Hoof Blogs

Flossie's 145th Lesson

FLOSSIE'S 145th LESSON

It rained overnight, early in the morning, in Waterford where Flossie lives, but I didn't
know that, so I went to ride this morning. As it turned out, albeit the grass was wet in
some places, the ground was neither wet nor muddy where it counts, so I'm glad I didn't know
about the rain. It might have deterred me from riding unnecessarily. Because the ground
had gotten wet, however, it made the track soft under Flossie's pounding hooves. Because of
that, she was smooth to ride. I have nothing to report about her lesson today. She did
everything I asked for, and she did it well. I took her down the driveway at the end of the
lesson because I love doing that. While I was sitting on her in Des' front yard, he came
around the trees in his pickup. I knew Flossie wouldn't bat an eye when she saw the vehicle
inching its way around the blind spot, and she didn't. So I sat and waved to Des as he
drove past.

I have never seen a vehicle present a problem for Flossie. Even today while I had her
circling in the corner near the road, a very large, very noisy truck drove by just as we
were walking beside the fence that boarders along the road. Flossie stepped higher when the
truck rumbled past, but she didn't do anything. I didn't even have a hold of her reins; she
was on her honor. She didn't disappoint me, and I didn't expect her to.

When I first arrived at Des', Gary was working BamBam on a gig around the track, so I waited
for him to finish before I went out to the paddock to get Flossie. Des was standing by the
fence watching, so Norm joined him until I had my tack out of the car. Then Norm left and I
replaced him at the fence. It was during my conversation with Des at that time that I found
out it had rained there. The track closest to the road, which is where it's also the
lowest, is still muddy. Des said normally he would have had Gary drag the track, which
would have evened it up so it could dry, but Gary accidentally broke the drag when he ran it
up against a tree.

It doesn't look like the little filly's leg is going to heal. Remember Des and Gary's filly
I call Brandy? She and Blaze had both injured themselves in the same paddock a while back.
Blaze is healing nicely. In fact, he never went lame, but the filly had hurt her tendon and
when the vet came out to take a look at it, he didn't sound very optimistic about her
prognosis. She's still limping around the paddock, resting her leg whenever she can. I
don't know what's going to become of her, but it doesn't look good.

According to my latest HorseWyse magazine, you know you love horses when your horses wear
better blankets than your own clothes, and, when you point out every horse on a road trip.
There's a lot more than that, but you get the picture! Needless to say, I'm guilty!

I never realized this before, but compared to other animals, horses have a limited range of
vocal sounds. One theory for this is so they don't attract the attention of predators.
People have always tried to interpret animal sounds for years without much success. Of
course animals communicate with their own set of vocalizations, but we can only guess what
they mean. So if you hear a horse making a variety of annoying and unnecessary noises in a
movie, you know they're being dubbed in. Horses neigh, or whinny, nicker, snort, squeal,
and scream. But that's about it. Oh, and they can roar, too. But I don't think that's a
very common sound.