Horses and Heartache

The boy was frustrated that the pony was not turning when he asked.  He was having trouble balancing at the trot and struggling for the rhythm, so his slight signal to the horse was quite hard for him to make.  The pony however, was rather green and just doing her best too!  She simply couldn't tell the difference between his wobble tug and his real intended turn please tug on the rein and she didn't respond the way he wanted.  Yank yank yank he acted out.  She was so mad at the student she made him halt and dismount immediately.   And as she steamed she told him to just walk the pony around the outside of the arena.   This was so she could calm down and figure out what to do to him for yanking the pony's mouth 1,2,3 times like that. As they walked, she realized he was on the verge of tears and halting and dismounting and then having a chat about it was probably a good enough action step.
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Jill was babysitting an 8 yr old neighbour and they up in the kid's loft bed reading a book before sleep time.  The careers for girls book, which made a Very valid point, about a drawback to horse careers.  It said you'd have to be able to withstand the heartache.  Ellie asked Jill what that meant, so Jill told her a recent experience.  Her eyes  welled up as she said that little paint pony she'd been working with was going back to her mennoite home.   She's just not what the stable boss is looking for.   Jill said that pony was one of the sweetest, smartest gals she'd ever met and that she doesn't have a mean bone in her body.  Jill was mad at herself for letting the other instructor bully her out of the pony as a project, but she left that part out...  She told her kid friend  about the pony's intense fear of tree branches and how she hoped it was not indicative of her environment or experience before she came to the farm,  and how she hoped the pony would be treated kindly and fairly wherever she ended up. "She is such a high-pitched frequent vocalizer.  You should have her the way she neighed."
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Jill had always wanted to have kids, had already long longed for a family.  Her best friend was never having kids, and her sister was becoming a famous feminist who thought anyone who aspired to parenting had fallen for false ideals through society's evil brainwashing.  Like shopaholics and obsessed consumerists or something.  Jill felt bad for her urge.  She knew the world was overpopulated, and she wanted to leave no environmental footprint on the earth, to make the world no worse for wear for her existence, and yet still she wished.