"loose horse! loose horse!" everyone was shouting as the little chesnut came galloping thru the warm area and towards all the trailers, stirrups flapping, nostrils flaring and a kind of sweet pony fear in his eye. the saddle had slid round to one side. am i the only one who feels like they should be handed some rules and handy tips when they step on new property? i stood still with my arms out, right in the gate area, saying, whoa whoa as soothingly as i could, reciting in my head all the times i've been told that a horse will usually avoid running INTO a person if you stay still and give them the chance to...he was slowing down... the rider buddy with whom i'd just walked the stadium course grabbed his rein to stop him and then pulled the saddle off, as i took over the holding, heart a pounding.
*
my co-worker got me in trouble with the boss for not watering the hay down enough. but i didn't know that until during her feed shift the next night when he coughed and wheezed exactly as he had on my shift and i asked if his condition was worsening or something, since i'd heard him doing it the day before and she snapped at me that he "just has hay caught in his esophagas!"
*
i thought to myself, "So, wait a minute. You’re paying to be here in this camp that I invented to earn money and you are 2 years older than me?"
*
when i rode the big red horse, descended from the black one and he did that flippy thing with his head after the jump, i had a-nance-on-her-black horse flashback. i suddenly remembered how i would watch her jump that horse around a course thinking "how can you put up with that?" and admire her steady patient calm, position and attitude-wise.
*
A tack rail taught the really, really big horse to extricate himself from the base.
*
what does it mean when your teacher is always on your case to open your left shoulder? like what does that mean in relation to where we carry energy in the body??
*
the other employee said she used to ride big red. but what i heard from the boss's hubby was that she WANTED to and wasn't allowed.
* * *
remember when the bucker took a big spook at a bike and i squished the pop can i was holding? his owner referred to me as "the incredible hulk over here" for the rest of the day.
*
fox hunting has been outlawed in england because of the animal activists. THAT's the kind of thing that is going to shut down our industry before any kind of disease thing or any urban sprawl issues...
*
who used to give friends "bucket rides" in the big green tractor -- can you imagine? popping the clutch and barely able to control the big huge wheels of the machine and there she was also flipping them about back and forth and up and down for random kamakazee fun in FRONT of it... at least we weren't hacking of tree limbs with chainsaws like the farmer i heard about.
2006-11-07
2006-10-27
A Small Herd
who are your favourite ponies? I heard about a circus pony on the riding show circuit. A shetland who would
1) escape from his trailer
2) go to the concession stands, PICK OUT THE ORANGE CRUSH from the crates, get the cap off somehow, and drink it.
"he was notorious! you would hear it on the loud speaker that he was at it again... and could his owner please go get him from the snack bar"
*
sounds alot like the bar dog zazu don't it?
*
To get to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, the President of the Carriage Association of America and his family drove 18 hours from MASS and his son's little welsh carriage pony wouldn't eat until the boy got there. Jill had never heard of that before! When the young man gave her a tour and she got to pat the little bay gelding, who had lost 70 pounds in the ordeal she asked, patting "are you a puppy or a pony?" and he tried to bite her.
Watching the hackney’s really upset Jill. There was one with his tail dragging on the ground behind the cart, close enough to catch in the wheels. And she hated their stand and their tail carriage and their action, because she had seen how those phenomenoms are achieved. Not to mention she hated the vibe of the big bully men that are so roughly bossy to the tiny ponies...
1) escape from his trailer
2) go to the concession stands, PICK OUT THE ORANGE CRUSH from the crates, get the cap off somehow, and drink it.
"he was notorious! you would hear it on the loud speaker that he was at it again... and could his owner please go get him from the snack bar"
*
sounds alot like the bar dog zazu don't it?
*
To get to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, the President of the Carriage Association of America and his family drove 18 hours from MASS and his son's little welsh carriage pony wouldn't eat until the boy got there. Jill had never heard of that before! When the young man gave her a tour and she got to pat the little bay gelding, who had lost 70 pounds in the ordeal she asked, patting "are you a puppy or a pony?" and he tried to bite her.
