Out of the Frying Pan?

Jill had left one job unexpectedly and had taken another one quickly. She was being treated almost as poorly as the horses... at the end of one day, Jill sat down and listed the things she'd been yelled at for:

Show/sales horse’s legs are more swollen than the other staff member described.

Doorway was only partly shoveled and left open

Old guys blankets should be adjusted more, better etc.

Sweep dirt floor of feed room at old barn

Grey horse never needs his hood

Sales horse needs polos behind (not communicated til after turnout without)

Tie hayloft door tighter next time

With this many horses can’t spare staff for Expo

Leg straps done up wrong (did you put this on?)

“we turn out in worse than this”

Put this horse out before that (dressed already) one since we may not continue turning out

“stop flicking the whip” vs. “really go after him”

Calling your path vs don’t get caught in the corner

“he’s kicked me once” “he’s never kicked anyone”

“you can tell you’re nervous and that’s why he’s doing that”

If the boss saw the blanket in that position earlier, shouldn’t the boss have adjusted it?

The mud was almost as treacherous as the ice. She was had to walk in the (knee deep) snow instead.

She never had time to mention that she'd found the sales horse choking on a huge length of twine from the round bale in the paddock.

Postcard

Stardate Thurs. Dec 7, The Devil watch is flashing Tuesday.

My feet are wet and the manure truck is full which makes it a pain. It sounds like we aren’t getting shavings until Tuesday and I am stuffed up again and don’t own any Claritin.

Then the boss comes in and spends ages adjusting the noseband. Sometimes I hate this job.

Jill knew her chum would understand the frustration she wrote on the card before posting it.

Clyde Pride

Jill had not wanted any training to be the fill in person for the barn chores -- it was too much gas money and too long in the car for unpaid time.

When she got to the DRAFT horse facility, she felt like a person standing on the edge of a cliff. A person who had gone on and on about not having a fear of heights, only to find themselves slightly trepidacious in the face of giant potential danger. ha.

*
The one Percheron mare on the Clyde farm was the one who would turn out to be her favourite. Some horses respond better to the kissy kissy type of relationship than the tough guy yelling-at-them-for-everything-they-do-wrong-type-treatment... and those were usually horses that Jill had LOTS of luck with. Or ignored. Or the ones who had been really bullied or beaten...

Jill won that particular gal over with a small bit of plum, dropped in the mare's feed bucket in passing, on "break". She'd done it simply to interest the mare, brighten her day a bit, but had apparently bowled her over entirely, ha.

She realized it months later, when Jill met her again at the Royal Winter Fair. The horse who was known to turn her back feet to the door and let feet fly on occasion, once feel asleep as Jill whispered sweet nothings from her stall door in the very busy and stressful show environment and another time perked up cheerfully to sniff Jill and her young riding students friends in greeting as they worried in unison about her empty water bucket... and, pat her "illegally" through the stall bars as the mare dunked her muzzle into her water bucket and made some chewing motions with her mouth. She looked happy and relazed

In the end they'd agreed they didn't need to find or ask her caretaker to fill the water bowl because her lips were still wet! She didn't actually need water, she was just wanting to be spoiled. Jill was flattered even to be asked.

First Aid and Other Comments

Eli got his sutures out. It required Jill as the human twitch and then the boss near his rear and the vet holding up the other leg and then the boss's partner came by just as the job was done and said Jill didn’t need to hold his lip like that since he was so drugged it was obvious he wasn’t feeling anything. ARGH!

The same day, Jill was embarrassed to be corrected about her use of the laser. But certainly she had been distracted and chatting like crazy to the accidental boyfriend. The laser wasn't really aimed correctly the moment the boss stepped in, and the comments that time were fair.

At Christmas dinner the clinician explained what he had done at the clinic. He kicked some students out! He said "these horses are not ready to be here and one of you is going to get hurt and I am not going to take responsibility for that so you are now excused from class."

Jill admired him. And was also grateful that that didn’t happen to her at the Ian Stark clinic, even though'd felt then she WAS in over her head.

