2011-11-27

Partners

"I can’t remember her maiden name but she is rich, rich, rich." The boss's partner described the woman coming to see one of Jill's horse pals, that was for sale.  Her heart felt heavy.

Jim joked about her having more heavy stuff to carry.  Jill joked right back, "I am sick of fit.”
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When she told the boss's partner about the potential boarder who shown up with stories about "breaking" difficult horses with the cruelty of impossible weight in their carriage loads he simply said “Maybe there are some interesting training practices coming our way.”  They proceeded to rent the stalls to the visitor, and Jill proceeded to witness some distressing horse handling. In hindsight, Jill knew she should have driven off the property that very day.

She could see that the boss was dismounted and Jill was afraid she had left a noseband crooked or some other sin that he had to get off to fix, and that she would be shamed and corrected meanly when the boss returned to the barn. The boss's partner, who came back to the barn first,  tried to comfort her with an explanation that this time the boss had dismounted to beat Buddy.  The horse wasn't behaving well...
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As she rode away from the barn, determined not to participate in such things, she said “I have often thought of asking for a lunge lesson for my position, using Buddy as the school horse.”   
“Well, that’s brave.” said the boss's partner.
“Well, maybe between us, we could teach him something – it would be two against one.” 

Jill thought her thoughts interested the beautiful boarder from the barn next door. She came and joined the groom's walk around the field, while her staff/exercize rider helped Jill to work on her french. The girls talked about riding bareback in their youth and all the fun they'd had with horses their whole life!

Jill thought the woman was lovely, and often still had thoughts about being their groom or nanny or something. They seem so down to earth and kind and fun. She thought of the nanny she'd met at the Royal Winter Fair, who has been with the family for years and works with the horses too and has had a few equine articles published and seems quite content in her life....

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