At some point you have to take up riding as a sport, instead of passtime and one of Jill's students hadn't been showing the maturity or concentration while on horse back to crossover. It was frustrating.
They went out that day for a walk in the snow before heading into the arena, because the young blond was ready early and the class before had gone in late. Jill had the pony on a shank instead of just holding the bridle and was explaining to the child how riding outside required her to be even more aware than when in the arena. She was stressing the importance of sitting up and deep in the saddle with your anchors on and feeling what your horse was doing - for the spook factor et al. But the student was bored and not listening and asking when the "real" lesson would start.
Then, the pony spooked and knocked Jill over and dumped the kid. After that, she showed real concentration. Even later in the arena when someone didn't call door and spooked the pony by coming in unannounced! The kid rode the horse like the live animal it was instead of making comparisons to her horse video game etc.
Telling another more advanced same age student about it later, the child laughed at her saying "you fell off and you weren't even riding!?"
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The farm owner quoted the inn keeper's act and said that the horse(s) could be sold at auction for the amount owed.
When the senior vet called Jill directly, she summed up the horses' condition as a side note saying "they need more food." Jill was not so sure she would have gone so far out of her way to follow the detailed recommendation of the more junior vet... changing every item they ate, instantly. Purchasing it at great, unexpected expense in bulk no less. She would have made gradual changes and made sure they like it and assured herself she was prepared and able to follow it through for a long time. The old guy's teeth still hadn't been done, which was the problem that prompted Jill to request the vet come in in the first place!!! If it hurt to eat, why try feeding him m o r e ???
In Jill's observation, a lack of consistency of care and treatment was one of the challenges the equines had already experienced... especially the old guy. She didn't mean to be skeptical, but she was. And, in making realistic decisions, Jill suspected it was better to go too long between farrier attention (due to financial constraints or worse, bad debts) if the beast was barefoot, and could break over and wear down the foot naturally. But she wasn't in charge of whether they were shod or not, or if the service provider was paid promptly and tried to find the upsides.
Since they weren't allowed to be turned out together, Jill was not as pleased with the place they were now boarded. Yes it had been a place she found, but she thought she would be able to direct their routine there. Instead, she worried about them constantly. First of all, she didn't have the time to police TWO paddocks for safety all the time - and she'd addressed boards down with giant nails and old rusty shoes with sharp nail sticking out lying around and other such concerns in the old guy's field a few times now. And the little guy just stood at the gate all the time. He had been so happy for the months before when he'd had a fellow herd animal to herd. The owner wasn't aware of that and now he had no buddy to stand head to tail with and swish flies away, or snuggle into in all the bad weather they'd been having. Maybe she could make him a run in, since she couldn't find him a friend. Individual turn out for 12 hours a day was a lot different than for the 2 hours a day he got once upon a time and Jill wondered if there was anything she could do to help him out. She couldn't afford a rain sheet and she couldn't afford to go out there every time it rained to put it on him!
She had bought the venice turpentine for their feet even though her own rent wasn't paid. And she'd borrowed a saddle pad in order to clean the other one which came out looking the same as it went in. ACK. She didn't want to give the boss the info/idea on the potential part boarder til she got the money she was owed. She hoped that would be soon.
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if anyone can talk the boss into it, its Jill. That's what a mother said to her pony birthday party wishing daughter.
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