Watching the hackney’s really upset Jill. There was one with his tail dragging on the ground behind the cart, close enough to catch in the wheels. And she hated their stand and their tail carriage and their action, because she had seen how those phenomenoms are achieved. Not to mention she hated the vibe of the big bully men that are so roughly bossy to the tiny ponies...
2006-10-04
Boredom, Bridges and the 3 Hour Cows
"YOU'RE bored?" Jill exclaimed to one of the spoiled, advanced students at the extensive event facility. Jill didn't have any horses to ride at the moment, and she was jealous of this girl that did, but didn't want to. "I remember when I schooled at a hunter barn where there a tiny sand ring, and one small grass ring with a coop and some poles! That's it! And, I was never too bored to ride." Jill took a swig of her hot chocolate. "I used to take Stoney out on the roads actually, and he would spook at mailboxes and garbage and traffic until we got to the Bruce Trail, and then he would spook at dirt bikes and real bikes and people and bridges and frogs..."
Jill laughed, and went on, "In fact, a bridge makes an excellent cross country training tool. I was out there by myself all the time you know, so you have to ride defensively and smart about stuff. So as not to fall off! And, I was not able to go galloping around on the trails for fun because of the shared public access. And believe me there were no cross country obstacles out there to practice anyway... BUT, I had two bridges to cross if I went left and rode the trail segment between Kennedy and 10. And, you could do the same two on the way back if you had gone all the way like that. I would do that sometimes, like, say on a Saturday morning when I had no commitments that day before supper time...ha ha. Sometimes, depending on if it took me 50 or 40 or 30 or 20 or 10 minutes going over the first one I would just turn him straight back around to get it overwith right away going the alternate direction. Going home direction was always easier than the first walk over.
The reason bridges are perfect for cross country practice is because you can walk them -- one step forward at a time. You know, with the goal of not stepping backwards or turning away. I learned a lot with those bridges - like the never give up even if you are standing still approach. And I got to practice the 'attack' him technique. Not to mention the sitting up and staying on and not spinning round or rearing up and running back home stuff. I got a lot of practice, in a safe non-jumping way, with the thou shalt not ditch me and, forward march horse style of riding! Eventually, we would hand gallop that stretch and we would site on the bridge and organize three strides out and it felt like a proper cross country jump as we'd just blast on over no hesitation at all. Eagerly, in fact. I guess, for the excitement...see what I mean? If you're bored, even with all these jumps around here, go out for a walk. Go find a bridge."
*
One day, when Jill went out on the roads for one of the first times from Spruce Lane with Stoney, it was a weekday BEFORE her shift at a fairly new job in town. She had a noon start time a couple times a week. They went out the concession to the trail and rode one segment and then were heading back to the barn. In the big empty field that they had passed along Kennedy Road, right at Old Baseline Road that the farm was on, there were cows. Big, brown mooing animals all up against the fence where there had been none before.
"Do you know what a pathological fear is? Clearly, Stoney had one of those, about cows, and this was the moment I was finding out! ! !" Jill told them how he was trembling and shaking and refusing to move forward. He was spinning and rearing and trying to bolt the other direction, and she was almost unseated many times. "One option I could think of was to ride all the way around the entire concession and try to get home by going at it from the other way. But I figured that was at least a two hour ride (given the hour we had just done) and I was certain we could solve the matter face to face with the cows faster than THAT. Also, who knew what cows we might encounter on that route?" If this horse and rider disagreement had happened on the way OUT, she would not have hacked him alone that day, and they would not have ended up with the Eventing successes they did eventually achieve because it was dangerous to fight with a stoopid goof in that way over passing cows... "However... I was trying to get us home. I am a very patient and calm rider. And Stoney always responded well to me because he responded well to vocalization, and I was using my voice. I am also tough when I have to be, and I had a whip and spurs and I used them!"
