Hoof Blogs

Flossie's 104th Lesson

FLOSSIE'S 104TH LESSON

I rode Flossie about an hour later than I usually do this morning because I couldn't
leave the house any sooner. (We were waiting for a customer who had ordered a product from
us over the weekend. He didn't even come). Riding later turned out to be a good thing,
though, since it wasn't as cold as it had been only an hour earlier. It was a gorgeous
day! Very sunny, and very cool, so even though I worked Flossie hard, she didn't get
very sweaty even in her long winter coat!

I put together a make-shift wall-less arena in the paddock, using my cones and some branches
that were lying around on the ground. The cones I put in each corner, with one in the
middle of each shorter end of the 'arena' that made up the width of the area, and
the branches I placed along the length of the arena between corners. I worked Flossie
inside this designated area and it was really neat to see how quickly she figured out
that's what she was supposed to do.

I had her doing circles on the half school (using half the arena) and straight lines down
the center length-wise, turning when we got to the 'wall', first in one direction,
then in the other. We also did circles in the corners, serpentines, and various types of
reverses.

I thought the arena idea was a great success. Flossie worked on the bit, munching away as I
varied the routine. I plan to use this arena for many different exercises in the future
such as haunches in and haunches out, half-passes and flying lead changes.

The mare worked exquisitely on the track for me! Oh, she balked when we came to the part of
the track that's closest to the road when a herd of plastic bags (of all different
colors) started blowing in the wind towards us. They moved slowly, never making it to our
side of the fence, but Flossie thought the movement meant there were boogy men about, so she
responded accordingly. It didn't take long for me to convince her that it was safe to
go down the track anyway and before long I had her even cantering and trotting past the bags
without a glitch.

I believe Flossie truly enjoyed her workout today as much as I did. She certainly worked
for me as if she did.

It seems the hoof grease I'm using every week is doing some good. It's supposed to
be applied on a weekly basis, but I suppose since Flossie isn't being worked every day,
once a week is sufficient.

I took the mane and tail comb to Bambi's mane today. She had five really wicked knots,
twists, and tangles that I worked on. After spending quite some time on her, I managed to
get rid of four of them before the mare said she had had enough and wandered off. I plan to
work on the last knot next week.

BamBam showed an interest in Flossie while I had her in the paddock. Twice he wanted to
follow behind us while we were at a walk. I had to swing the crop around at him both times
to make him back off.

Later, BamBam started running around the paddock just for fun. I enjoyed watching him lift
his legs and tear off, first in one direction, then in the other. The other horses just
stood around watching him. He ran around trees, shoving off his tiny haunches and creating
a big cloud of dust behind him as he went. Blaze joined him at one point, but he stopped
before long. It's so good to see the horses run like that.