Hope Rears Again

Jill couldn't be more glad that she'd stopped by to introduce herself as an instructor. The very next day a text had come through "So, I haven't gone hacking. Interested in joining me?"
*
Until she had gone on the dude ranch cattle round up for journalism purposes, she hadn't really known that she was sort of uptight around cows.  Especially THAT many.


They also talked about her last ride a couple years ago, which started with an irate phone call, lol
"The almost 4 year old is kicking so hard in the barn it feels like the roof is going to cave in!  COULD YOU PLEASE COME AND GIVE HIM SOME EXERCISE."

Jill was not sure why the invitation would sound so frustrated with her, but she was pleased to pop by...  there was so much work that needed to be done before they'd be on the huntfield, ha.

Geek Love?

"Tronas is recently married. Just this year!" Jill had finally popped the question. "His wife is a horseperson also," the personal assistant who would know informed her, while Jill faked enthusiasm for the details.

She'd been motivated to follow up and find out, finally, because the guy she had been seeing was clearly on to new adventures. Right on facebook he'd posted "hubba hubba, foxes are nice, and should come by more often!" about a guest to a party he'd not invited her to. True, the day before Jill had rejected his invitation to get together, mostly because he'd said he was craving "some company" instead of expressing an interest in her company, although she hadn't told him all that... He'd also said he usually waited a bit longer to reveal his dirty secrets, including a passion for Dungeons and Dragons, ha. His ability to wait, actually, had been part of her attraction to him. She never felt rushed or forced or smothered, but then again...

"Jill! Jill! We could put the rocks in the cart of the little neighbour pony to carry away!" The child she'd just met was shouting across the farm they were helping to harvest crops at, to Jill, because she'd had a horsey notion and knew who to share such enthusiasm with...

Jill told the child about her weekend at a horse farm, and about how it was true that a pony she adored
1) took a half hour to catch
2) actually KICKED her while she was picking out her back hooves
3) bucked TWICE as soon as they'd started the ride.

Jill laughed in the telling of it and went on to stay that they then handgalloped most of the hot day away in the very dusty sandring, ending with just one trot set around the easy paddock...

Sweet Jim Swoons

In the news there were reports of cops shooting innocent civilians, after working undercover in the bar consuming alcohol.  She was reminded of mr. mounted cop's haunting announcement when they'd recently worked the trade show together, "you only get two."  She couldn't articulate what bothered her about it exactly but it was good to be away from it all.


The moon was casting shadows as Jill and Jim walked around the jumper ring her first night on the property.

The next morning, as they were bringing horses in, she saw the big full moon, still glowing in the sky. When she commented on its beauty to Jim's brother in the barn, he said he hadn't seen it "because it was gone," and she felt a tiny bit sad somehow.

A moment later, as Jim came in leading another chesnut horse she asked him if he had caught a glimpse of it. He returned her enthusiasm saying "It's still out there. It's huge! It's beautiful!"

*
She noticed how he had to shovel up after her in the manure spreader, though he would never criticize her or suggest she do anything different, so she apologized for being a crappy dumper.  She could have sworn that he started taking forever in the stalls to make her, the newcomer, look less slow. And, she was pretty sure the way he went around with his helmet still on once in a while was for the sake of her reputation as well, ha.  She'd been lunging the really, really naughty chesnut very carefully...
*

"They were both good!" said Jim's brother, to his partner, who's horse Jill had been out on. Implying for some reason that they had ridden together, when in fact they had only spent the last 5 minutes together. 


Before that she'd been struggling with her mount's insecurity about being alone, something even the boss had trouble with... but also something she had been making great progress on with the great big dapple/flea bitten baby grey. Her ride had been very challenging, the horse was spooking and trying to run off with her, and winnying and carrying on, and was, in short, definitely NOT "good."  But she didn't bother to correct the misrepresentation. The way she figured it, the future horse's behaviour would eventually speak to the truth about her uncredited/invisible abilities...
*
Jill liked how the boss announced to them, as coworkers “I have to leave now because I have a date with your brother.” The boss had joked earlier that day that the way Jim was cantering around on Spanky was reminiscent of the way the stars from the old show Planet of the Apes rode their horses. Jill laughed out loud at Jim’s beginner-ness during that lunch, at the big house, because it was so true.   And she could see it was sort of hard on him to be the rookie and least skilled athlete on the farm.


But, the truth was, that Jill was secretly jealous that Jim had been so long at the sport before her, especially out on hacks with many other girls in the past, while when they went out together she was hacking out with a boy, on his own borrowed horse, for the very first time in her whole life. In a way, she felt like a beginner… 

You said that's a sugar gum tree right?" Jill asked as they hacked past.  "Yup," Jim replied adding "it's hard to split. The wood twists."

Jim was so handsome. And funny.  Hardworking and so smilingly sweet, all the time!

She loved it when he brought her flowers. And she flirted with him too. “I like, feel my back show or something, when I bend down sometimes, and instead of feeling shy about it, and covering up, I, like hope you notice, you know?” she surprised herself with the facts, and by stating them out loud. “Like when you’re putting on Buddy’s boots ? Or picking out a hoof?” he confirmed.

They were sitting on the couch in the apartment and he told her how a horse had come through the bunkhouse wall once. The poor creature had freaked out during some kind of vet treatment. You could see where it was patched up with caulking. As close as her quarters were to the stalls, Jill found it nice to hear the horses rattling their buckets for the grain in the morning, and thought the occasional winny or snort, heard through the walls was a very special pleasure. The very first morning after sleeping there, Jill had looked out her window to see a handsome grey looking back at her with a sunny smile, through his stall window, and to this day, making eye contact with her equine friends so conveniently brought her joy.
*
Jill was sure Jim's brother wanted the unruly and mean horse trotted right then, to check his ongoing and unchanged lameness, right before his breakfast, out of spite and torture. She didn't know which was the bigger pain, the horse or the supervisor, ha.

