Hoof Blogs

Flossie's 216th Lesson

FLOSSIE'S 216th LESSON

For a Saturday it sure was lonely at Dessyland this morning. Billy and Gary both left as
soon as I arrived, which was at 7:00 o’clock. Des took off at the same time and no one
else came down the entire time I was there and I didn’t leave until shortly after 12
o’clock. Hannah, Gary’s daughter, was down, too. She helped Gary load two of their
geldings to take to a trial race. She’s always a pleasure to have around and I enjoy her
company tremendously.

As I walked around, I noticed there were no machines in operation and the silence was
delicious both to my eyes as well as to my ears. Nothing but peace and quiet surrounded
me as I groomed and saddled Flossie, and I savored every silent second that swept past my
ears. I had forgotten how quiet it can be there. The gentle zephyr that stayed with me
all the while blew steadily and was nice and cool. It kept the otherwise burning sun in
check.

Riding was a breeze. It was only me and my horse until it was time to mount. At 7:15
the machines suddenly sprung to life with as much ferocity as ever. They were all
clustered around the end of Des’ driveway where they could be both seen and heard from
the track, but where they weren’t right on top of us, nor directly next to us for a
change. Therefore, the track, itself, was relatively quiet.

As I rode, I kept thinking about Norm who was working with his Early Bird fitness class
at the Woodlands only a short distance away. Yet I couldn’t see nor hear him for all the
trees between us. I didn’t feel right in the saddle today, like I didn’t belong there.
Flossie was as good as ever. I don’t know. It was my frame of mind I suppose, which
affected my entire body, but I managed to have fun, anyway.

During our walk down the driveway to cool out, some of the machines were busy carrying
dirt back and forth, so I had Flossie stand to the side. She watched them work without
blinking an eye. At one time a tractor came straight towards us before veering off to
the left, and Flossie stood still regardless of how close it came.

After hosing Flossie off in the wash rack and cooling her out in hand around the track, I
tried to get another video. However, I didn’t have the tripod set up right and it wasn’t
until I was done taping before I realized there’s a way to adjust the height of the
camera. When I played it back, I could barely hear my voice and could not make out a
single thing I was saying, so the whole thing was a flop. I had spent quite a bit of
time on it, too.

There’s something wrong with the camera, itself. It won’t immediately respond to
commands. When I select ‘play back’, it just ‘sits’ there on a blank screen until it
finally retrieves the video. It even hesitates when I turn it off. After watching a
little bit of the video I took today, I turned it off, then when I tried to locate it
again, it took forever, and when it did finally come on, the first few seconds kept
repeating over and over like a broken record. Norm said it’s probably a virus. He
promised to scan it for me and remove it. I hope that’s all it is.

When I was a kid my first camera was a Kodak Brownie. If anyone had ever told me then
that one day I’d have a camera that contracted a virus, I would have raised my eyebrows
at them. “Yeah, right”, would have been my verbal response. Cameras catching viruses!?
What else?!

Gary has all three of his ponies in one huge pen now instead of the three small separate
ones he was keeping them in before. When I fed carrots to them, Percy was grazing at the
far end of the paddock and when he spotted me, he came cantering over! I gave him and
the bay pony that doesn’t have a name yet (he has a white strip down his face, though, so
for now I’m going to refer to him as Strip) their carrots first, then I walked to the
middle of the paddock where Pugsly was and gave him his carrot. By then the other two
were done with theirs and came trotting up to have a sticky beak. Pugsly and Strip rose
up on their hind legs and started flailing their front hooves at each other. I had to
yell at them and move so I wouldn’t get in their way.

Des brought BamBam back home again. He’s gotten taller yet again and Des thinks he’s
still growing. If so, he’s going to be huge! He looked as good as ever, though, and was
perky and friendly. I didn’t know he was going to be back, so I didn’t save him a
carrot. He kept following me around his paddock, probably wondering why I didn’t have
one for him because I always make sure he gets at least two when I’m down.

Gary, Hannah, and Des came back from the trial races just before I left. They told me
one gelding came in second out of four horses, and the other came in first out of five
horses. The trials don’t bring any money, but the races are good practice for everybody;
drivers as well as horses.