Ride Reports

Jill had taken the saddle pad off because it was clearly in need of cleaning. The owner took a fit when she saw it and said that it would cause saddle sores! Jill agreed that it was quite dirty especially after the day's very sweaty ride and wished the owner would make good on her offer to provide an alternate one, so she could take it to the laundromat and wash it. The poor rider just didn't have the funds to buy a spare, and getting it home on exactly laundry day hadn't been working out all that well...

The thrush treatment that they had discussed had been dumped down the drain and left for Jill to pay for. The owner said afterwards that she didn't know what it was but that was an outright lie. It still bothered Jill how the woman had started rearranging things in the mini kit she had made for herself to carry to the other side - Jill was the one who was there every day, why couldn't she carry only the items she preferred to use? The owner accused "there's no thrush buster in there" when indeed there was, but she added another. Sigh, it was all getting very tiresome. Obviously the woman did not want expert input or to gather facts before making decisions and obviously she wasn't happy with their arrangement -- it didn't seem like there was any pleasing her, and Jill was starting to see why barn owners would find it easier to lie to their clients than deal honestly with them.

On the upside, she jumped the first course she could remember since her rider level test. And, it was bitless and included the Grand Prix horse spookable pink planks with no fuss. Jill was grateful for the recently rained on grass footing that made it soft enough to do so, and for the other riders in the ring - and especially for her encouraging jump crew. Whoo hoo!

The words "you could do whatever you want with her" kept ringing in her ears. And, she was also taking comfort in the words "you should call my mom. she'll have something for you."

Meanwhile, her mom was encouraging her to exploit familial relations to find a "real" job. Was she picturing her daughter in some panty hose and suit type position that she wanted for her? Clearly Jill would never be the woman her parents wanted her to be. At her age, she was sick of even trying, because they never approved anyway and because she wanted very different things for herself. It was hard to keep in touch with them during this tough time, because she was always being reminded how low and desperate she was -- as if she wasn't worrying about it enough on her own, she'd get a reminder every time she called. Perhaps they were both just picturing her commuting long distances to be employed in the meat packing assembly line and had more in common than Jill thought... she was frightened and depressed that's for sure.

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Jill went up late in the day and they went on a quick but nice hack. It took about an hour to do the whole concession from Kennedy to Hwy 10 at 375m/min, including both bridges and a bike to pass! He'd spooked so bad, and so suddenly, she felt like she got whiplash, no joke.

He was getting fuzzy already and she asked the owner for his blanket when the replacement halter came along.

The next day was mittens wearing weather already! The lesson was cancelled and she worked on flat work on her own and was delighted to reach the swinging trot...
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it felt like teaching a kid to ride popcorn instead of a pony! it was the snow banks in the arena and the wind outside if not just the cold itself making him so frisky. and the heaters were broken so gramma and gramma had to watch all the hair raising terror in the complete cold!

Jill said she did not have warm enough boots for that kind of crap.

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she reported that he was good for dressage and good for stadium (although he did LEAP an entire jump and the nine foot ground pole in one clean sweep, giving the clinic instructor a heart attack). He was especially solid cross country, settled right into a rhythm and leapt of the bank into water. SOOOOOOOOOO much better than last year!
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too bad she'd gone to the trouble of getting a recording device for the vet appt, when it ended up being rescheduled. alas.