Hoof Blogs

Flossie's 221st Lesson

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.