Friday the 15th

Jill was glad she remembered Casey’s bridle, for the trailer load, since the boss's partner said they only needed two. This was after the boss had a lesson to teach to someone who’s name wasn't remembered and who’s name wasn’t written in the book. Jill smoothed that one over while cleaning tack, including a breastplate left behind by last year’s borders, moldy and forgotten in a stall.

While they were all away at a show, Jill lunged Buddy and he was quite contrary in terms of her vocal commands and therefore there was much canter, especially on the right rein. Indeed there was much canter on the wrong lead. However, his work on the left rein was especially good in terms of the way he carried himself and was bending.

Portia had a tiny lump on her neck after the special rhino shot and was not really eating well, so Jill thought it would be wise NOT to ride her. Furthermore, her owner had made a big deal about her “streak” and how Jill should not trot alone blah blah blah. Meanwhile, at the boss's direction, Jill had also already hacked her alone right across the edge of the Quarter Horse farm, past the impossible stallion pen.

Jill was excited to chat briefly with the celebrity boarder's fiancee, who has had some photos published in magazines. Her camera is the kind that takes several action shots in a row if you simply hold down the shutter. Jill's was the kind that you have to snap BEFORE there is any action. She'd practiced after the famous show jumper Mario Delauriers showed up with his BMW and beautiful RV.

Her accidental boyfriend called and said that one of the dogs barfed in the truck on the way to the show. He made Jill laugh about the lecture she got from the boss about how important loading straight on the lorry and all trailers is, even though she wasn’t a person loading a horse in and was the only person who had stood the waiting horse in a straight line for the ramp.

Jill had to learn that there is no winning with these people and that she should not take it personally. "I guess it’s the show nerves." he said. Jill said she could take it "I am here to learn about who is who and all about the industry and to WRITE about it and get paid. While also getting paid to be here, ha. Unless I decide to just run away" she added.

He said he wanted to run away with her if she went. He meant to be romantic but she didn't feel that way about him. She considered his call more of a nuisance than a blessing. What to do what to do what to do...

Alone Together

It was very lucky that an owner was home on the property as Jill set out for her ride. It was such a lovely perfect fall day that she'd decided to go round the hayfield. But the first pony trying to be caught for a ride was a fast one... she'd been a little aware of the safety risk of hacking alone, when no one even knew you were headed out.

The beautiful black pony pranced all the way around.

Only one whinny, but not a step of walk. Is this passage? Jill wondered. To get the mare's attention she tried bending left and right, leg yeilding left and right, and shoulder in, shoulder out and then even half pass left and right. All the way around the huge field. The mare was responsive and athletic in her lateral movements. But she would not waaaaa-alk.

And, there were also plenty of spooky-start/stops, ha.

She came back to barn yard and walked the mare through a few puddles and around all the outbuildings as she finally came to a proper four beated 1-2-3-4 walk rhythm. The she took the black beauty, with her flowing mane and tail around the field once more. The walk was sooooo fast, it took half the time of the accidental trot round.

Mutual Recogniton Party

"I remember you from the olden days," Jill said to the heavy-set man around the heavy horses at the Fall Fair. "When you used to trailer Stone and me around to the horse shows in your stock trailer."

She'd gone to the Fall Fair with her bachelor friends and had no idea who she would run into.  His honrse-handler stern to friendly face, softened in recognition of her, amid the parked horse trailers on the final day of fall fair.

"That was the olden days" he chuckled, shifting his additional weight with a clearly bad now hip.

 "I was just telling some folks the other day the story of "Jill and The Thoroughbred," he said, ha, to her delight.  "Some standardbred folks was suggesting we needed a ramp for them to get their horses to follow them on the step up of the very same rig that big, spooky bay horse would follow you up in a heartbeat, back when you were eventing him and we'd trailer you."

Then he sorta turned to flashthe logo of his Ontario Sire Stakes jacket.  He was a trainer and owner now, but with some interesting philosophies about horse welfare, and horse sports in general.  She thought it was cool.

Jill was filling him in on her radio show.  "So you know your horses," he said, when she admitted her new crush out loud, on the young Suffolk Punch from the organic farm straw building teamster she'd just interviewed, ha.
*
She had noticed him once in between times.  And so, she just started telling him how she'd admired a particular team and teamster once, Her first time at the fall fair in fact.  Because his horses were so incredibly unique in the proceedings in the way they'd waited for his verbal command after he'd hitched the weight to them himself, and then in a seperate moment TOLD them to pull. And only after being impressed by that, Jill recognized him and had announced to her friends "Hey, I know that guy?"

"You recognized that? You saw that?" he was pleased, hearing her recollections. "Then you saw me compete. When I did so, I won everything, ha. All the time. They'll tell that ya that, here, if you ask around. But I was doing it safer then than they do now and I doing right by the horses the whole time too. None of these guys could beat my team, then, and they couldn't now.  And they still want to go."

Jill knew what he meant about the power of a horse that w a n t s   to please you!

How Many Mothers

let you ask their 3 yr old if she wants to see the sexy body of the fella you're having them meet for the very first time?

Jill introduced her young friend to her big ole horse friend with this line, before taking off his winter blanket. The child wanted to be picked up so she could reach his big bay belly and she looked sooooo cute stroking his underside with the brush.

*
Jill was concerned about the sand the horses were injesting being turned out so often in the riding rings. She also could see that they had no respect for the fence, since it hadn't been built with turn outs in mind and had no electricity running through it.

She'd worked for folks like this before. They weren't involved in the horse world anymore... it was more work than they could have imagined, exacerbated by their inexperience.

Same Old Competiton

Jill could see that the other instructor was clearly out to make her look bad, and had also been in cahoots with the new instructor to brainwash her before even meeting Jill.

(The one who had taught lessons already but had not yet signed a waiver, ha).

Was Jill the only one who noticed when she admitted "it might have been me who put the pelham in wrong" and insuated that Jill had been the one insisting on the even harsher bit... The owner of the place didn't know harsh from not and was loyal to the employee she'd hired first.

The other instructor had not completed paperwork, and one of the others had a missing first page, but they were both commended by said boss, Jill's shoddy paperwork left unspoken.


Things were not looking good for her future there.

Which was relief in a way.

She felt that humans made all the decisions around horses and felt that any place that was going to blame "horse error" and "breed inbreeding" for the unfortunate death of new herd member, instead of learning from their own accountability, was a place she didn't want to watch choose and develop other beasts anyway...

All Jill could do was offering the most safe, constructive lessons she could, while adhering to sound business practices, and doing her best to honour the recommendations of the provincial and national governing sport offices (despite their flaws).


Jill said she noticed the gaited newcomers where not meshing well with the pony herd and would not have moved them in 9 days as was done, she was ignored.

When Jill suggested that they should have at least filled out an incident report in order to learn from the occurence, she was told that incident reports only had to do with human injury.

She did not fit with the facilty, despite its advertised but misguided interest in horse welfare.

She was interested to see how things would unfold.

A talented horse would have cleared the fence but the Tennessee Walking Horses were not that atheletic, and Jill could admit that they did indeed seem daft. And, the owners were clearly Very Inexperienced horse folk as well... Who else would have found the facility owners more knowledgable? yikes.