Trail Horse!

Well, my Shoe Man finally showed up and put a nice new set of real shoes on me so I'm back to work. I didn't like those stupid glue-on shoes. They were dumb and ugly. I don't like ugly things. I like to look nice. I have a pretty bridle with a pink, glittery browband and sometimes my mom puts pink sparkly hoof polish on me. I have red boots and red rhythm beads and lots of red saddle pads. So when I got those dumb black ugly glue-on shoes, I wasn't very happy. They looked stupid and felt funny. I was glad to get them off. My mom wasn't real happy but she got over it. And now I have pretty metal shoes with fashionable clips on them. I like the way they make a clop-clop sound when I walk.

Since I got them, my mom and I have been riding the trails more and more. I love it! It's so much fun out there. My mom says I've become a Trail Warrior. That's a good thing judging by the way she says it. She likes the fact that I don't mind going out on the trails alone with her. I guess some horses get fussy when they go alone. That's pretty stupid if you ask me. I like it. I'm not alone anyway; I'm with my mom and I love being with her. Plus there's so much to see and we get to trot and canter and it smells really good out there.

There's a big long hill that leads up to where the trails start and my mom lets me trot or canter up it. I like to go a little faster up the hills because it's easier that way and it feels good. My mom pretty much lets me pick my pace which is very nice of her and I'm good about it. If she doesn't want me to run, I just walk nicely but if she doesn't care, I start going and she leans forward and grabs some mane and off I go. I think she likes it as much as I do.

When you get to the top, there's a sign with a picture of a Mountain Lion on it.

Sparky says that Mountain Lions eat horses and that you have to be very careful about them. He says they hide a lot and that's why horses should be wary of things like plastic bags or ponds because there might be a Mountain Lion hiding in them. I've never seen a Mountain Lion but he saw one once when he was out on the trails with my mom. He said it crossed the trail right in front of them but he wasn't going to stop or turn around because he was headed home and he wanted his dinner so they can't be that bad. Anyway, my mom wouldn't let a Mountain Lion eat me. And even if there was one on the trail, there are lots of people walking or leading Dogs and people and Dogs are lots slower than me so I think they'd get eaten first. Then the Mountain Lion wouldn't have any room for me.

It's really pretty out on the trail. One day, my mom and I rode out to the Hayfields. That's what she called it. It was a place where the trail ran through open fields instead of woods. It was pretty and looked like a nice place for a gallop but there were a lot of people walking so my mom said it would be rude to gallop past them all. We rode around then took a different trail home and that one had some nice hills and flat places where she let me trot and canter. So that was good. Whenever you go up a hill, you usually have to go down one not long after. My mom says hills are good exercise and I think she's probably right. You have to work harder going up them and you have to going down them too. You'd think going down would be easy but sometimes it's hard to keep your balance and footing, especially when you have a person on your back. I'm good at it now and my mom even lets me trot down hills sometimes as long as they're not too steep.

I've never seen a Mountain Lion on the trail but I have seen Deer. I like Deer. I've always wanted to get close enough to one to sniff it but they never stand still long enough. They're so pretty! And they're kind of like horses. They eat grass and hay, and they have four legs like we do. But some of them have sticks poking out of their heads which is very odd. I thought they must have got tangled in a tree but Sparky says they grow them and use them to protect themselves. I don't think I'd like that. I'd probably bash them on everything.

Anyway, we had Deer that would come in our Pasture and I got to see them a lot. Sometimes they'd have babies. The babies are very cute. They're kind of like baby horses because they can't stand up very well at first and have really long legs. They bounce around with their moms and their tails flap back and forth just like baby horses' tails do. I liked to watch them. Some of them had spots which made them look even cuter. But every time I tried to get a closer look, all the Deer would just bound away. You can't get very close to them. Here's a picture of one my mom and I saw on the trail. It was the kind with sticks on its head.

A couple of days ago, we went for a trail ride with Dooley and his mom. That was exciting! I hadn't been able to do anything with Dooley since we moved to this dumb place except for eat a bucket and ride in the dressage arena a little bit. I knew we were going trail riding because my mom was only carrying one stick. When we do dressage, she carries two sticks. That way, she has one on either side of me so if she needs to tap me with one, she doesn't have to switch hands. But when we go out on the trail, she only carries one because she just uses it to flick the flies off my ears and belly.