The worst thing, Jill remembered, was that all the hubbub actually interested the cows so they were pressed up closer against the fence mooing, and more and more of them kept coming closer to the terrified horse. "I really thought Stoney's mind was gonna be blown forever. He was SO high strung!" She had considered dismounting and trying to lead him past. But her teacher had always said that a person is in more danger on the ground around a horse than they are on horse back. Also, she was not able in those days to get on him without a mounting block and would have no way to change her mind and get back on once dismounted. And, she firmly abided by the fact that THINGS WITH HORSES ARE ALL ABOUT PATTERNS. If she had dismounted she felt like she would be setting the pattern that he could act really foolish and skittish and end the work session.
Thankfully, eventually, the cows lost interest and drifted a little futher away from the fence line and she was able to get the lathered, snorting quaking one tonne bucket of fear home. This was after hours and hours and hours. No kidding.
"Can you imagine trying to explain to your boss and coworkers that you were THREE HOURS LATE FOR WORK because your horse doesn't like cows? 'You could have phoned' they said, but really, how could I have?"
"You should always take your cell phone out with you." one of her students suggested. "And really, you shouldn't be out on the roads by yourself."
Jill laughed, and went on, "In fact, a bridge makes an excellent cross country training tool. I was out there by myself all the time you know, so you have to ride defensively and smart about stuff. So as not to fall off! And, I was not able to go galloping around on the trails for fun because of the shared public access. And believe me there were no cross country obstacles out there to practice anyway... BUT, I had two bridges to cross if I went left and rode the trail segment between Kennedy and 10. And, you could do the same two on the way back if you had gone all the way like that. I would do that sometimes, like, say on a Saturday morning when I had no commitments that day before supper time...ha ha. Sometimes, depending on if it took me 50 or 40 or 30 or 20 or 10 minutes going over the first one I would just turn him straight back around to get it overwith right away going the alternate direction. Going home direction was always easier than the first walk over.
The reason bridges are perfect for cross country practice is because you can walk them -- one step forward at a time. You know, with the goal of not stepping backwards or turning away. I learned a lot with those bridges - like the never give up even if you are standing still approach. And I got to practice the 'attack' him technique. Not to mention the sitting up and staying on and not spinning round or rearing up and running back home stuff. I got a lot of practice, in a safe non-jumping way, with the thou shalt not ditch me and, forward march horse style of riding! Eventually, we would hand gallop that stretch and we would site on the bridge and organize three strides out and it felt like a proper cross country jump as we'd just blast on over no hesitation at all. Eagerly, in fact. I guess, for the excitement...see what I mean? If you're bored, even with all these jumps around here, go out for a walk. Go find a bridge."
*
One day, when Jill went out on the roads for one of the first times from Spruce Lane with Stoney, it was a weekday BEFORE her shift at a fairly new job in town. She had a noon start time a couple times a week. They went out the concession to the trail and rode one segment and then were heading back to the barn. In the big empty field that they had passed along Kennedy Road, right at Old Baseline Road that the farm was on, there were cows. Big, brown mooing animals all up against the fence where there had been none before.
"Do you know what a pathological fear is? Clearly, Stoney had one of those, about cows, and this was the moment I was finding out! ! !" Jill told them how he was trembling and shaking and refusing to move forward. He was spinning and rearing and trying to bolt the other direction, and she was almost unseated many times. "One option I could think of was to ride all the way around the entire concession and try to get home by going at it from the other way. But I figured that was at least a two hour ride (given the hour we had just done) and I was certain we could solve the matter face to face with the cows faster than THAT. Also, who knew what cows we might encounter on that route?" If this horse and rider disagreement had happened on the way OUT, she would not have hacked him alone that day, and they would not have ended up with the Eventing successes they did eventually achieve because it was dangerous to fight with a stoopid goof in that way over passing cows... "However... I was trying to get us home. I am a very patient and calm rider. And Stoney always responded well to me because he responded well to vocalization, and I was using my voice. I am also tough when I have to be, and I had a whip and spurs and I used them!"
