Royal Memories:

Jill told her new friend and trailering buddy the story of how she got started in riding. What with the gift lessons from a local horse owner...

"I still remember my teacher's name" she said, "it was "Dudley Oliver." adding "Windy Haugh Farm" as the long forgotten sign from the drive in appeared in her mind's eye.

He was an eventer right? The driver asked.

Jill had never realized this before. "I remember jumping a picnic table on a pony in my youth. And, it was thru the trees. So ya, I guess he was."
*
“Why don't you do a strawberry roan?” Jill said to her student that had shown up at the arts and crafts booth to do a face mask, asking what colour she should make it.



Jill was in the barn looking for interview subjects when she joined a crowd admiring a giant team of 6 big black percherons getting hitched to their carriage. The sound of their feet on the concrete was amazing and they were simply magnificent to look at. There was a nice buzz in the crowd. Suddenly, one of the horses seemed a little uptight, and Jill felt that the people should disperse... It was so obvious, she was annoyed with the fellow spectators for being oblivious to the horse's body language.  She wasn't in authority to say so, and just walked away thinking, at least I can try and give that horse his own space for a minute. 


Back at the booth moments later, spectators banished from the barn were reporting a horrible accident downstairs where one of the big black carriage horses reared up and flipped over and damaged the cart and scattered the other horses...
*

Jill? The stranger asked, making eye contact in the washroom mirror. I thought that was you" meaning Jill was hard to place with a cowboy hat on. Jill was embarrassed, she had been talking to hundreds of people the last few days and couldn't quite place the girl. You look familiar, but remind me who you are again." she admitted.
" You’re my riding teacher!" exclaimed the girl, suddenly recognizable without her riding helmet on.

Lucky Charms

Jill loved having the two sets of horseshoes around home. She rearranged them as decor several times and got a real kick out of the difference in their sizes... She longed to used them as a border for the garden or in some other art project! When the decision was made to put the little guy's back on, she brought them back up to the stable -- all of them, just in case she was wrong about which was the actual set of 4 that were his. To her dismay, the owner hauled them away to throw out, and she said she didn't believe in reusing shoes. What a waste. Yet another thing in their disintigrating relationship to lament...
*
She didn't put the flymask back on. It troubled her the way it was hanging over his mouth and nostrils the last time he'd been wearing it. The velcro had held, so it hadn't fallen off, but could he eat or drink properly? She decided to take comfort in its dampness.

The little bay's water buckets were both empty, so she took the opportunity to scrub them out before filling them up. The old bay, however, had plenty in his tub. She scrubbed their automatic water bowls too.

She pulled the old guy's mane thinner and shorter, hoping it would feel good in the heat. It was also relatively easy to yank out. It looked like the fuzzy's were helping his rubbed by new leather face, and the halter was by now much softer...

*
For two days in a row, with the little guy Jill just did a little mini bareback ride. This time she did a few turns on the forehand off the left leg and one (terrible) turn on the haunches to the right, in the bitless bridle. They went up and down the steep hill in the old guy's paddock and practiced long, still halts. Would he ever do one suitable for a dressage salute?

Everyone was saying that the tooth was more likely an injury than a cavity, since horses don't really eat sweets. She wasn't so sure, because she had seen a container of mints around at his former trainer's, at some point, but then again she'd also seen the same trainer severely injure a horse by yanking on the bit... the good news was that the salt water rinse seemed to be helping.  First of all, he didn't mind it and second of all, there was in fact far less gunk sticking in it, now that she had this method happening.  It was possible to reverse cavities, and she was glad it seemed to be working.

With and Without Faith

"You really captured his eye." Roomie had written her friend who mailed her photos of a farm visit. She thought he was clearly afraid of horses.  He made them jumpy, just with his own heart rate, from 60 feet away!  She made Jill laugh.  Meanwhile, Tronas had posted a close up that intrigued them...


Now that Jill was spending time with a new breed, she wondered if her old pony friend Frisco (who had accidentally ditched so many students with frisky athleticism, spooking at things in winter) was part New Forest. It was something about the way the whites of their eyes would show, at the slightest cause of concern. Even speculation! You could always feel them looking sideways, straight at you. Such very expressive eyes, and faces. She looked forward to reading the history of the breed in the book she had out of the library.