I was happy and I set off at my usual fast walk with Dooley hustling to keep up. We rode down by the Pony Arena and I thought we were going to go in it and I was a little disappointed but we went right past it and down a little lane that led to a Road. It was a paved Road. I've seen those before. There was one at our old barn, the one before the barn with the big Pasture. Sometimes we'd ride down the little road that led out of the barn area and down to the paved Road. Lots of cars go on paved Roads and you have to be careful because they go pretty fast. I'm not scared of course because I have my mom with me and she wouldn't let me get bonked by a car but they are more dangerous.

This one didn't have any cars on it though except for one which went by just before we reached it. We rode along it a little way and my mom and Dooley's mom kept talking about a trail and then my mom asked me to go through some grass and brush by the side of the Road and it brought us to a little trail so that must have been what they were looking for.

Well, I was ready to go then. I know what a trail means. It means fun! I was still leading the way and I got going in my big walk and off we went. The trail led along a fence on one side and that Road on the other. At one point, it went over a kind of deep ditch and it turned to wood there. It was kind of funny. The wood trail went over the ditch and on either side there was a little fence. I guess that was to keep horses from falling off into the ditch. I just clomped across it and my hoofs sounded funny and hollow but I didn't care because when you're on a trail, you just go where the trail takes you. My mom called to Dooley's mom that it was the first time I went across a Bridge so I guess that's what a wood trail is called but I've been on wood things before. At our old barn, we had a wood thing that I liked to walk across and it moved up and down when you walked across it. My mom called it a teeter-totter. So I don't see why a dumb old Bridge is so special.

It was a very nice trail. It went around some little curves and up hills and along the Pasture fence. I trotted up some of the hills but after a while my mom asked me to walk because we were with Dooley and his mom and it wasn't Manners to just go fast. There were some houses on one side and one of them had a loud machine outside that my mom said was a Generator. I stopped for a minute and looked at it but she asked me to go on so I did. I'm not afraid of noises. It went right through one of the Vineyards too and up to the top of a hill. Vineyards are where people grow grapes which are a kind of fruit that I don't like. They grow on pretty bushes though.

Then a Deer jumped out of the bushes at the side of the trail and ran away. Me and Dooley weren't afraid of that either. We're used to Deer. But it made it more interesting and I like that. By this time, the trail had moved from sort of open, brushy country to nice woods with tall, thick trees. It curved in and out around the trees and you had to be careful not to knock your mom's legs on them because the trail was pretty narrow. I kept walking along in my nice fast trail walk but I never knocked my mom's legs on anything.

All of a sudden, the trail connected with another trail and I knew where we were. We had wound around and come out on one of the trails that starts at the opposite side of the ranch than where we'd started. That was fun. We rode along that trail which is pretty flat and my mom said we'd walk so we could cool off because we'd done quite a lot of trotting. I would have liked to trot because it's a nice wide flat place but she said no so I didn't.

When we came down from the trails, we could see the Pond below us so we knew we were almost home. I like the Pond. Sometimes there are Ducks in it.

So that's what I've been doing. I like being a Dressage Horse and a Trail Horse. Both are fun and I'm getting better and better at them.

My recent shoe saga

I've had a couple of scuffs since I moved into this field. Nothing serious. It's just the usual sort of thing that happens when you're getting to know new horses and as you can see, my mom put a nice Band-Aid on this one. Since I've learned how to be a Pasture Horse I wasn't too surprised but it was a little intimidating moving into a new situation without Sparky and Dooley. I've never lived with other horses without them being around too.

I didn't realize how much they took care of me, to be honest. When we moved into that first little Pasture and it was just the three of us, I kind of bossed them around a little and they let me. Then when our moms opened the gate so we could go into the big Pasture with the other horses, it wasn't really very different because we'd all been sniffing each other over the fence for a couple of months so we weren't strangers. I didn't know much about Herd Rankings at that point and I didn't think about it much because Sparky and Dooley were leaders of our Herd and they made sure I had plenty of hay at feed time and a spot under the shelter when it rained. I didn't realize that the other horses were letting me get those things because of Spark and Dooley. I just thought it was nice that I was cozy and dry and had a full belly.