Friday the 15th

Jill was glad she remembered Casey’s bridle, for the trailer load, since the boss's partner said they only needed two. This was after the boss had a lesson to teach to someone who’s name wasn't remembered and who’s name wasn’t written in the book. Jill smoothed that one over while cleaning tack, including a breastplate left behind by last year’s borders, moldy and forgotten in a stall.

While they were all away at a show, Jill lunged Buddy and he was quite contrary in terms of her vocal commands and therefore there was much canter, especially on the right rein. Indeed there was much canter on the wrong lead. However, his work on the left rein was especially good in terms of the way he carried himself and was bending.

Portia had a tiny lump on her neck after the special rhino shot and was not really eating well, so Jill thought it would be wise NOT to ride her. Furthermore, her owner had made a big deal about her “streak” and how Jill should not trot alone blah blah blah. Meanwhile, at the boss's direction, Jill had also already hacked her alone right across the edge of the Quarter Horse farm, past the impossible stallion pen.

Jill was excited to chat briefly with the celebrity boarder's fiancee, who has had some photos published in magazines. Her camera is the kind that takes several action shots in a row if you simply hold down the shutter. Jill's was the kind that you have to snap BEFORE there is any action. She'd practiced after the famous show jumper Mario Delauriers showed up with his BMW and beautiful RV.

Her accidental boyfriend called and said that one of the dogs barfed in the truck on the way to the show. He made Jill laugh about the lecture she got from the boss about how important loading straight on the lorry and all trailers is, even though she wasn’t a person loading a horse in and was the only person who had stood the waiting horse in a straight line for the ramp.

Jill had to learn that there is no winning with these people and that she should not take it personally. "I guess it’s the show nerves." he said. Jill said she could take it "I am here to learn about who is who and all about the industry and to WRITE about it and get paid. While also getting paid to be here, ha. Unless I decide to just run away" she added.

He said he wanted to run away with her if she went. He meant to be romantic but she didn't feel that way about him. She considered his call more of a nuisance than a blessing. What to do what to do what to do...

Alone Together

It was very lucky that an owner was home on the property as Jill set out for her ride. It was such a lovely perfect fall day that she'd decided to go round the hayfield. But the first pony trying to be caught for a ride was a fast one... she'd been a little aware of the safety risk of hacking alone, when no one even knew you were headed out.

The beautiful black pony pranced all the way around.

Only one whinny, but not a step of walk. Is this passage? Jill wondered. To get the mare's attention she tried bending left and right, leg yeilding left and right, and shoulder in, shoulder out and then even half pass left and right. All the way around the huge field. The mare was responsive and athletic in her lateral movements. But she would not waaaaa-alk.

And, there were also plenty of spooky-start/stops, ha.

She came back to barn yard and walked the mare through a few puddles and around all the outbuildings as she finally came to a proper four beated 1-2-3-4 walk rhythm. The she took the black beauty, with her flowing mane and tail around the field once more. The walk was sooooo fast, it took half the time of the accidental trot round.

Mutual Recogniton Party

"I remember you from the olden days," Jill said to the heavy-set man around the heavy horses at the Fall Fair. "When you used to trailer Stone and me around to the horse shows in your stock trailer."

She'd gone to the Fall Fair with her bachelor friends and had no idea who she would run into.  His honrse-handler stern to friendly face, softened in recognition of her, amid the parked horse trailers on the final day of fall fair.

"That was the olden days" he chuckled, shifting his additional weight with a clearly bad now hip.

 "I was just telling some folks the other day the story of "Jill and The Thoroughbred," he said, ha, to her delight.  "Some standardbred folks was suggesting we needed a ramp for them to get their horses to follow them on the step up of the very same rig that big, spooky bay horse would follow you up in a heartbeat, back when you were eventing him and we'd trailer you."

Then he sorta turned to flashthe logo of his Ontario Sire Stakes jacket.  He was a trainer and owner now, but with some interesting philosophies about horse welfare, and horse sports in general.  She thought it was cool.

