Hoof Blogs

Flossie's 179th Lesson

FLOSSIE'S 179th LESSON

What a trying lesson I had with Flossie this morning! There was nothing she didn’t want
to bulk at! Two areas were muddy, as I had expected them to be, and she refused to go
through either one of them, and that’s just the beginning.

She wanted absolutely nothing to do with passing the power shovel and the bulldozers that
were happily digging away on the road next to the track. We’ve been going past them now
for weeks and today, suddenly, for no apparent reason, she simply refused to go by them.
Because of the ankle-deep mud that was located next to where the power machines were in
full swing, I wasn’t able to use my ace card, which is walking her along the track past
them. So, I tried all the other tricks I have up my sleeve and nothing worked. I tried
to encourage her with my spurs and my crop, but they were useless. I used every aid as
powerfully as I’m personally capable of, all to no avail. I tried circling and spinning
her, still without results.

Since none of the old faithful tricks did any good, I had to resort to new tactics which
I’ve never had to use before, and, thankfully, they worked. First of all, once I got her
moving forward, I took her entirely off the track and asked her to circle for me in the
corner near the road where we always do our circling. She did that okay. A few times
she bulked, but with some encouraging, I had my Flossie back. I was able to work her off
the circle, back onto the track, past the power machines, and all was well. For the time
being. Instead of cooperating after that as she has always done in the past, she’d only
go forward for so long and then she’d be bulking at something else: The trees near the
track where the Rail Road track is, the mud on the track, the paper blowing across the
track, the barn next to the track, everything was something to drain her nerves. I was
either dismounting to walk her past the mud, (which means I had to traverse through the
tall wet weeds that line the track in that area, in order to avoid walking directly through the mud,
squish-squashing with each step), or I was dismounting to pick up the paper to let her
sniff it, or whatever. It was tiring.

Finally, I decided to back her up. I refused to allow her to move forward. I put her
butt in the direction I wanted to go, and asked her to back in that direction. She
didn’t like it, but I was relentless. Finally, when I’d turn her around again, she was
very happy to move forward. She went like a cat that had just been doused in water (I
don’t know if you’ve ever given a cat a bath, but when you finally get their claws
soaked, and their entire body submersed, their personalities change completely; they
suddenly become submissive in posture and in attitude. It’s like they are totally
different creatures). That’s how Flossie behaved, as if I had just thrown her and sat on
her head for an hour. I also tried zigzagging her down the track, moving diagonally from
one side to the other, while going forward at the same time. This also worked, so I
eventually interspersed that tactic with the backing tactic. I’m hoping she learned a
lot today because I plan to use those techniques again next week if I have to.

That wasn’t the end of the bulking, however. I had to turn her around and back her up
again and again whenever the situation called for it. Even at the end of the driveway,
when I was cooling her out, I had to turn her around and back her up before turning her
around again and getting her to go all the way to the street because today there were
power machines working there, too, tearing the road down, putting up barriers against the
passing traffic, that sort of thing, which was something different for that particular
area. If you remember, this is where the water pump was working last week which had
unnerved her. At least the backing worked.

I was very worn out by the time I had finished my ride today. Flossie was hot, but not
too bad. I managed to get her to go around the track in both directions at every gait
between the mud puddles, so she did get some exercise in, just not the way I had planned.
Her mouth was moist, so she was on the bit, surprise, surprise? NOT!

When Norm came to get me, I was so tired I wanted to go home and lay down. However, we
had some running around to do, so that was the end of that idea.

I’ll tell you one thing, I’m going to sleep well tonight no question about it!