When we moved to the last place before this one, it was different. We all got moved into a Pasture that had a big Herd in it and we didn't know any of the horses. Me and Dooley wanted to go meet them right off but Spark wouldn't let us. He said it would be better if we kept to ourselves for awhile to get used to the new place and learn our way around. I was kind of mad about that but I did what he said because he's my brother and he knows more than me and Dooley did too because he didn't want to be the only one meeting a new Herd. So for a few weeks, we just stayed in a little Herd of three. There was lots of grass in that Pasture at the time and the guys didn't even give us any hay so there was no reason to join the big Herd so we didn't. Then our friends Rose and Enzo moved in. We'd known them from the other place as you know so now we were a Herd of five.

We did eventually join the big Herd and made a lot of friends. I learned a lot about being a Pasture Horse there and got very comfortable with it. But it was still a little scary moving into this field. I had been living in a stall as I mentioned in my last post, and I liked it well enough. It was a pretty big stall, lots bigger than the one I'd lived in before I became a Pasture Horse. It had a pretty big paddock attached to it and I could go outside in the paddock whenever I wanted to. My paddock shared a fence on each side with another horse, and the back fence of the paddock shared a fence with a horse just across from me. That horse's paddock had two horses on each side of her, so all of us were able to sniff noses with lots of other horses. It was very nice.

I soon made friends with all my neighbors but my best neighbor was the mare across from me. Her name was Haiku and she was a bay Thoroughbred mare like me! We had lots in common and after she got over her habit of charging at me, we became great friends. We spent a lot of time visiting over the fence and grooming each other. Sometimes when my mom took me out to ride, Haiku would call to me. It made me feel bad that she missed me but I was happy to get out and do things with my mom.

One thing my mom did was take me trail riding. We'd only been there a day or two when she first took me out. It was exciting. I hadn't been on a trail with my mom in a long time. She'd ridden me once or twice on the trails in my big Pasture but this was different. This was on trails that weren't on our Ranch at all.

It used to be when we lived here before that I'd behave badly on the trails. My mom said I got them mixed up with the Sixth Race at Belmont. I'm not entirely sure what that means but I did like to gallop on them and I'd get mad when she wouldn't let me. She'd let me gallop up a hill and then when we got to the top, she'd ask me to walk. I'd get mad and I'd start jigging and bouncing and twirling and rearing and bucking and generally being a pill. It was because I wanted to go fast but it wasn't safe to go fast once we were at the top of the hills because then the trail goes downhill. I was just young though, and I didn't know.

Also, I wasn't an experienced Pasture Horse then so I didn't know how to walk downhill efficiently, or pick my path on the trail, so my mom had to spend a lot of time directing me which was a pain for her and annoyed me. So trail riding wasn't much fun for either one of us.

Now though, I'm a really Good Girl out on the trail. I know how to pick a path and pay attention to where I'm going and I have a good, fast walk that my mom loves. When she asks me to trot or canter on a flat part or up a hill, I do it and it's lots of fun but I don't make a fuss when she asks me to slow back down to a walk. And I know how to walk downhill so well that my mom can let me pick my way while she keeps my reins nice and loose. In fact she keeps them loose for the whole ride and just lets me swing along. It's so much fun!

Sometimes we see other riders on the trail. It might be one or two riders or it might be a whole long line of horses with young kids or beginners on them, being led by one of the Ranch Workers on a lead horse. We always pass them politely and keep going on our way. It's interesting to see other horses but I don't try to join them or follow them. I have enough fun with just my mom.

We also see people on Bicycles. Bicycles are strange. They're slim metal things with a wheel in the front and another in the back. A person sits on them between the two wheels and they roll along the trail, sometimes pretty fast. I don't mind them unless they come around a corner unexpectedly but even then I don't spook or anything. It just startles me for a moment. But then I see that it's a Bicycle and let it pass us going whichever direction it's going. They don't hurt anything.

Same with people walking. I used to worry when I saw them. I thought maybe they lost their horses and I worried that the poor horses might be lost out on the trail. But since then, I've learned that some people like to walk instead of ride horses. I don't know why. You'd think they'd get tired and lonely but a lot of them do it. Some of them bring Dogs with them so they at least have that.