Jill was filling him in on her radio show.  "So you know your horses," he said, when she admitted her new crush out loud, on the young Suffolk Punch from the organic farm straw building teamster she'd just interviewed, ha.
*
She had noticed him once in between times.  And so, she just started telling him how she'd admired a particular team and teamster once, Her first time at the fall fair in fact.  Because his horses were so incredibly unique in the proceedings in the way they'd waited for his verbal command after he'd hitched the weight to them himself, and then in a seperate moment TOLD them to pull. And only after being impressed by that, Jill recognized him and had announced to her friends "Hey, I know that guy?"

"You recognized that? You saw that?" he was pleased, hearing her recollections. "Then you saw me compete. When I did so, I won everything, ha. All the time. They'll tell that ya that, here, if you ask around. But I was doing it safer then than they do now and I doing right by the horses the whole time too. None of these guys could beat my team, then, and they couldn't now.  And they still want to go."

Jill knew what he meant about the power of a horse that w a n t s   to please you!

How Many Mothers

let you ask their 3 yr old if she wants to see the sexy body of the fella you're having them meet for the very first time?

Jill introduced her young friend to her big ole horse friend with this line, before taking off his winter blanket. The child wanted to be picked up so she could reach his big bay belly and she looked sooooo cute stroking his underside with the brush.

*
Jill was concerned about the sand the horses were injesting being turned out so often in the riding rings. She also could see that they had no respect for the fence, since it hadn't been built with turn outs in mind and had no electricity running through it.

She'd worked for folks like this before. They weren't involved in the horse world anymore... it was more work than they could have imagined, exacerbated by their inexperience.

Same Old Competiton

Jill could see that the other instructor was clearly out to make her look bad, and had also been in cahoots with the new instructor to brainwash her before even meeting Jill.

(The one who had taught lessons already but had not yet signed a waiver, ha).

Was Jill the only one who noticed when she admitted "it might have been me who put the pelham in wrong" and insuated that Jill had been the one insisting on the even harsher bit... The owner of the place didn't know harsh from not and was loyal to the employee she'd hired first.

The other instructor had not completed paperwork, and one of the others had a missing first page, but they were both commended by said boss, Jill's shoddy paperwork left unspoken.


Things were not looking good for her future there.

Which was relief in a way.

She felt that humans made all the decisions around horses and felt that any place that was going to blame "horse error" and "breed inbreeding" for the unfortunate death of new herd member, instead of learning from their own accountability, was a place she didn't want to watch choose and develop other beasts anyway...

All Jill could do was offering the most safe, constructive lessons she could, while adhering to sound business practices, and doing her best to honour the recommendations of the provincial and national governing sport offices (despite their flaws).


Jill said she noticed the gaited newcomers where not meshing well with the pony herd and would not have moved them in 9 days as was done, she was ignored.

When Jill suggested that they should have at least filled out an incident report in order to learn from the occurence, she was told that incident reports only had to do with human injury.

She did not fit with the facilty, despite its advertised but misguided interest in horse welfare.

She was interested to see how things would unfold.

A talented horse would have cleared the fence but the Tennessee Walking Horses were not that atheletic, and Jill could admit that they did indeed seem daft. And, the owners were clearly Very Inexperienced horse folk as well... Who else would have found the facility owners more knowledgable? yikes.

Jill Speaks Up

at the horse show Jill made a point to nominate some of the students for the sportmanship award and encouraging some of the parent to do so as well. the head coach meanwhile, was too busy to eat, so doubtlessly had not. did this make Jill look bad?

The horses had not had a drink when when arrived there, even though they'd gone through the stress of trailering on the summer day, hours earlier. This same superior had spoken to her a condenscending tone about the location of the water trough. But Jill believed in watering by the bucket-from-anyway. Who would let their horse drink in the same bowl as so many unknown others?

She suggested giving the trailer guy his half hour warning at 1:40 and had a load ready to go at 2:05. The head coach called at 2:30 and one of the riders was missing then, re-doing the wraps Jill had done her self on the troublesome horse. Apparently, this was at the boss's direction. Which left Jill wondering why hadn't they had a wrapping clinic well before show day.
*
Jill's crush on the local equine/musical interest was waning. First of all, he hadn't called. Second of all, some of his friends had living styles that didn't quite sit right with her. And, finally, he was the kind of guy that took up horse-riding by heading out to the store to get The Best of All the required gear. She was more of a make due kind of gal "Even when I'm rich I'm cheap."

