They were trying a new turn out routine, the old guy in the ring and the little guy with the treeline hill paddock.. it was a pain when you wanted to ride the little guy in the ring. Jill knew the horses would be better off together, as they had been at their previous location, but the owner forbade it.
Jill was pleased to see the fence where the top panels were down had been fixed. And, obviously a leadshank tied around the latched gate was a new procedure, to prevent them from getting together... Jill wondered just which one was acting as the escape artist.
There was water in all the water buckets and she was riding by 8am in the morning. whoo hoo! With people around working on the property even - they were heading to the horsepark for a pre-show school.
Until his feet were trimmed, Jill was still taking it slow. They trotted in the grass ring, walked and trotted the gravel part of driveway, past the not flapping today flag, And then went all the way to road on the asphalt driveway thru the pond. It was further than they'd ever gone, and it was with no long stops to settle. He was getting better about the spinning around, and, she didn't even have a crop!
Jill remembered how at the last place, where she'd been the employee she wasn't allowed to take him outside "He'd kill you." was the boss's judgement, clearly not one to go outside on their own.
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Jill tried to incorporate nutrition and general health care into the theory parts of her riding classes. Like a physical education teacher, because of having done the Coaching Association theory courses as part of becoming certified. But she found that many stables weren't interested in the free government resources available, and didn't want to use them in their student education or libraries. Of course those were often the facilities owned by smokers or where the instructors had to duck off the property for a smoke now and then...
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The old guy wouldn't be caught to have his hooves picked and sprayed. But he was moving nicely and looking happy and perhaps showing a little less rib? Speaking of which, Jill herself was pleased to cooking and eating. Aloo gobi, Daal and some other successful new recipes. She was on a roll, and was impressed when her guest was impressed!
She was given a free bike had been delivered. and riding on it for a second it made her start to think it was actually possible to get underway riding to riding...
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"Are you the same John that used to own Potsie and Ophie about 100 years ago?" Jill asked the guy on facebook. He replied "Yes."
"I bought that mare from you. I rode that mare for you. Coseka, remember? Named after the stock."
He had been a stockbroker then, not a blacksmith. Jill remembered how he never drank coffee in the early morning cold, just hot water and lemon.
"What'd you do with her?" he wanted to know. She had a terrible accident. In the valley where she was turned out. She fell down a hill and got wedged under a tree and lay upside for too long before they could rescue her. All the muscles on her right side were killed and would never be restored. but we were able to find her home with a family on a farm, where she became like a family pet.
It had broke her 17 year old heart. She took a break from horses after that.
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When Jill and Dee took Ophie and Postie out hacking, they rode out the back of the property, and there was an orchard. that was always a good place on the way home to stuff your tucked-in-shirt full of apples for later. You could just totally drop the reins and trust the horse's feet to stay put, as they stuffed their faces full of apples from the ground for right then and there.
Jill and Dee would ride around the corner and up the shoulder of the paved road to the concession roads left and then right again, to the Limehouse park. And then they'd jump all the benches and sometimes even the picnic tables to impress the baseball players, if they were up there.
Jill could remember how her blood bay standard bred cross always wanted to keep the lead. Especially if there were several in their group. When she really needed speed, to catch up or pass, she would break in to trot to overtake someone else's canter. It was fun for Jill to post up down in a kind of speedster slow motion, while they travelled at top speed. It was one of the only ways to slow her down.
There was a forest route to take on the way home if you wanted. Those were also the days they biked 17 km to the barn to do the chores to earn the rides and then biked 17km home.
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