Hoof Blogs

Flossie's 120th Lesson

FLOSSIE'S 120th LESSON

Flossie did well during the first twenty minutes of our ride together, but after that she
got kind of lackadaisical and didn't want to concentrate any more. I think it might
have been because of the heat. Even though I started an hour earlier than usual, it was
still amazingly hot whenever the sun would come out from behind the big cumulus that grazed
in the sky above all morning. Consequently, I gave her a lot of breaks and took it easy on
her for the last part of the lesson.

I spoke with a friend (MJ) who trains horses and she said as long as Flossie isn't
coughing when I ride her and I don't work her until she gets hot (not hot from the
heat), than I'm doing okay.

Flossie has not been coughing when I ride her and I haven't been allowing her to work
hard enough to heat her up. Last week, however, she ran pretty fast for a pretty long time
(compared to how short and easy I'd been allowing her to work previously), but she was
strong last week and I did not work her until she was hot. She showed absolutely no signs
of being ill or out of sorts. Yesterday, however, since she wasn't as strong and as
focused as the week before, I was worried that I've been pushing her too hard too soon.

I would be very upset if I had overworked her too soon and caused her needless pain and
injury. My goodness; that mare's salubrity is in my hands, praise be to God. I would
never forgive myself if I mistreated her, even if it were inadvertently.

The filly that Billy and Liz own had a rope around her neck while I was at Des'. I
wanted to ask Des if he knew about it. He never came home while I was there, so I tried
ringing him all night about five times. I was curious as to whether or not Billy was going
to be down before nightfall so he could take that rope off her. I guess I'll never
know. I will make sure it's not on her next week when I go down. If it is, I'll
mention it to Des if he's around.

Bambam is still in the paddock with his mother and Flossie and the fence has not been
repaired yet. I am still praying on both these accounts.