The worst thing, Jill remembered, was that all the hubbub actually interested the cows so they were pressed up closer against the fence mooing, and more and more of them kept coming closer to the terrified horse. "I really thought Stoney's mind was gonna be blown forever. He was SO high strung!" She had considered dismounting and trying to lead him past. But her teacher had always said that a person is in more danger on the ground around a horse than they are on horse back. Also, she was not able in those days to get on him without a mounting block and would have no way to change her mind and get back on once dismounted. And, she firmly abided by the fact that THINGS WITH HORSES ARE ALL ABOUT PATTERNS. If she had dismounted she felt like she would be setting the pattern that he could act really foolish and skittish and end the work session.
Thankfully, eventually, the cows lost interest and drifted a little futher away from the fence line and she was able to get the lathered, snorting quaking one tonne bucket of fear home. This was after hours and hours and hours. No kidding.
"Can you imagine trying to explain to your boss and coworkers that you were THREE HOURS LATE FOR WORK because your horse doesn't like cows? 'You could have phoned' they said, but really, how could I have?"
"You should always take your cell phone out with you." one of her students suggested. "And really, you shouldn't be out on the roads by yourself."
A Crash Course in Can-ter
Jill remembered the crash course Jo had given her before the Peter Young dressage clinic she had registered for. Jo showed up on a mission that day and she said "we are going to FIX the way you pump with your upper body at canter" and she put Stoney on the lunge line so she could control him (while he behaved like a dumb jerk) and she made Jill drop my stirrups (which she never did with him because he always got so uptight about it) and she made them keep bouncing through all this mayhem and it wasn't working. Indeed, Jill was almost falling off and he was rushing and fretting but she was insisting you know because she did not want to be embarassed by her student in front of her teacher.
Eventually Jo even made Jill hold on to the saddle with her hands like a total beginner would (when breaking the rules) so that she could hold my body still in the saddle, and she was embarrassed by that. But then suddenly (finally) her body like, got it and her hips softened and she was able to follow Stoney's back with hers instead of them banging against each other or whatever.
And the first thing Jo's teacher, Peter said to her at the clinic was not until after their first canter transition. He finally spoke, "you have a lovely deep seat."
Eventually Jo even made Jill hold on to the saddle with her hands like a total beginner would (when breaking the rules) so that she could hold my body still in the saddle, and she was embarrassed by that. But then suddenly (finally) her body like, got it and her hips softened and she was able to follow Stoney's back with hers instead of them banging against each other or whatever.
And the first thing Jo's teacher, Peter said to her at the clinic was not until after their first canter transition. He finally spoke, "you have a lovely deep seat."
2006-06-24
Saturday Lessons
well, what was the biggest thing we learned today?
asked the sullen 10 yr old boy, in front of his dad. after pa and i had had a one on one chat, and sonny had made his desperate trip to the outhouse.
"that we don't get mad at our horses." he sulkingly replied, practically kicking the dirt under the pony he was sponging off.
i'd hoped i wasn't in trouble with MY teacher, for taking the aforesaid couple through (albeit away from the barn) the (creepy ohmigod have you seen evil dead or not) forest, and then back home along the edge of the big hay field, while she (the teacher herself) waited behind on the tractor (on the pony that ha SPOOKED and run back to the barn only the week before)
* * *
the kid in the lesson after that, got to canter for HER time, because Wisco was being a push button pony for the transition 3x
3 football fields per day.
she also handed me a card saying, here. my mom told me to make you a card.
out. i said. i moved here for a job that blew up, and so now i'm moving to where i can find a HORSE job. if SHE'd quit hogging them i said.
i also showed her the resume i am going to drop off to Reg Butler on my way to pick HER up at school on Monday, so she can do me a favour.
