Hoof Blogs

Flossie's 94th Lesson

FLOSSIE'S 94th LESSON

The high was only near eighty degrees this arvie. Next Monday the high is supposed to be
only seventy degrees. Perfect weather for just about anything outdoors. In fact, the first
thing I thought when I woke up this morning was "Wow! What a perfect day to go
horseback riding!" Lucky for me, that's exactly what I did!

Not so lucky for Flossie, though, as it seems, anyway, because she kept squealing at me
whenever I'd put my hands on her. It didn't matter where, either; down her side,
along her neck. When I went to put the bridle on her she turned her head away as if to say
"No thank you"! I thought I was in for a hell of a ride, but as it turned out,
she was as responsive, willing, and trustworthy as always. Go figure. At first I thought
maybe she's coming into season, but then I remembered she was in season last week.
Well, maybe that's it. However, having said that, she's never behaved this way
before when she was in season. As I said before, go figure! Maybe she was just feeling
good, although she didn't act like it was that sort of a squeal.

She only had one speed on the track today and that was break neck; was she racing an
invisible opponent? She was so fast I didn't think it would be safe to canter her, but
as it turned out, when I had her pick one up, she was her regular great self. Fast, but
great. I learned that she certainly does know the word canter because I tested her today.
I asked for the gait verbally, without giving any physical cues and she picked it right up.
Every time.

When we finished on the track, I put the cones down in a clover leaf pattern and worked her
around them. She seemed to like that.

When I dismounted and untacked her and washed her back off with water, and after her walk in
hand around the track to cool out, I gave her some carrots and then I groomed her. I was
looking for sore spots on her back, especially, and where the girth goes, but she was fine.
In fact she enjoyed the grooming! She leaned into the curry comb and would have stood that
way forever if I had kept it up that long. I fiddled with the bot knife and spent a lot of
time cutting the eggs off her legs. She didn't mind that at all. In fact she seems to
like being fiddled with sometimes.

Billy has five horses on Des' proptery now. They are all separated and kept yelling to
each other off and on throughout the morning. I had some time before Norm came for me, so I
spent some of that time rubbing on these horses, each in turn. They ate up the attention
and I could tell they don't get it for just plain nothing on a regular basis. They seem
starved for it.

I'm wondering if having all those other horses on the property now is affecting
Flossie's psyche. Could this be why she's behaving as if everything is irritating
her? She definitely doesn't care for the bay mare in the paddock adjacent to the yard.
She pins her ears and squeals at her when she walks by. When I was grooming her when I
first brought her into the yard the bay mare was standing against the near fence the whole
time, so I thought maybe Flossie was just irritated with her and she wasn't really
bothered by me at all. But then I remembered she had squealed at me in the paddock when I
first went to bring her in. The mare was nowhere around at that point. What a mystery!

I toyed around with the colts as usual. Blaze tore a bite of carrot off the stick I offered
him. Once he found out how wonderful the vegetable is, he wouldn't leave his mother
alone. He kept waiting for her to drop some on the ground and when she did, he was onto it
as fast as he could pick it up.

Des is home from the hospital. He said he had the operation on Thursday and was supposed to
stay in until today, but he insisted on going home, so they let him out on Saturday. He
said he regrets that now because he's got the flu. He said it's very hard to
recuperate from surgery while battling an illness; especially a cough. He said it hurts
when he coughs more than at any other time. He's scheduled to have the other leg done
now in three months.

Des said he watched me with BamBam last week when the colt was lying on the grass and I was
touching him on the face and forehead. He said he's never seen anything like that
before. The colt still won't let him get near him!

The little bit of rain we got the other day has put a green tinge on Flossie's paddock.
It's amazing how it didn't take a lot to do it. Imagine how much better it would be
if we got the proper amount of rain we need so badly! The dam is disappearing like a ball
in one of Norm's magic tricks.