Hoof Blogs

Flossie's 152nd Lesson

FLOSSIE'S 152nd LESSON

Although I had known it was coming up, I had no idea today was a holiday until I arrived at
Des' to ride Flossie. Billy was busily bouncing along the track in his truck with two of
his geldings running alongside in a cloud of dust, and Liz, his wife, was mucking out a
stall. When I asked her if Billy would be working his horses every Monday morning from now
on, she assured me he was only there because of the holiday. I had to ask her what holiday
she was talking about. I had forgotten all about the annual Australian event known as Ekka,
or, the Brisbane Exhibition, which is another name for the Royal Queensland Show. Such
fancy names for a very unfancy event, if you ask me. The Ekka is no more than a carnival.
A huge carnival, maybe, but still just a carnival. Liz said Billy had planned to be on the
track hours earlier and had meant to be gone way before I arrived, but it was too cold
earlier this morning, so he opted to do it later.

Showbags are an integral part of these aforementioned glorified carnivals. The showbag is a
themed bag of commercial merchandise. The bag is usually made from plastic or heavy paper
and is printed with graphics promoting a theme or manufacturer. There are almost 500
different showbags available for visitors to spend their money on and to enjoy samples of
various products. These bags run from $1 to over $50, providing companies an opportunity to
show off their merchandise to the public.

Anyway, getting back to Des', Flossie shied a bit around the piles of dirt that are still
lying on the ground around the track near the road that Billy had dug up over a week ago.
She stopped, once, and took a few steps backwards, but I was quickly able to convince her
nothing had changed since last week, and had her working merrily on in no time. She worked
well on the track, not too fast, and waited for me to cue her for a canter instead of
jumping the gun as she usually does when she's feeling good. She also worked well at the
circle. I was able to get her to canter around in both directions. Every time we do this,
she gets stronger and the circle gets rounder.

I also had her circling the trees that line the track near the yard, just for variety, one
after the other. It's something I have her do only every once-in-a-while. It's an exercise
that keeps her thinking and every time I have her do it, she always seems to enjoy it.
However, because it had been quite some time since I had her doing this exercise last, she
didn't understand that I was trying to get her off the track into a circle, at first, so she
did a fabulous side pass down the track before she caught on to what I was asking for. Well,
it wasn't a side pass, technically, since I hadn't cued for the movement from the halt, but
it was well-executed, nevertheless. I also worked her in the "arena", doing circles and
figure eights, then I had her canter in a straight line slowly up the middle of the paddock.
I've been working on this exercise every now and then for quite some time, but this is the
first time she did it well. She usually tries to veer off to the left, or she speeds up on
me.

When I had her in the driveway near the road after her lesson, a car stopped in front of us
to turn around. I was curious to see how Flossie would respond to that. She just stood and
watched as I waved to the woman in the passenger seat, who just stared at me in return.
Humph. I wonder if she were wishing she was the one in the saddle!

I met the man who owns Flossie's mother this morning when he came down with Gary and Sharon
and two of her kids. He told me Flossie�s mother is much smaller than Flossie. He also
told me she had won 9 races for him when she was on the track. He sounded quite pleased
about that. When I asked him if she has the same disposition, all he said was when you feed
horses oats, their disposition changes. Now that could mean anything. Anyway, Gary had
been out-of-town this morning working his horses in Rocklea. When he brought them back, he
hooked BamBam up to the gig and worked him for fifteen minutes on the track.

Des asked me if I was down when Billy was there earlier this morning. I told him, yes, and
that I had asked Billy if he plans to fill in the hole and that big ditch he dug last week
and he said if I don't like it, I should buy Flossie and take her to another paddock. He
said that ditch, that hole, and the two spikes sticking out of the ground have to remain
there in order for the track to drain properly so it doesn't get so muddy when it rains. I
told him to cover them up, or put something around them so the horses can't get hurt. I
know if it were his horses out there in the paddock with those holes he'd do something about
it. Although I kept my cool, he was very unkind when he spoke to me. I encouraged Des to
go out and see what Billy did. I told him I don't think he'll want a foal out there the way
it is.