she needs to dump her possbily so called beau on monday, in my opinion.
but i told her my opinion is also from the person who was so terrified to "JUMP on a rockstar, on a holiday," that i ran him off the property. "thankfully though," i told her , after i showed his hillside buddy the comic of my error, (i secretly hope) he wrote the getting it on this christmas song i love so much...
i know that the hole in the ozone layer is so BIG that the human race is going to die off in less than 200 years and that 5 billion people could really be "let go" from the planet and we'd actually be better off (optimistic moral = fret less about west nile, our lacking government health care benefits, george bush and the other awful truth).
* * *
"if you need me to call anybody and put in a good word with ANYbody, you let me know."
*
I like the image of wisk's spook guilty face as the boy is flying, 100% air borne, through the air, at the exact second his usually so silent dad is encouraging “hang on son!”
* *
asked the sullen 10 yr old boy, in front of his dad. after pa and i had had a one on one chat, and sonny had made his desperate trip to the outhouse.
"that we don't get mad at our horses." he sulkingly replied, practically kicking the dirt under the pony he was sponging off.
i'd hoped i wasn't in trouble with MY teacher, for taking the aforesaid couple through (albeit away from the barn) the (creepy ohmigod have you seen evil dead or not) forest, and then back home along the edge of the big hay field, while she (the teacher herself) waited behind on the tractor (on the pony that ha SPOOKED and run back to the barn only the week before)
* * *
the kid in the lesson after that, got to canter for HER time, because Wisco was being a push button pony for the transition 3x
3 football fields per day.
she also handed me a card saying, here. my mom told me to make you a card.
out. i said. i moved here for a job that blew up, and so now i'm moving to where i can find a HORSE job. if SHE'd quit hogging them i said.
i also showed her the resume i am going to drop off to Reg Butler on my way to pick HER up at school on Monday, so she can do me a favour.
she needs to dump her possbily so called beau on monday, in my opinion.
but i told her my opinion is also from the person who was so terrified to "JUMP on a rockstar, on a holiday," that i ran him off the property. "thankfully though," i told her , after i showed his hillside buddy the comic of my error, (i secretly hope) he wrote the getting it on this christmas song i love so much...
i know that the hole in the ozone layer is so BIG that the human race is going to die off in less than 200 years and that 5 billion people could really be "let go" from the planet and we'd actually be better off (optimistic moral = fret less about west nile, our lacking government health care benefits, george bush and the other awful truth).
* * *
"if you need me to call anybody and put in a good word with ANYbody, you let me know."
*
I like the image of wisk's spook guilty face as the boy is flying, 100% air borne, through the air, at the exact second his usually so silent dad is encouraging “hang on son!”
* *
2006-06-19
More Old Friends
You remember Carmie? Jill said to her breakfast companion, another woman's husband.
They'd been discussing events, as his wife currently rides and 2/3 daughters have also been afflicted with the sport. sharing a table at the nearby diner, he'd mentioned the pleasures of having own's own trailer, because otherwise you trailer with other competitors and like double the hours of your already plenty grueling day. as in, they compete prior to the crack of dawn and your start time is just before supper, that kind of thing.
She told of the opposite honour of getting to take my coach's then new big palimino clydesdale cross off the property early in his career. at this place in puslinch where we'd travelled for the competition, there was a chicken coop at the end of the dressage ring. the flapping and squawking was freaking him out in the trailer area and the warm up area, which was not really close enough to school the chickens, despite the challenges i am describing and he was big and green and hard to keep in the ring in the first place, so i guess, really, it wasn't much of a shock that the first time we tried to pass the dang chickens in our test he spooked a step right out of the ring and i was eliminated for the whole day!
"That carmen" she concluded, shaking her head, getting us kicked out in less than 30 seconds... and my companion surprised me by knowing of whom i spoke! agreeing "that carmie"...
*
"So you remember spidey?"
