said he'll have a vet look at it.

We talked about everything! I told him how Norm and I met; I told him
about Norm's Toastmaster clubs and about the speech he gave last
night in Stone's Corner. He told me he owns a few other horses
he's bringing back to the paddock and he's concerned because the
paddock can only hold so many horses. Billy has a few in there with
Bambi and Flossie and Gary does too. All the small paddocks are already
taken up with Billy's horses.

Billy's been doing a lot of work on the property. He made a pile of
loose limbs, debris, old pipes, etc, and set them on fire last night.
The ground where they went up in flames was still smoldering this
morning. One of Billy's horses likes to pull on part of the fence
during the night and then lets go and it hits the tin walls with a big
bang. It scares Des when he hears the noise and it wakes him up when
he's trying to sleep. He went out with a flashlight last night to
see what the horse was doing. He's going to have Billy switch
another horse with that one so he'll be able to get a good
night's sleep again.

He put himself on a diet, which he's been on now for a week.
He's decided to eat more fish, but he said he's tired of it
already. He also took himself off the grog. He said he's never
gone for a full week without it before. He's going to need surgery
on his legs soon, but he's not sure when yet. He thinks he's
going to have something put into his veins to open them up because the
way the blood flow is now is just not good enough.

I told Des about our trip to 'Back o' Bourke' and our
experience at the Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo. He had never been to
either place before and although he had heard of them, as well as
Cunnamulla and Charleville, he had never visited them, either. It's
amazing how many Australians haven't seen much of their own country.
I've seen more than the average Aussie who's lived in this
country all their lives!