*

"But, it was sad not to have a romantic interest at least! If you don't have a crush, what are you supposed to dream about? I don't want to fantasize about winning the lottery," Jill ranted to her roommate, "I want to dream about loooooooove."
*
It was funny to do the whole entire ride, panting into the little tiny microphone tucked in around ear (speaking while riding was a much harder work out than she'd expected), only to find the little machine wasn't turned on properly. ah ha ha. next time maybe.

For the Love of Horses!

Jill could not stop thinking of riding horses in Ireland. Her last beau had said he'd be interested in riding, but he hadn't been really... obviously -- they'd never been to a stable together and he'd never even tried to find the time.
*

Her Irish crush was still on her mind. Had she invited him riding? When they'd facebook chatted he said his internet connection is rubbish. He'd said have fun with the music night and that he would find a way to be in touch, but he hadn't been. It was just like he fell off the face of the earth, egads.
*
At the unique equine fundraising event she introduced herself to a cute organizer, though she had no idea if he was single or not... He mentioned that he was deep into an MBA program until December, but that he'd call her to go riding before that.

Suffice to say she wasn't holding her breath. But, her roommate was excited. She thought he'd be into Jill and said she had said so long before this meeting...

"He's thinking of you tonite" roomie carried on, when Jill came home and filled her in on the party... she actually kind of hoped so! He was into music too apparently, and she would welcome a sign of interest.

Mantra Song?

Jill said she had only written one song on horseback. It was about bailing out on the boss and riding off together on Monday, and really seemed to solve the matter when she had to hack Ellie past the Alligator pond or the g i a n t burn pile, to soothe both their nervousness daily, ha!

She believed that music affected both her and the horse's physiology. She sang it slow to slow their heartbeats and the breathing rates, as well as to bring down blood pressure... she called it "Campain"

*
It was weird to run into that very boss-partner the day after telling the story... "you broke his heart" she was told, in case she hadn't felt bad ENUF about the accidental boyfriend already.

The (Evil) Black Barrels

Jill did not expect the objection the bay pony expressed about the black barrel jump she'd proposed as a simple reward at the end of the lesson. E-gads.

One the scariest things I have ever had to do, Jill counseled/comforted the student, is to teach a fraidy-cat horse how to jump a ditch. First of all, I always wanted to explain to him, you are allowed to run through a ditch. If you want to put your feet right down in it, go ahead! But what this horse used to do, you see, was stand there quivering and trembling at the edge of it, while I let him stretch his neck and pushed with my seat looking ahead and pushed even kicked and whipped and clucked and sat up and all to encourage him, was randomly shoot out from underneath me, with no warning, either to the extreme left, or extreme right, or sometimes straight over straight ahead but 3 feet in the air. To clear the little shadow!

She wanted the rider to go for it! The rider could get the bay over once in a while, if she took out one barrel, but then if they tried to repeat it, the mare would just tank p a s t it, miles away, running out. It infuriated Jill.

At first she thought the student's dread and nerves were showing through the pony's behaviour. But, when she finally got on herself to address the matter once and for all she had to apologize to the rider. The pony was way freaked out and not listening to the aids at all. She said so, "This is a learning experience for me too."

She made the approach more patient, less aggressive with the mare. The moved one of the barrels out again, for the first time over. And she also had the kid put the black matt down as a conversation starter with the pony. Snd then they did get the mare over three times in a row with both scary barrels underneath and without a refusal, but it took a long time and Jill was very late for her students at the other barn.

But at least they all enjoyed the story!
*

When the white stallion reared up on his hind end and actually pawed the air with a front leg, the student whispered "that's s e x y." and jill agreed ha.
*
the fat, flea bitten grey mare is the 11th horse she's ridden. isn't that cute?

Hack Chats

"For fun, in Florida," Jill informed the owners of her current riding hang out, as they cut diagonally across the field behind the paddocks to avoid all the stallion-turnouts, "I would hack right along the fence line of the quarter horse stallion of the neighbour's farm." It was true she was the only paid training/exercise rider that could take the ponies through the narrow straight electric fence walkway home -- the one that the horse-owners' insisted their horse could never handle.