"THAT horse? of course i do, for crying out loud i remember rocky 2, the handful of a stallion that bred with her as well. he was a pain. what an appoloosa!"
The offspring in the stadium, preferred to be forward moving and jump with a little pace, which had his rather short legs booting around before us but he was very honest, and clever. with his aforesaid feet, and the rest of his body as well as his mind. but rider come on, leg on last three strides.
What Jill don't get is why EVERYone doesn't just see why that corner makes it all possible and do it that way i said to the youngest daughter, as one competitor (finally) did so.
She grinned in her way, smug but sweet teenage all knower, "because they CAN't RIDE kim."
Earlier my teacher has said to me, as her oldest daughter rode by, doing the perfect corner, "when i tell my students to go DEEP here, that's what i mean." the teenager had suggested, "mom, if you got four minutes, i go in NEXT." and proceeded to do a good job of it.
between 4 and 5 i said "that was well ridden" and, mother and father got chatting about tick tack's nack for quitting and ditching a kid, to teach a good lesson that would prove useful for years and years... and, they missed a jump or two, looking at each other instead of in the ring.
when the rider came out the folks thought she had gone off course but i said "no, i think she's okay" and then asked HER if congratulations for clean round were in order, WHICH INDEED they were.
* * *
"if you put up/can ride Colin, then you can ride your own Inky."
"that's the problem with a really talented horse. the last pain in the neck horse like that i rode wasn't very body aware though or adjustable and so couldn't really get up to that much. BESIDES TAKING OFF, which he did plenty off. and he was fast and big. who wants to go flying off THAT. inky's small."
"he didn't really rear up very much and she was holding him back too much while he was fresh, and then she feel off too easily"
"i have a feeling he's an old horse who's gone sour. dirty."
"that horse will jump anything. just point him at it. point him at this truck and he'll do it. but YOU better be up for it."
They'd been discussing events, as his wife currently rides and 2/3 daughters have also been afflicted with the sport. sharing a table at the nearby diner, he'd mentioned the pleasures of having own's own trailer, because otherwise you trailer with other competitors and like double the hours of your already plenty grueling day. as in, they compete prior to the crack of dawn and your start time is just before supper, that kind of thing.
She told of the opposite honour of getting to take my coach's then new big palimino clydesdale cross off the property early in his career. at this place in puslinch where we'd travelled for the competition, there was a chicken coop at the end of the dressage ring. the flapping and squawking was freaking him out in the trailer area and the warm up area, which was not really close enough to school the chickens, despite the challenges i am describing and he was big and green and hard to keep in the ring in the first place, so i guess, really, it wasn't much of a shock that the first time we tried to pass the dang chickens in our test he spooked a step right out of the ring and i was eliminated for the whole day!
"That carmen" she concluded, shaking her head, getting us kicked out in less than 30 seconds... and my companion surprised me by knowing of whom i spoke! agreeing "that carmie"...
*
"So you remember spidey?"
"THAT horse? of course i do, for crying out loud i remember rocky 2, the handful of a stallion that bred with her as well. he was a pain. what an appoloosa!"
The offspring in the stadium, preferred to be forward moving and jump with a little pace, which had his rather short legs booting around before us but he was very honest, and clever. with his aforesaid feet, and the rest of his body as well as his mind. but rider come on, leg on last three strides.
What Jill don't get is why EVERYone doesn't just see why that corner makes it all possible and do it that way i said to the youngest daughter, as one competitor (finally) did so.
She grinned in her way, smug but sweet teenage all knower, "because they CAN't RIDE kim."
Earlier my teacher has said to me, as her oldest daughter rode by, doing the perfect corner, "when i tell my students to go DEEP here, that's what i mean." the teenager had suggested, "mom, if you got four minutes, i go in NEXT." and proceeded to do a good job of it.
between 4 and 5 i said "that was well ridden" and, mother and father got chatting about tick tack's nack for quitting and ditching a kid, to teach a good lesson that would prove useful for years and years... and, they missed a jump or two, looking at each other instead of in the ring.
when the rider came out the folks thought she had gone off course but i said "no, i think she's okay" and then asked HER if congratulations for clean round were in order, WHICH INDEED they were.
