Hoof Blogs

Flossie's 81st Lesson

FLOSSIE'S 81st LESSON

I didn't get to play with the littlies at Des' this morning since Norm came an hour
early for me. I was still distributing carrots to everybody when he arrived. This task took
longer than usual, too, because Des now has four more horses on his property again. No doubt
these are the four Gary had racing a few weeks ago. Perhaps one of the four belongs to Des.
Although Des was home today, I didn't get to talk to him.

Flossie and I made a great team today! She was willing to do anything and everything I put
to her. I had to take it easy again, however, since the humidity and the heat were
absolutely unbearable. It was near 90 degrees and over 50% humidity. So this is what I did:
I started out at a walk around the paddock, chasing little Blaze off with a swipe of my
crop. Then I worked Flossie on the track in every gate. I worked on being relaxed. When my
seat is relaxed, Flossie gives me the smoothest ride! She's like a thermometer upon
which I can gage my seat. I could tell I was relaxed today because she started off in a lazy
trot; a nice trot, slow and steady. Then she drifted into a canter pretty as you please. It
was like butter. Even on the hard track it was smooth as glass. We worked in both
directions, once around at a walk and then once around at a faster pace; trot; canter.

By then a half hour was already up so I took her to the shade and had her rest. Then it was
back out into the sun in the middle of the paddock where we worked on circles and figure
eights at both the trot and the walk. Then we went back to the shade. Then it was out again
to work on straight lines at the trot and the canter. I am so pleased she is able to work on
straight lines now at the canter; she is slow enough to focus on what I want. Then it was
back into the shade again for another break. After that, I took her out into the sun one
last time to have her walk over the short but fat log I had worked her over before. We
don't go over it every week, so it's not a mundane exercise. She went over it in
both directions as easy as pie. That closed the lesson. I took her to the shade one last
time to dismount.

When I trot Flossie on the grass, she's as easy to post/sit as any other horse.
She's still very hard to sit or post on the hard track, however. It's always a
challenge. Even though she gave me a nice trot on the track today several times, I had to
work hard to ride it.

Blaze whinnies to Flossie every time I mount her for the first time. Usually he comes over
to check us out, which he did today. However, sometimes he comes over a second time and when
he does, he's a real pest. Today was no different. I had to get Flossie to chase him
away. He stopped to kick up his heels at us once, playing around the way colts do, but I got
after him just the same. I don't want him thinking we're playing with him. Before
long he got the message and went back to his mother.

Speaking of the little runt, Blaze is getting to be a real beauty. (That is, for a
Standardbred). Bam-Bam, on the other hand, however, is getting ganglier and uglier by the
week. His legs have grown since last week, but they're knobby and unattractive. I was
planning to get photos of the herd today, but it turns out I didn't have the spare time
on my hands that I usually have. Oh well; perhaps next week.