With and Without Faith

"You really captured his eye." Roomie had written her friend who mailed her photos of a farm visit. She thought he was clearly afraid of horses.  He made them jumpy, just with his own heart rate, from 60 feet away!  She made Jill laugh.  Meanwhile, Tronas had posted a close up that intrigued them...


Now that Jill was spending time with a new breed, she wondered if her old pony friend Frisco (who had accidentally ditched so many students with frisky athleticism, spooking at things in winter) was part New Forest. It was something about the way the whites of their eyes would show, at the slightest cause of concern. Even speculation! You could always feel them looking sideways, straight at you. Such very expressive eyes, and faces. She looked forward to reading the history of the breed in the book she had out of the library.

*
Faye in particular, was one of those curious, determined ponies that was always challenging paddock fencing (sometimes even getting caught up in it), and who would also usually escape from wearing her halter, if it was left on her for too long. So, new students would have to remember her as the black one in the herd with the pulled mane and no halter. Her mom was the other dark one, but fatter and with the long flowing locks.

What a fast canterer! And Jill learned she needed a lesson in telling the foot fall pattern during strike off, because this pony tended to pick up the wrong lead going left. If she could time the aid more precisely, she felt they would get it right.  The way it was, it took Jill a minute to figure out if the lead was right or not, accidentally reinforcing the error.  And then it was taking like til third try to strike correctly during the first canter on the left rein, and til second try the next canter left. Not good.  And, so fast too. 


Jill was trying to ride the rhythm not the speed with this one too. She needed lots of the same kind of work as the bay.  Where were the new little horse trainers in training going to come from?

Jill really appreciated their manners. Faye knew she was supposed to stand square when you halted her and would fix up, if you thought about it. And, it was like that in the barn too. They stood still in the centre of the aisle. For as long as you needed to dilly dally around in the barn around them.

None of them liked their girth being done up. Some day, Jill would investigate saddle fitting.
*

Roomie said "I like his glasses and I like his clothes and I like his skin and his voice and his confidence and his breathing and his rhythm in life. But for some reason, I never let "my" cowboy hold the pony that day while I was tacking up by the car."

Jill wondered out loud if it would ever be possible to live on a horse farm with high speed internet.