Hoof Blogs

Flossie's 252nd Lesson

FLOSSIE'S 252nd LESSON

On his way to the gym, Norm dropped me off to ride at Des’ at 6:30 this morning. Gary had two horses to work and was half finished with the first when I arrived. I waited for him to finish with the second horse, which was Des’ stallion, before tacking Flossie up, that way we both had the track all to ourselves.

I mounted at 7:30, so even though I waited around for Gary to finish, it was still an hour earlier than usual. It was a gorgeous morning, one filled with dewy grass and sparkling sunlight. It was chilly, yet I managed to work up a sweat after the first twenty minutes or so. Of course I had on a winter coat over a long sleeve shirt over a T-shirt, so I may have been a little over-dressed.

After the rain that fell Sunday night, the track was still pretty wet even though it had two sunny days to dry out. It was muddy in the area between the new road and the dam but it didn’t take up the whole track and we were able to navigate around it without a problem. The wet track made for a soft track and the grass, itself, wasn’t slippery, so the traction was good no matter where I rode.

Flossie picked up a nice trot and kept it slow and steady at every lap in both directions, much to my surprise. Her slow trot is nothing like her fast trot and I had to get used to rising at a slower tempo than usual. The slower gait made it feel almost as though she were about to stop at every stride, which she didn’t do, of course. Because of the slower speed, it took longer to work her.

The canter was a different story, unfortunately, and was just as zippy as ever. However, she went around the entire track without stopping or changing her gait and she kept it steady in every spot even on the inclines.

Up in the corner, she circled many laps to the left at the canter, but it took a fight to get her on the correct lead going to the right. Backing was like pulling teeth, too, but I eventually got a few steps out of her.

Des said he’s having a new fence put in all around the property so he can start agisting horses. It would be neat if he got a couple of riding horses. Maybe then I’d have someone to ride with, and, perhaps another mount at my disposal as well. I was discussing this with Pat and he said not to count on it for another ten years. I don’t know. Des’ wife is sending someone over in a couple of weeks for an estimate. Whatever happens, I hope something good comes of it. Des plans to have the stalls torn down that Billy had put up for his horses when he was boarding on the property which would be nice because that area is nothing but an eyesore as it is.

I’m going to halt my horses here since I’ve run out of trail. So, now, after my ooroo, you can finally say “That’s all she wrote!”

Ooroo!