*
Faye in particular, was one of those curious, determined ponies that was always challenging paddock fencing (sometimes even getting caught up in it), and who would also usually escape from wearing her halter, if it was left on her for too long. So, new students would have to remember her as the black one in the herd with the pulled mane and no halter. Her mom was the other dark one, but fatter and with the long flowing locks.

What a fast canterer! And Jill learned she needed a lesson in telling the foot fall pattern during strike off, because this pony tended to pick up the wrong lead going left. If she could time the aid more precisely, she felt they would get it right.  The way it was, it took Jill a minute to figure out if the lead was right or not, accidentally reinforcing the error.  And then it was taking like til third try to strike correctly during the first canter on the left rein, and til second try the next canter left. Not good.  And, so fast too. 


Jill was trying to ride the rhythm not the speed with this one too. She needed lots of the same kind of work as the bay.  Where were the new little horse trainers in training going to come from?

Jill really appreciated their manners. Faye knew she was supposed to stand square when you halted her and would fix up, if you thought about it. And, it was like that in the barn too. They stood still in the centre of the aisle. For as long as you needed to dilly dally around in the barn around them.

None of them liked their girth being done up. Some day, Jill would investigate saddle fitting.
*

Roomie said "I like his glasses and I like his clothes and I like his skin and his voice and his confidence and his breathing and his rhythm in life. But for some reason, I never let "my" cowboy hold the pony that day while I was tacking up by the car."

Jill wondered out loud if it would ever be possible to live on a horse farm with high speed internet.

Branches and Flags

"I almost fell off today!" Jill shouted to the potential riding buddy, who was walking away up the driveway. she'd said good morning and asked for the first time "how are you?"

Jill had presented her little riding buddy with the x "spread," a cross rail made with two sets of standards. Which that day also had the empty white brush box (previous barrier to the sand hole) as a groundline. This brush box was pretty much blocking the view of the scary middle of the spread branch that was on the ground too, until you were in the air.

He was strong to begin with, and, very grumpy before breakfast!  Jill was glad he was boarded at a private place where there was no academy rules or insurance regulation about jumping unsupervised.

On the approach, he'd felt like he wanted to refuse but she had kept him straight and square and really pushed with her leg. She even clucked, to mr. speedy. Is that when he took off? He F L E W thru the air, way earlier than neccessary, clearing an imaginary obstacle 5x the size of the real one. She had gone with him, stayed with his motion, surprising as it was.  But then, they were in the air forever.   Jill thought "boy, has ever got the scope!"


And, in slow motion, she could feel her lower leg slide back, and realized that, clearly, her heels were not down.  As they started their descent, she lost the right stirrup and was leaning left severely. She did her best to straighten, getting back into balance, and to relax the right leg long and down.  She needed to establish a seat, meanwhile her pony scrambled right on landing. And, he was taking off! 
Some help in times of trouble he turns out to be! she thought as she spoke whoa firmly, repeatedly. 
She always taught her students that sometimes a verbal command can help when your body isn't quite communicating the message you mean.  She, simply kept trying to gain her balance in the slow motion adjustments she was making. A stride later she really got scared as they came around to the sand hole area and she suddenly found the strength to pull him left into the fence. And, he thankfully stopped. She sat up and regained the stirrup and they walked on, a little freaked, but able to laugh about it...

After more flat work, and when their breathing and rapport was back to normal, she presented the x spread again. This time taking her jumping position way early and grabbing a little mane as she set him up from the corner. It was probably a bit cowardly, but at least she was representing.  He jumped it like an honest-enough school horse, at more normal size and speed. but was fast and strong after. oh boy... Jill wondered what would happen when they started riding courses?
*
At the big show, when she was spectating, later that day, the editor of the USEF's magazine offered her an American flag to wave.  She'd recognized the fellow spectator and, on instant instinct, she shook her head.  Could she find a way to represent?

Up In Smoke?

Jill swooned at the idea of sponsored transportation.  Could it be possible to actually garner use of a hybrid vehicle with a logo on it?  As she aspired, she thought that it was stoopid to waste money on cigarettes, which are SOOOOO bad for one's health, and she was glad she had left all that behind her. She was also thinking about other things she'd left behind, and kept laughing out loud at a mentor's advice to NOT to take the groom job down south for the season... he'd kept harping on. “Do you know why they abolished SLAVERY in the south? So they could bring in GROOMS.”

