glenatron | Day twenty-one

My last day on the course ( tomorrow morning I don't think I have time to ride ) and we began with a talk from Martin's dentist. He explained about how horses teeth develop and how they work and where problems arise, which is almost always where the tooth is unopposed, so if the top molars end in front of the bottom ones expect a problem with the top molar at the front and the bottom molar at the back. He worked with a few horses here and showed us how to check a horse's teeth for sharp edges ( with the mouth held shut feel inside the cheek with your thumb, or feel outside along the cheek) and what signs of abscess you might look for ( bad breath is often a marker ) as well as showing some teeth and caps that he had removed lately. It was interesting and reassuring for me in that this guy, one of the few dentists Martin will trust with his horses, works a lot like our dentist at home.

In the afternoon we shipped out to Grady Carter's place to use his large arena to work with some of the better trained horses. We played a bit with going over the bridge he had set up there before ambling into the working space to work on things we needed to get. In my case this was really more work on settling to the lope and I was riding a horse named Jane, a lovely bay mare with the most comfortable trot in the world. Her canter is a little less so, certainly not up there with Chili who I rode yesterday and my seat could best be described in terms of "inelegant but staying on."

There was one slightly unfortunate moment, which requires a bit of background about Fred to really make sense. Fred is a great guy but he is guaranteed to be the one who will be late, will have to just dash back and get something, who will happen to wander across just as you are going somewhere or who won't hear the instruction to the class. We would assume it was a Belgian trait but he assures us he's just as bad there. So this has been noticed for a long time as we've repeatedly narrowly avoided leaving him behind in various places or asking a question just moments after Martin has asked it.

So because I was having a little trouble concentrating on my position and steering Jenifer suggested I could maybe do some passenger work, just keep Jane going and let everyone else keep an eye out and get out of our way if we got too close. We set off, got into a brisk canter and Jane decided to go and talk to her buddy who Fred was riding. Unfortunately Fred hadn't caught the instruction about getting out of my way, so he was wondering why I wasn't steering to go around him, I was wondering why he wasn't moving, my horse was wondering why I wasn't steering her at all and Fred's horse was dozing quietly. I looked at Fred, Fred looked at me and then I crashed into him at top speed.

Given that Fred had an old injury he was trying not to make worse and that our collision certainly made it worse, this really shouldn't have been absolutely hilarious, but it undeniably was. Fred was very generous about it and retains a remarkable sense of humour with regard to his moments of being totally off the planet, which was probably lucky as we have been giggling about that one all evening. I feel worst for Fred's horse, who had the whole thing come as a total shock to him-I'd feel bad for mine but honestly she could have stopped quicker when I hit the emergency brake...

Anyways, it was dangerous, harmful and in no way funny- I don't want to be a bad person so I'll try and stop laughing every time I think about it.

We came back and after a brisk turnaround went out for a meal to a really nice restaurant a few miles away, with the whole class reunited ( Jake was back after his time away to recover from his injuries a little ) and a few other family members along it was a very pleasant evening.

I guess I have to get ready and prepare myself for real life again now. I think the Reality Drag from this may be the strongest I have ever experienced.