Hoof Blogs

Flossie's 129th Lesson

FLOSSIE'S 129th LESSON

I enjoyed my ride on Flossie this morning more than any other ride I've had so far. She
was such a challenge, but by the time the lesson was over, we had bonded better than ever
before.

The lesson started out normal enough. I took her to the 'arena' in the paddock,
first, for a change, since the ground was nice and dry. I warmed her up doing a little of
every gait, then I took her straight to the track. This is where the fun began.

During the week since I rode last, Des had his track dragged and the muddy area near the
road re-built. The heavy equipment used to do such a task left deep brown bare spots along
the edges of the track which really stood out next to the tall green weeds.

Flossie spooked at the first one, so I gave it a wide berth and encouraged her to pass by it
in spite of her fright. I finally got her past that one when the next one threw her for a
loop. She out-and-out refused to pass this one, so I got off and led her up to it. She
walked over the entire barren area with in hand, nose down, sniffing out every little
pebble, ditch, and bump on the ground. I mounted her while she was standing in this brown
patch.

We started out on the track again, but the same thing happened when we reached the next bare
spot. I had donned my new pair of spurs for this ride, and I was glad I had them. I had to
use them more than I've ever used them before in the past. It paid off, though. I had
her passing all those brown patches (there were about five major ones) at every gait in both
directions before the hour was up.

Most of the time she balked out of fear of the unknown and when I dismounted so she could
get a closer look at the ground, it was because she was shaking and nervous. However, at
one point she started to balk out of disobedience. That's when I really had to use my
crop and my spurs.

It was sprinkling the entire time I was riding. The raindrops were so light, though, I
could barely feel them. Now the rain is starting to fall harder and it's supposed to
rain off and on until Saturday, so I was glad to get a ride in today.