* * *
"if you put up/can ride Colin, then you can ride your own Inky."
"that's the problem with a really talented horse. the last pain in the neck horse like that i rode wasn't very body aware though or adjustable and so couldn't really get up to that much. BESIDES TAKING OFF, which he did plenty off. and he was fast and big. who wants to go flying off THAT. inky's small."
"he didn't really rear up very much and she was holding him back too much while he was fresh, and then she feel off too easily"
"i have a feeling he's an old horse who's gone sour. dirty."
"that horse will jump anything. just point him at it. point him at this truck and he'll do it. but YOU better be up for it."
2006-05-07
Poor Patchy
You can't blame her for turning around in her standing stall, ha. You wouldn't want to face the wall all day either! She is sooooooooooooo vocal! What a high pitched whinny, and what a sweet girl!
Jill felt badly hassling the new paint mare to pick up her feet, something the mennonites she came from don't do with their horses, she assumed, because of the equine's unfamiliarity with the process. The horse still had the staples on her back right leg from the trailering to the riding stable episode, so she really seemed to hate it when Jill picked up her left hind.
Jill's unfinished apple from the day before kept overnight rather well in the car in her coffee cup, and Patchy appreciated the invention. She also probably ate a carrot for her very first time that day, also in adorable little baby bites. And, she walked so nicely on the lead shank! She was already nearing bombproof and Jill hadn't even had a turn riding her.
*
The other instructor made a big fuss to make it clear that she was the person who familiarized the green pony with the property. In water up to the little beast's belly no less? A dramatic tale Jill overheard as she was returning from a hack. When Jill expressed joy at the challenge of the pony's running trot canter transition confusion, the senior instructor made sure to make the point that the mare's canter transitions are not challenging, and that indeed the pony can easily canter around a 2'9" course, but only with a strong rider.
Jill wanted to continue to try and alleviate her co-worker's assumed insecurity with cooperation and support, because she wanted to be a mature team player. Jill was very loyal to their boss and the business. Jill felt no need to put any one else down in front of students and fellow barn mates or to try and create trouble for anyone. Perhaps she could inspire reciprocal respect?
*
Was it an honest mistake made in the answer to her question? When Jill asked for advice about the unsoundness of the smallest pony on the property, this same instructor said "Carry on, we always use her that way." Jill felt sick later getting a note from the boss that the pony's suspensory ligament was injured pony and that the pony should NOT be used.
You Can't Win "Em All
A.J. was on her second outing on her off the track thoroughbred buddy. They'd entered pre-training at Equus 3-D, and been eliminated by something that wasn't even flagged as an obstacle. They blew the 5 minute time limit with the bay's refusal to cross a puddle on course, with no option around it. An Olympian had had to pass them on course. A.J. was mortified to be in the way. The property owner was yelling at her, but she couldn't get the horse to go.
When his horse splashed on through and past, she tried to use them for a lead, but that failed just like every thing else sh'e d tried to get that &^%$ beast over an unflagged PUDDLE.
A.J. told Jill she could now look back fondly on the Equus 3D Event, even the courtesy stadium round they were allowed to do, for schooling purposes, in those days... She even thought she should find a way to import some photographs of the historical event to her blog, because there were some great-action-terrified-grimaces caught on film. Stoney blew through every single jump on course, and while clearing them by a mile with crazy take off points, was knocking rails flying, leaving strides out and taking off WAY too early, galloping up to the base and stopping dead in front of others (til she kicked on at him to jump from a standstill) and he was otherwise careening around. It was a terrifying round.
