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.

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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.