The boss is going to tack up his own horse later? The boss's partner is taking a day off? What is going on around here? It is NOT like other years.
The blacksmith was obviously a long standing colleague/service provider. In between telling Jill lots of backstory and his own education and background, he asked Jill if she got to fly home for the holidays.
*
She was grateful Casey was so brave he actually WANTED to go in the forest.
*
She was proud that Buddy listened to her verbal commands. When he was so good in the afternoon she became annoyed with herself that she forgot to tell him whoa as he burst into his stall first thing that morning. Perhaps if she had it would have worked out better.
*
It was a hard day.

She'd wept all the way out to the far paddock leading Ellie and Temp and she wept while she did stalls. Because the boss partner had yelled at her? “You are driving me crazy with stupid-ass questions!”

She was homesick. And she also knew that she could be challenging and threatening to the insecure. Her questions were good and those that do not (obviously) like to say “let me find out.” Or “let me think about it” oft felt flustered and lashed out.

Those who like to KNOW everything correctly all the time and found her discussion topics and questions forced them to provide useless bullshit answers. She could see through it and tried to take the high road.

First Aid and Other Comments

*
Elvis got his sutures out. It required Jill as the human twitch and then the boss near his rear and the vet holding up the other leg and then the boss's partner came by just as the job was done and said Jill didn’t need to hold his lip like that since he was so drugged it was obvious he wasn’t feeling anything. ARGH!
*

Jill was embarrassed to be corrected about her use of the laser. But certainly she had been distracted and chatting like crazy to the accidental boyfriend. The laser wasn't really aimed correctly the moment the boss stepped in.
*
At Christmas dinner Lesley explained what he had done at the clinic. He kicked some students out! He said "these horses are not ready to be here and one of you is going to get hurt and I am not going to take responsibility for that so you are now excused from class."

Jill admired him. And was also grateful that that didn’t happen to her at the Ian Stark clinic, even though'd felt then she WAS in over her head.

He can’t remember her maiden name but she is rich, rich, rich." This is how the boss's partner described the woman coming to see one of Jill's horse pals, that was for sale.
*
Jill joked
"I am sick of fit”
*

When she told the boss's partner about the potential boarder who shown up with stories about "breaking" difficult horses with the cruelty of impossible weight in their carriage loads he simply said “Maybe there are some interesting training practices coming our way.” In hindsight, Jill knew she should have driven off the property that day.
*

The boss's was dismounted and Jill was afraid she had left a noseband crooked or some other sin and would be shamed and corrected when the boss returned to the barn. The boss's partner explained that the boss had dismounted to beat Buddy.
*
As she rode away from the barn she said “I have often thought of asking for a lunge lesson for my position, using Buddy as the school horse.”
“Well, that’s brave.” said the boss's partner
“Well, maybe we could teach him something – it would be two against one.”

Jill thought her thoughts interested the beautiful fiancee boarder. She came and walked around the field with us, while their exercize rider helped Jill to work on her french. The girls talked about riding bareback in their youth and all the fun they'd had with horses their whole life!

She still has thoughts about being their nanny or something. They seem so down to earth and kind and fun. She thought of Harv’s nanny, who has been with the family for years and works with the horses too and has had a few equine articles published and seems quite content in her life.

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...

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.

Every time Jill tried to sell a brood mare in her lesson pony herd, the owners of the place shut her down. If they weren't for sale, why were they working up the ponies?

For the show ring?

For the beginner lesson program?

She recognized that they were talented, sweet, sensible athletes, capable of show ring performances. And, she only wanted the best for the ponies too. She thought they were all to be in the family! Jill thought of herself as a trustworthy match maker, teacher and horse trainer, but they wouldn't allow it...

Therefore she wondered for what purpose that she was putting in about 2 hours work, plus cell phone expenses and mileage for every $15 earned in lesson fees. She'd thought it was at least toward the cause of developing part boarders. Why did the head coach pay less for the use of ponies, while she charged more and supervised less. Jill was hurt to realize her services were so less valuable...

planning/giving stable tours, waiver signing, invoicing, filing, cell phone calls back and forth, catching the ponies, switching the stirrup leathers, clearing the ring of jumps.... then, they could get started on the real stuff, the stable management and riding parts of the lesson.

Whew. With the beginner lessons. Which did sure did need a lot of patience!

It was easier to teach in the lesson factories, where you could shoot a cannon in the arena and a horse wouldn't even blink.

*
She'd shown up wanting to r i d e, but another rider was getting paid for that.

Meanwhile, Jill was getting fat to add to her misery, ha.

*
an open house as a money maker made good sense to her. but she'd need to start being her own volunteer manager. ha.

"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."

His previously stern face softened in recognition of her.

"That was the olden days" he chuckled, shifting his additional weight with a clearly bad hip. "I was just telling some folks the other day the story of "Jill and The Thoroughbred," he said. "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."

He flashed the logo of his Ontario Sire Stakes jacket.

He was a trainer and owner now, with some interesting philosophies about horse welfare, and horse sports.
*
"So you know your horses," he said, when she admitted her crush on the young Suffolk Punch.
*
She had noticed him once in between times.

She said she'd admired a particular team and teamster once, because they'd waited for his verbal command after he'd hitched himself. And only afterwards recognized him and had announced to her friends "Hey, I know that guy?"

"You recognized that? You saw that?" he was pleased. "Then you saw me compete. I won everything, all the time. They'll tell that here. But I was doing it safer then than they do now and I doing right by the horses the whole time. None of these guys could beat my team, and they still want to go."