Hoof Blogs

Flossie's 133rd Lesson

FLOSSIE'S 133rd LESSON

Flossie was a bronc this morning and it didn't take me long to realise it wasn't
because she was feeling good. There was a man walking along the fenceline next to Des'
property spraying the trees. Flossie didn't want anything to do with it. I tried to
get her to go with every trick I've used in the book so far, all to no avail.
Eventually I convinced her to at least go to the corner where she likes to circle.

I worked her there for a while and when she was ready, I took her back to the track. She
was fine until we got to the area where the guy had been spraying. (He had stopped by this
point and was nowhere in sight).

Because I couldn't get her to move forward, even though the man was nowhere around any
more, I decided to ask Flossie to spin. She did it perfectly, as if she had been trained to
do it and had been doing it for years. Just for the fun of it, I asked her to spin the
other way, and again, she did it perfectly.

Eventually, I had to wallop her a good one on the rear end with the crop to put a stop to
her balking. She bucked, so I cracked her another good one. That was all she needed. She
never balked again. Even when we came to the spot where the guy had been spraying. She
eyed the trees and waved her ear at them, but she didn't stop. It took a lot of coaxing
from me, using my legs, my seat, and my voice, but she went. When we turned around, I
thought I'd have another fight on my hands again, but she didn't bat an eye. She
went as though there had never been a problem. Go figure.

Gary worked BamBam pulling the gig on the track while I was riding. The colt looks so cute
because he's so small. Des told me he works better and better every day. This weekend
he's taking him to Southport to work, just for practice, then he's coming home for
another six weeks just to rest. Then it's back to the track for the real thing this
time.

Des told me the man who trained BamBam and Blaze had also trained Flossie.

It was a perfect day for riding. Cool, but sunny, and the track was in terrific shape. It
was a blessing not to have to worry about rain for a change.

I pulled Flossie's mane and ran a comb through Bambi's. I asked Des if he wanted me
to pull Bambi's mane, but he said, no, he wants it to be long. I told him I've been
combing it out because it was full of tangles.