Great Ideas and Tough Choices

Jill introduced herself to her film school class mates as an accidental cat wrangler to be funny, but it was true she insisted on training the pets, cats, even though she didn't even "like" them.  She had adopted these two, yes, when she worked at the vet's where they came in as rescues, but she refused to be a cat lady.  In fact, she didn't want to acknowledge herself as anything but a horseperson ha. Meanwhile, the kitties would RUN to her when she called them, they'd rush down the street to her like dogs.  It was hilarious.  And, they answered any time she spoke their name, as if on command.  But she didn't like cats, oh no...



She still secretly wanted to be in a band, but she just couldn't get it up to start asking people, ha.  Folks were (finally) asking her, to jam and write and perform together, but she thought if she could just get her moxy on, and push her own priorities, it would all become much more organized and productive, and actually happen, to everyone's enjoyment!  But then again, she could be pushy.  And, yet here she was unable to push? She wanted to ask Roomie's advice.

At the dinner table, however, all talk revolved around the fact that Roomie was upset because there was no such thing as medically assisted death.   A human wasn't allowed to decide their own fate.  We weren't allowed to opt out of life!  And how if you mention a thought about suicide to a doctor, no matter your health condition, they have to go to extraordinary legnths to keep you alive, by law.  Roomie thought it was twisted, and she didn't even want to get started on how some folks can take their horse overnight to the Horse Hospital for colics, even if they are old and "worthless" beyond their sentimental status with rick owners and other working horses could just die from the same ailment because of the prohibitive medical costs and none of it is fair at all or makes any sense, and she didn't even know what the solutions could be... Jill's opinion about the earth being overpopulated always left her preaching about thinning the herd.
*
One of Jill's new bosses had a great idea for her clients/students:  to keep a horse journal.   Jill heard her tell a new comer, "I will never ask to see it, it is for your eyes only, but I encourage you to keep a diary about your experiences with the horses."

So, when a small student asked after the lesson "I should be writing in the new diary I got right?" Jill knew what she meant and said yes. She thought it was hilarious that she had her lined spiral notebook out in the barn, and was standing in front of her yet-to-be-put-away pony trying to make some marks.

"So, in your journal you are gonna write 'note to self. keep feet out of way of naughty pony feet' right?" Jill asked her, since she had finally finished crying about getting stepped on.

At the other side of barn, Jill's buddy wanted an assessment of the other instructor as a rider, "but, does she have TALENT?" the other rider wanted to know.
Jill couldn't afford an internet service or a new cell phone to replaced the smashed one and she didn't know how she would pay her rent or student loans.  So she didn't even try on any of the boots she really, really was jonesing for...

Good Grooming

"That looks to me like the energy of the kind of dog that could run a horse to death." Jill was glad that the donkey went right after it, the second it ever stepped into the horse paddock.  The Great Dane couldn't get in there so easily, and seemed timid - which often caused aggression - and made Jill nervous.  It followed very close behind her and twice she felt afraid as it pressed its face to her backside, but she joked to the owner "Lookit how slobbery she is, I don't want a kiss or a bite from THAT dog, ha."  In casual conversation that ensued, the owner admitted the same dog had actually just bit someone 3 days before.

Despite the doggy downside, Jill loved grooming the horses in the sunny paddock.  She'd washed all the brushes first with soap and water. The Donkey really loved it too, and followed her into the shade when she'd suggested it.  She had rain rot on her lower legs and they were all scabby under the hair and really needed the curry comb and dandy brush.  Jill was disappointed her friend hadn't already been grooming this condition away for the sweet creature.

When she crawled under the fence to get next door she was disappointed in the Natural Horsemanship facility.  There were way too many horses on way too little land.  They were eating round bales in summer time and standing on mountains of manure instead of grassy paddocks.  There was only 8 acres of land and probably 58 horses.  And, the bunnies weren't any better off either... poor things.  Jill was glad she hadn't applied for the Certified Trail Guide position afterall.  She asked about lessons and took a flyer feigning interest and went back the way she came...

Could the illness of the horse she'd visited come from dirty well water compromised from conditions next door?

She still had to drop off her resume to the place that did birthday parties!  What was holding her back?

Can We Talk?

"Then again a family member's MARRIAGE choice could effect you in the very same way..."  Roomie was ruminating to her sis about the impact of family member's healthy lifestyle choices vs. conduct you couldn't take as much comfort in.

They overheard Jill on the phone with a friend,  She was being teased about the way she dressed and how she'd never find a date that way...  "But, how can you expect me to get horses out of my head, when thy're in my heart?"  She refused to wear any footwear anywhere, besides boots, because she wanted to always be ready to be a-top or even beside an equine...

Jill had joked at the barn that day that if her guests thought she was tough, then they oughta stay away from her teacher, ha!

"My job, is to make my boss look good.  WHATever my career path or WHERE."  Roomie was emphatic about her transferable skills, despite the fact that some bosses make this job, much harder than others."

Jill's new boss had walked the standardbred farm more than once, earlier that day, looking for her bay runaway that was on-site.  She didn't recognize her own homebred at first, with a halter on.

On the other hand, when Jill stepped off the truck and into the barn, she knew instantly exactly which stall to visit, because of Annabelle's stomp at the stall door, lol.

It was obvious everyone, that one potential student at least was in love with her too. She'd blathered excitedly that last year she'd asked Santa for guitar lessons and but that this year she was gonna ask for riding lessons...

It was mid-summer but Jill shared the kid's enthusasm.  "Listen, with any luck around here, you can bring your guitar TO your riding lesson."  Jill was not kiddin'.   "Pony trainer training and Pony Musicals coming your way!"