But, she hacked past the alligator pond on the boss's horses everyday now didn't she? ha.
Even the boss didn't do that.
*

Spring Fever

"You are not giving that pony enough to think about" Jill counselled a student passing by. Just one second too late... Splat! The rider hit the dirt before the sentence was even finished.

I'm not as tough as her the other student said "If I fall off I'll cry"

"Horses are dangerous but so is living in a big city. My aunt mentioned four stabbings in one weekend and my uncle says you couldn’t PAY him to live there.”

The student's family were almost as resilient as the rider!
*

for spooking across the lawn.

is that story down in here already?

*

the paso fino like cantered on the spot when she asked him to slow the rythm

Nature

"The littlest one in the barn is usually NOT the easiest one to ride." was a slogan Jill used for her classes involving the smallest ponies.

At one of her new stables, she was using a tiny chesnut named Cheery who had earned a few other handles as well. She was probably 18, probably broken to drive and momma to a few other cuties on the property...

One day a seven year old student enjoyed the most enjoyed the part of her lesson where they tried to think of more appropriate monikers, agreeing in the end on "Challenging Cheery." Back in the barn Jill ranted on to the owner, "She was such a brat." She can be a cow, he agreed. Jill continued, "The rider would address the initial evasion so the pony would invent a new, tougher objection. Over and over and over..." "That's the definition of a cow." he chuckled.

When the 12 year old made her canter, she would go a few strides then stop and buck. And then buck again when the accomplished young equestrian managed to keep pushing with the leg and seat and throw in a whack with the crop. Egads!

And then she saw the pony's true nature. It almost infuriated Jill the way that same animal would be as gentle and good as gold with the keen 4 1/2 year old. "I am not kidding, she is such an angel you can actually SEE the halo!" Jill was amazed actually at the way you could SEE the pony take care of the student. And, she just loved to sniff the child. It was priceless.

Reruns

He was talking about the nicer weather and how great it is to have the soft top on the jeep for the drives out to the barn. She couldn't stop wondering if he could be her carpool to the stables on the friday nights for show prep...

it was nice where he showed her the hack paths too. If only she had a horse buddy in training to go out working with him with!
*
To tell you the truth, I think our first meeting was Grandview." Jill smiled to the handsome artsy lanking fella. "That's when you passed your business card through the driver's side window to me, but Bee, the intended go-between, managed to just keep it. I thought she must have a friend that liked you and I resented the entire carpool."

She remembered that he'd made her laugh on course that day. She was just a specatator/cheerleader that day, and was actually impressed to watch the photographer catch a loose horse, the first human it encountered after a rider fall.

He clearly didn't remember meeting her back then. 

Would she become more special to him?

Rest and Leadership

Jill hadn't been able to borrow a booster seat for her kid friend from the big city, so they couldn't go for a drive to the stable after their train ride to town. Dang! But, they made music and talked about ponies... Jill thought that having the kids RIDING being the ones playing the instruments was a great idea. She'd never thought of that!
*
The pony hadn't been ridden since Monday, was still out in the paddock, and Jill was arriving at the same time at the new student and the other guests! Ooooh la la, well, frisky ponies make good teachers too!
*
Jill wanted to make the point about "rider-effort." She tended to teach the leadership required for equestrian pursuits as just general try-hardness.

"So, if you've tried something and it didn't work, and you're a rider, or especially a pony trainer, what are you gonna do?" She was hoping for try harder but what the new, clever student naturally suggested was "ask for help."

Jill explained the answer she had been secretly hoping for and concluded in the end "it would be great to try harder right away, with that rider-determination, and then, if that didn't work, to ask for help." Jill actually admired the idea.

*
She was surprised how nervous of the pony the girl really was. But, but always made Jill so happy to see brave smiles by the end of the lesson.
*
Jill felt guilty that with her sore back and energy level at that point in the day, she was seated on the mounting block when things went wrong. She was pretty sure the reason the student fell off in the only area where there was something to fall into, was because the frightened pony was running to her.

The look on the rider's face was the same as the pony's. Poor Girls!