Hoof Blogs

Flossie's 209th Lesson

FLOSSIE'S 209th LESSON

Luckily it wasn’t windy at Des’ today as it had been yesterday, so I didn’t have to worry
about being blown out of the saddle. There was a lot less commotion than usual going on
by the track this morning. There were plenty of men on foot in bright orange safety
vests, three tucks, one van, one car, a bulldozer, a road roller, and a power shovel
working on the new road that’s being built, but there were no generators or jack hammers
or power drills. The power machines that were running were not right on top of us.
Well, they sort of were considering they were working on the crest of the road which is
far above our heads, but they weren’t directly underfoot as they have been in the past.

As soon as we pulled in, we could see a lot of work has already been done on the road
directly in front of Des’ driveway. In fact it looks as though it’s ready to be paved
now. Pat said they’ll be working on the opposite side of the road soon, doing the same
thing they were doing on the near side. I’m hoping, if that’s the case, (Norm says he
doesn’t believe they’ll have to do anything to the opposite side of the road), the
greater distance will mean less stress for Flossie.

I walked Flossie in hand back and forth by the new road as usual even though there wasn’t
so much going on this week. We could still see the heavy machinery working above us, and
we could hear the shrill whistle-like sound of vehicles backing, and the roar of engines,
but it wasn’t anything extremely threatening to us. The only thing noteworthy was when
the huge, I mean gigantic, silver truck drove up and started dumping gravel along the
road next to the track directly beside us. It would start up, move along for a bit, and
then suddenly come to a complete stop with a bang as it dumped its contents to the
ground.

Flossie reacted only to the first time the truck dumped the gravel. After that she was
fine, no matter how close it was to us, and no matter how loud it got. I mounted and
worked her in both directions on the track and even got a full lap out of her at the
canter in both directions. The weather was chilly enough that neither she nor I worked
up a sweat. The big glorified dump truck left the scene for about a half hour and I
worked Flossie on the track relatively undisturbed at that time. I didn’t have to double
her or use my crop to get her past that area today.

Just as I had her working on the circle, that over-sized truck came back and started the
same routine of stopping and dumping gravel again and again right next to us. Flossie
had a hard time focusing on a canter, although she stayed on the rail pretty much the
whole time I worked her at slower gaits in both directions. She kept giving me that
false canter gaited horses have and just wouldn’t cooperate with a true, out-and-out
canter.

I took her to the area I refer to as the ‘arena’ and tried to get a canter on the circle
there since it wasn’t working out in the corner. Sometimes she’ll go well at the canter
in the arena for me and sometimes she doesn’t. Today I didn’t have much luck with her.
This made three weeks in a row that I wasn’t riding my best, either, so I decided to call
it quits when the hour was up with the hope that I’ll do better next time.

Gary purchased another pony. This one is a tiny bit smaller than the grey pony and it’s
a creamy off-white color. It’s a gelding and he and the grey pony, which is a mare, do
not get along. They rear up at each other over the rail that’s between them and Des said
he’s afraid they’re going to come down on it and get stuck.

Bambi isn’t pregnant. Des wanted to take her back to the stallion he had her bred to,
but it turns out the horse was sold. The people who bought him had him put down because
he was getting too old, so Des can’t go back and have his mare re-bred. He said he’s
putting her on the market and selling her as a brood mare. Flossie will be lost without
her. She’ll be all alone in that great big, noisy, paddock.

I told Des when the time comes to sell Flossie, he’ll be able to get a good price for her
because of all the training she’s been getting and exposure to those huge machines. He
agreed. He said saddle horses go for a good price, anyway. It does my heart good to
know I’ve helped to increase the value of that mare for him. Yet it breaks my heart in
half whenever I think about the day I’ll have to part with her.

I hate to gallop off on that sad note, but gallop off I must, so Aussie ya af-tah.