My lessons with Flossie, a roan Standardbred mare |
FLOSSIE'S 221st LESSON I phoned Des to see what condition his place was in this morning. In spite of the downpour we had yesterday, there were only a couple of puddles on the track with plenty of dry ground to navigate around them so I decided to ride today. Because there’s rain in the forecast for the rest of the week, and next week as well, I figured I better take what I can get when I can get it. Des, Gary, and Pat were at the race track so I was alone during my entire ride and for most of the time afterwards. Only a generator and about four men were working on the road this morning. Flossie didn’t like the generator and she veered off the track on the first two laps, but kept going when I prompted her. She picked up a slow canter and I kept her on it for a full lap before bringing her down to a trot again. She kept trying to speed up, but I didn’t let her. I’m working on getting her to go on a smaller circle, so after our ten minute break in the shade, I took her to the corner and worked on that. I also had her doing some work in the ‘arena’ as well. When my ride was done, and Flossie had been hosed off in the wash rack, just as I was about to cool her off in hand around the track, the huge orange power machine started roaring down the track. It was lifting a large log in the air. When it stopped, and put the log down, it started digging near the new road. I decided not to walk Flossie around the track after all. It wasn’t necessary, anyway, because she was already cool enough to have her carrots. The shower that was predicted didn’t come until after my ride and Flossie had been hosed off and everyone had been given their carrots. It made me happy that I had gotten my ride in this morning because I was expecting to ride later this week. Now that it rained again, the ground is now wetter than before. Des, Pat, and Gary came back from the track a half hour before Norm came for me. Gary and Pat left just after they had put their horses away, so Des and I had a nice chat until Norm showed up. He told me he’s going to his daughter’s Christmas Eve morning and will be staying at her place until Saturday morning. He told me he's glad he won't be staying there for long because he doesn’t like to be away from home for any length of time. All his horses got worked on Des’ track today before they left; the one with the wound on his front left leg (which is healing nicely, by-the-way), the little colt with the funny facial marking, and BamBam. He said they all did remarkably well. The colt had really surprised him since he hadn’t been worked in a long time. |