Hoof Blogs

Flossie's 204th Lesson

FLOSSIE'S 204th LESSON

I didn’t get to Dessyland as early as usual this morning, but I was able to mount before
8:30. The power machines were going gung-ho right next to the track. One man was even
standing on the track. I walked Flossie in hand from the yard to the road and she never
offered to stop. I walked her back and forth in front of the machine, and she still
didn’t offer any resistance.

When I mounted, I decided to start her off to the right again as I did last week. If you
remember, that’s the direction she doesn’t like. I had to double her, and reprimand her
with a gruff voice, only once, when she came to a dead stop, but I didn’t need to use my
spurs nor my crop on her. She went fast, but she went past, and I was happy with that.
At one point she picked up a gallop, but it was in hand, and I knew I could make her stop
at any time, so I let her run some energy out of her system. She took me to a tree in
front of Des’ house and kept running straight for it as if she were going to hit it. I
realized she was throwing a tantrum, so I started roaring, “No, no, no” and spanked her
with the crop against the girth and on the side of my shoe. She disengaged herself from
the tree and went on down the track. She was a delight after that. No kidding.

She tried picking up a gallop again in the same spot the next time around, but I brought
her down this time to a nice trot, instead, and wouldn’t let her do much more until later
when I wanted her to canter.

When we turned around, there was no balking at all and no urge to gallop off into a tree.
In fact I was able to bring her down to a slow trot! She’d speed up a bit when going
past the machines, but she’d come back down to a slower speed right afterwards and went
around like that the rest of the way. I could see she was really trying to please me.

Once our work on the track was done I took her to the corner of the paddock to circle.
She never once left the ‘rail’; she never cheated, falling in to the center, as she has
been known to do. I didn’t have to counter-bend her to straighten her out, either. So I
worked on bending and yielding to the inside rein. She gave me the best canter going to
the right, stopping occasionally, but picking it up again when I asked for it, and didn’t
stop until I got her to go all the way around at a nice pace. It was smooth and
comfortable. She didn’t try to run off when we faced the track the way she did once
before. I was ready for her, just in case, but she was happy to keep on the circle.

When we went to the left, she kept stopping at the canter, but since she stayed on the
rail, I didn’t push it. We’ll just keep working on it the way we worked on it in the
other direction. I know she’ll get it. For a horse who only gets ridden once a week,
I’d say this mare is progressing as best as what can be expected.

Now this is where the lesson takes a turn in another direction. Actually, the lesson,
itself, was over at this point. I had done everything I had wanted to do, and gotten the
responses I had wanted out of Flossie. I was just taking her around the track one last
time at a walk to cool out. When we came to the road, I kept encouraging her forward.
The shovel was only two steps from her feet, digging next to the track. The power
machine, itself, was on a hill, so it was above our heads. When Flossie went to stop, I
doubled her. Then I had to double her again. She never offered to stop again after
that, but her feet didn’t always go forward, either. Sometimes she took a step back and
it was during one of those times when she went back too far. Her hind leg came down on
the slope that led to the dam. She lost her footing. I thought for sure we were going
to end up in the water, so I turned her head to face the dam so we’d at least go in
head-first and not backwards, but Flossie had a plan of her own. She fought to stay on dry land and struggled with
every step until she was back on level ground again.

During the struggle I slipped out of the saddle and slowly to the ground. I watched my
legs come down in front of me as I turned and touched the ground on my side. I was
working out a way to keep them out of Flossie’s way, for I could see her legs, too. But
she pulled away from me so her body went away from mine. I landed softly without impact
and can’t even tell you which part of my body landed first. I held onto the reins and
hollered “Ho!” It would have taken a very intelligent, obedient, and specially-trained
horse to stop at the command, and I learned that Flossie, unfortunately, is not that
animal. She had only one thing on her mind and one thing alone and that was to escape in
no uncertain terms. She left me and walked along the track towards the house, trotting
once when Bambi coaxed her on.

But I wouldn’t give up. It was freezing cold when I left the house to ride this morning,
but when I arrived at Dessyland, most of the chill had already gone. After debating
whether to keep my winter coat on or not, I decided to ride with it on. As it turned
out, I was glad I made that decision because when I had found myself on the ground, I
allowed Flossie to drag me a ways up the track while I held onto the reins, hoping
against hope she’d quit pulling and stand for me. The coat I wore is nylon and it just
zipped along the dirt like skates on ice and not only did the coat get no more damaged
than accumulate a thin layer of dirt, I never felt a thing. It was like armor.

Eventually, Flossie came to a halt under the trees near the yard in front of Des’ house.
I walked up to her, but waited for her to turn and come to me. Which she did, almost
immediately. I patted her on the neck, took the reins, and walked her back down the
track and past the machine whose shovel was still gobbling up the ground 2 steps away
from our feet. Stones tumbled down from the hill that the machine was on, landing next
to the track. A man stood beside it, directly on the track, yet Flossie went past
without a hitch. I walked her back and forth ten times then stopped so she could watch
the machine in action. She watched it swivel back and forth, shovel in tow, swinging
above our heads. She watched the rocks dislodge and slide to the foothill, she watched
the shovel stretch towards us, drop to the ground, dig, lift, and rise into the air. She
watched the man on the track beside us, and the men on the hill above us. She stood and
she watched and then I led her away.

This situation did not shake me up, nor did it make me angry, nor did it worry Flossie.
Afterwards, when I had thought about it, I felt I had let her down when I lost my seat.
She would have gone past that shovel for me. I could see she was going to do it. As I
told Des, “If only it wasn’t for that damn dam.”. He laughed with me, but I was serious.
I was disappointed in myself for not staying with my horse who was doing all she could
to keep us dry. I told Des I really thought I was going to get wet and he said I
wouldn’t have been the first. Gary landed in the water two weeks ago, he told me. He
didn’t know the details, so that’s something I’ll have to find out from Gary.

I told Des, in the future, I won’t try to ride past the machine when it’s that close to
the track again. I’ll either dismount and walk past, or work on the circle until the
machine leaves the vicinity. I totally, 100%, trust Flossie. I just don’t like the
proximity of that dam.

Zippy is back in the paddock with Bambi and Flossie again, so I had another mouth to feed
carrots to this morning. Just as I had finished with the last handout, we (meaning
myself and every horse on Des’ property), were suddenly surprised by a herd of
goats/sheep that were wandering around in the paddock next door at the Woodlands where
the Rail Road track is. I’ve never seen them there before and by the way the horses were
acting, all perky and wide-eyed, I knew they had never seen them there before, either.

I wanted to ask Des if he knew whose goats they were, but he was at the store, so I
walked across the street and knocked on the neighbor’s door since he’s the only one I
know who has goats around the area. He said they couldn’t have been his flock, but he
strolled over with me so I could point them out to him. He assured me they weren’t his,
and proceeded to check with the neighbors on Des’ side of the street to see who they
might belong to, just in case they had escaped from somewhere and were on the lam. (Pun
intended).

Earlier, when I had caught up with Flossie after she had turned and run away from me, I
wanted in the worst way to get back into the saddle and ride her past that machine the
way I know I can, but I didn’t think it would be the wise thing to do. I don’t see any
reason why I should ever have to ride her past that thing when it’s that close to the
track ever again. I just hope what happened today didn’t set her back in her training.
She’s been coming along so well.

Like I said, if it weren’t for that damn dam!

Oh, well, in Des’ words, “Those things happen.” Amen to that. I’m just glad no one got
hurt in the process while this thing happened today.