A.J. had been surprised when it was her best former mentor who met her at the gate. Not the official gatekeeper, or Jo, her current coach or Deni, owner of the horse and corporate sponsor. It had Peggy. A.J. hadn't even known to that point that Peggy was even, actually AT the show and there she was saying to Jill, who was on the brink of tears on a high strung maniac leaving the ring, and seeming on the brink of some kind of additionally mortifying scene... Peggy calmly said, "That was well ridden."
It was? A.J had gulped, and circling her mount back around, both were listening. "You set him up for every line. You even brought him back to a trot in some of the corners, and you gave him every opportunity to figure it out. And, if you keep riding like THAT, that horse WILL figure it out. And, he certainly demonstrated his scope." Peggy said, "he's got talent too," as she also did the gate keeper's job for him, snapping the clip closed effectively behind the horse and rider. She raised her voice as Stoney and A.J circled again, further out of the way of on deck competitors, to say "Good Job" and then she was gone and Jill was back at the trailer wondering if she could actually try to hold her head up...
*
It was always nerve wracking to compete Stone cross country. He was a spazzy thoroughbred from the track, like many others, but while he was one that was actually fast enough for that world, he was deemed an impossible race horse because he was too unruly for anyone's health in the starting gate. Perhaps he's claustrophobic. Anyway, when A.J. had started eventing him, her starting gate strategy was just to go in late, like after they started the count down, and take time penalities right away. Her coach helped her come up with it, Jo said it was always the fastest horses who ended up with time faults. They felt they had to choose no clear rounds consciously, up front, to avoid the additional safety risk, not to mention risk of elimination that would follow if he were to continue to rear up and bolt out before the official time keeper said go.
So, Jill went in the box when the man said seven. Six he said, and then they, with much static on the walkie talkie, then stopped the count down at five because a horse and rider on course were down at obstacle no. 3. Tessa came running over and said there were broken bones everywhere, and she tried to go on and tell A.J. why, but she couldn't listen. Why would my riding buddy bring me such news? she wondered. Even before the ambulance came speeding by over grassy fields, Stoney was FREAKING out. And I mean, freaking. The officials were freaking out. A.J., inside, was also, freaking out.
It turned out to be a 10 minute delay that day. And they broke the rule, thank god, and let the pair come back out of the starting box til the injured were removed from course... and then, alas, they had to get back in and start it all over again.
When A.J. had walked the course, earlier that day with Tessa, she planned, after jump number three, to head straight through the break in the trees and circle back to obstacle #4, since there was no way in heck for her to make a turn like that with the unstop-able, unslow-able galloping machine formally known as Stonehenge. Underway, and in the air at said obstacle, A.J. saw a girl seated on the ground through that exact break in the trees. She had no idea what action she took to change the plan or what Stone did to avoid killing that kid, the jump judge for the god's sake, but the two of the parted company. A.J. hit the ground hard. "That had been what Tessa was trying to explain to me!" she thought, wind knocked out of her. "This jump judge sitting foolishly in the path was the cause of the previous rider's misfortune also..."
By some miracle, or misfortune, she wasn't sure, but at least against all rules, A.J. was still holding a rein, and thus, still had a hold of Stone. Somehow she was quickly on her feet and he was pulling, and scrambling frightened backwards somewhat, but mostly just shaking like a leaf. It was all Jill could do, straightening up from her knees, with barely any breath in her to say "Stoney, STAND." And you know, that horse stopped quaking that instant. He surprised her, but he had really always responded well to vocal encouragement or reprimand, and it really gave A.J. stregnth that day, to see him step up to the plate like that.
And so, she got back on. She was still shaking, though with the vests she hadn't known in her youth the wind wasn't knocked out of her as she would have expected. But the horse was also nervous and upset and would not stand still as she tried remounting. And it was not easy to reach up, hopping. For crying out loud, with such a big horse, getting on without a mounting block isn't easy, at the best of times. Here there was no mounting block, and this was NOT the best of times...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)