She'd been flattered when her new boss to be had said “Normally we don’t have someone of your intellect applying for the job.” And, she'd gladly accepted the position, partially because the boss had promised her time to write every day.


Partially as well because she was glad of the getaway.  Dustin had walked out of the club, arm in arm with the beautiful blond, right in front of Jill while she was out front smoking.  She should give up on him as well. Would the cigarettes or the crush be harder to shake? It was heartbreaking that his handsomeness was clearly on a date with a buxom blonde that was totally into him, while she was on a date with a plain, geeky, boring guy who followed her everywhere and wanted to hear her life story while she didn't want to tell it.


She made her new co-workers laugh with an imitation of the Clyde cross escape artist.  "You can be in another part of the facility and hear a tiny weird noise like a horse shoe on cement. And, as you wonder what that sound was, you'll hear it again and as you step into the aisle you'll find a huge, giant bay actually tip-toeing down the barn hall to the feed bin. He's hilarious.  The rest of his life he stomps around with his big pie plate feet making the lovely draft horse clatter, but when he's working on a getaway, he actually tip-toes!"

A Real Partner

Jill took her pony friend for a ride in the sun that morning. All the way down to 196, to the sheep stop sign, back past their driveway and then across and all the way back to the sheep stop.

It was a short ride, 30 min, walk only.  Jill was pleased at his behaviour near the big, fluffy animals that used to so terrify him, from soooo far away, ha.

He neighed three times at the neighbour horses. Jill thought he seemed kinda needy, really. And, she was seeing the return to individual turn out as a possible blessing in some regard at least.

When they got back for their dressage school, their old bay horse buddy was turned out in the riding ring. She didn't know where she should move him if she wanted to ride in there, and, clearly she was looking for some kind of excuse to take it easy, so she just turned out the pony in his paddock and called it a day. She thought it was okay to do nothing sometimes, and that the walk only session would be good for him, mr. speedy. And, besides, she was up so often nowadays!  It was great to be riding only a 10 km trip from home!

SHE needed to be replacing the 3 hours of labour every morning however. Suddenly gone were the days when she was earning $60 for a couple hours of chores - instead of paying for a membership to some club or other.  Jill thought she better get going on that bike!

It made her smile the way the cowboy had signed xo a couple times now. Friends did that right? She would not going getting romantic inclings towards him now that she knew better, ha.  She kinda felt like he'd climbed a mountain for her, when he collected the transcripts for her under grad, in support of the new university application. and, dropped them in her mailbox. Was he the kind of guy who would swim a river TO BE WITH her? She certainly enjoyed his company, but she wasn't holding her breath.

Rain and Shine

It was raining, so Jill rode in the arena. Her teacher'd been telling her (as well as the comments on every dressage test) that he needed to stay consistently on the bit. Every time Jill asked for a change, some kind of turn or transition he would bring his head up and hollow out...

So, she rode with draw lines and spurs and it really seemed to help. But, such hard work for him! She only rode for abot 40 minutes, til he was swinging and keeping it together through all the changes, without any tension on the draw lines.

What was still not working were the canter trot transitions, so she practiced a few more transitions canter walk and made a mental note to keep practicing those to improve the other...

*
The next morning, she got up early and went on a nice hack - to celebrate the nice sumer day, even though she wanted to be careful about his footsies. They stayed off the trails becuase Jill had heard they'd put hard gravel down recently - so they just went out on the roads. He was mellow and responsive. They cantered along every grassy area she could find. When they got back to the barn, the turn out paddock for the mares and foals was empty, so they cantered around that both directions a couple times for the hill practice. She was asking him to move out and come back and he was a really good boy!
*
ALL of Roomie's teachers pointed out how she had a tendency to let her hands get high while jumping, instead of keeping them low and moving them up the neck. It was something she would always need to practice...

In the most recent lesson they tried a neat trick of tying the reins in a knot to help keep them short and in front of her body. The horse got stronger and stronger (and flatter and flatter) the more they jumped, so they ended with a bounce exercise to keep him smart...


She said she voting NDP, and that she believed the biggest challenge facing society in the next 50 years was mental illness, specifically addiction, which she'd heard and admired the local candidate's views on.