The (Evil) Black Barrels

Jill did not expect the objection the bay pony expressed about the black barrel jump she'd proposed as a simple reward at the end of the lesson. E-gads.

One the scariest things I have ever had to do, Jill counseled/comforted the student, is to teach a fraidy-cat horse how to jump a ditch. First of all, I always wanted to explain to him, you are allowed to run through a ditch. If you want to put your feet right down in it, go ahead! But what this horse used to do, you see, was stand there quivering and trembling at the edge of it, while I let him stretch his neck and pushed with my seat looking ahead and pushed even kicked and whipped and clucked and sat up and all to encourage him, was randomly shoot out from underneath me, with no warning, either to the extreme left, or extreme right, or sometimes straight over straight ahead but 3 feet in the air. To clear the little shadow!

She wanted the rider to go for it! The rider could get the bay over once in a while, if she took out one barrel, but then if they tried to repeat it, the mare would just tank p a s t it, miles away, running out. It infuriated Jill.

At first she thought the student's dread and nerves were showing through the pony's behaviour. But, when she finally got on herself to address the matter once and for all she had to apologize to the rider. The pony was way freaked out and not listening to the aids at all. She said so, "This is a learning experience for me too."

She made the approach more patient, less aggressive with the mare. The moved one of the barrels out again, for the first time over. And she also had the kid put the black matt down as a conversation starter with the pony. Snd then they did get the mare over three times in a row with both scary barrels underneath and without a refusal, but it took a long time and Jill was very late for her students at the other barn.

But at least they all enjoyed the story!
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When the white stallion reared up on his hind end and actually pawed the air with a front leg, the student whispered "that's s e x y." and jill agreed ha.
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the fat, flea bitten grey mare is the 11th horse she's ridden. isn't that cute?

Hack Chats

"For fun, in Florida," Jill informed the owners of her current riding hang out, as they cut diagonally across the field behind the paddocks to avoid all the stallion-turnouts, "I would hack right along the fence line of the quarter horse stallion of the neighbour's farm." It was true she was the only paid training/exercise rider that could take the ponies through the narrow straight electric fence walkway home -- the one that the horse-owners' insisted their horse could never handle.

But, she hacked past the alligator pond on the boss's horses everyday now didn't she? ha.
Even the boss didn't do that.
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Spring Fever

"You are not giving that pony enough to think about" Jill counselled a student passing by. Just one second too late... Splat! The rider hit the dirt before the sentence was even finished.

I'm not as tough as her the other student said "If I fall off I'll cry"

"Horses are dangerous but so is living in a big city. My aunt mentioned four stabbings in one weekend and my uncle says you couldn’t PAY him to live there.”

The student's family were almost as resilient as the rider!
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for spooking across the lawn.

is that story down in here already?

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the paso fino like cantered on the spot when she asked him to slow the rythm

Nature

"The littlest one in the barn is usually NOT the easiest one to ride." was a slogan Jill used for her classes involving the smallest ponies.

At one of her new stables, she was using a tiny chesnut named Cheery who had earned a few other handles as well. She was probably 18, probably broken to drive and momma to a few other cuties on the property...

One day a seven year old student enjoyed the most enjoyed the part of her lesson where they tried to think of more appropriate monikers, agreeing in the end on "Challenging Cheery." Back in the barn Jill ranted on to the owner, "She was such a brat." She can be a cow, he agreed. Jill continued, "The rider would address the initial evasion so the pony would invent a new, tougher objection. Over and over and over..." "That's the definition of a cow." he chuckled.

When the 12 year old made her canter, she would go a few strides then stop and buck. And then buck again when the accomplished young equestrian managed to keep pushing with the leg and seat and throw in a whack with the crop. Egads!

And then she saw the pony's true nature. It almost infuriated Jill the way that same animal would be as gentle and good as gold with the keen 4 1/2 year old. "I am not kidding, she is such an angel you can actually SEE the halo!" Jill was amazed actually at the way you could SEE the pony take care of the student. And, she just loved to sniff the child. It was priceless.

Reruns

He was talking about the nicer weather and how great it is to have the soft top on the jeep for the drives out to the barn. She couldn't stop wondering if he could be her carpool to the stables on the friday nights for show prep...

it was nice where he showed her the hack paths too. If only she had a horse buddy in training to go out working with him with!
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To tell you the truth, I think our first meeting was Grandview." Jill smiled to the handsome artsy lanking fella. "That's when you passed your business card through the driver's side window to me, but Bee, the intended go-between, managed to just keep it. I thought she must have a friend that liked you and I resented the entire carpool."

She remembered that he'd made her laugh on course that day. She was just a specatator/cheerleader that day, and was actually impressed to watch the photographer catch a loose horse, the first human it encountered after a rider fall.

He clearly didn't remember meeting her back then. 

Would she become more special to him?