Anyway, one day my mom got me out of my stall and brought me down to the area near the Pasture and the field. She didn't put me in the field though. Instead she put me in the Round Pen and went and got Sparky. She put him in with me. That was nice. We had a nice visit and we both rolled. After a while though, I saw our Shoe Man's truck and trailer drive up so I knew it was time to get new shoes.

That was good because I'd lost my back shoes at the other Ranch and hadn't had them replaced. My feet were doing okay. They were a little tender where the ground was hardest but they weren't bad. Still, I was happy I was going to get shoes put on them because I'm a lot more comfortable with them.

However, instead of putting my usual shoes on, my Shoe Man used a very strange kind of shoe. He called them glue-on shoes. They were made of a hard but flexible black stuff, kind of like the tires that my mom had me step up on at the last Ranch. First he trimmed my feet very carefully and then he put a bunch of soft, slimy stuff into the shoes. They had thin sides that reached up over the sides of my hooves and he held onto them for a long time while the soft stuff dried. Then he put my hoof down and added more soft stuff. That was the glue and he said it would keep the shoes on until the next time I needed to be trimmed. This is what they looked like.

My mom was curious because I am pretty good at getting shoes off. So she asked him specifically if they'd stay on and he said, "I've never lot one." I thought that was pretty interesting. I don't actually try to get my shoes off but I do lose a lot of them. I wondered if they'd stay on me like they do other horses.

Once I was done, my mom brought me back to my stall for a while but later that day she brought me back down and put me in the field. I wasn't quite prepared for that. Still, I tried to do what Sparky and Dooley had taught me when meeting new horses. I stood in one place and let the other two horses come over to me. When they did, I sniffed noses politely and didn't get mad or grumpy. They were polite too. None of us squealed or bit or tried to kick. It seemed like a good start.

After that, I explored the field. It's nice and big! Not as big as a Pasture but there's plenty of room to run around. I cantered around the whole thing a couple of times and Kass and Freedom got excited and cantered with me. It was fun. I got kind of hot and worked up running so my mom took me out after a while and hosed me off but she put me back in again afterward. By that time, I was a little anxious because I had gotten the feeling that she was going to leave me there and I was a little afraid about being in a strange field with strange horses without my mom or Sparky and Dooley there too. My mom stayed for quite a long time, just sitting in a chair and letting me know she was there but she finally left. I followed her car along the fence line and I probably looked pretty pathetic but not long after that the guys came and threw hay into our feeders. That made me feel better. It was nice to know I'd still get hay. Both the guys were a little pushy about the food - they'd eat at one feeder for a while and then chase me away from mine so they could eat there. But I just went to the feeder they'd left so it was okay.

My mom came back the next day and checked me all over. I was fine and she gave me a bucket and groomed me. She didn't ride me that day. She said she wanted to let me get used to the field before she took me out for too long. But then she came the day after that and I'd lost two shoes.

I lost the right front shoe and the left rear. I'm not sure how it happened. I never am. One minute I'm walking around minding my own business and the next, I have a loose shoe. And then all of a sudden it falls off. I just can't help it.

My mom was amazed and she called my Shoe Man and he was amazed too. He said I should be in the Olympics for throwing shoes. I don't know what the Olympics are but it sounds like a compliment. Anyway, my mom couldn't ride me then because I was so uneven it felt like I was limping even though I wasn't really. She tried putting some Boots on my bare feet and riding me that way but the dumb Boots got all twisted around and felt weird. I was good about it and didn't fuss but Dooley's mom who was riding him with us noticed that I had some blood where one of them was rubbing. My mom felt bad about that but it wasn't anything serious. Still, she got right off and took those dumb Boots off.

My Shoe Man wasn't able to come right out and fix things so I was uneven for several days. Then I lost the other rear shoe. That was lots better though my mom didn't seem to think it was as nice as I did. She couldn't believe I got another shoe off but she decided that she might as well try to get the last one off too so my feet would be the same all the way around. She got some tools and fussed with it and finally got it. But my front feet are very tender without shoes. She rode me bareback in the dressage arena where it's nice and soft but I can't stand being on the road or the trail. It was nice in the dressage arena though. She let me look at myself in mirror and I got to check the letter B for water. One time when we used to live here, I found water in the top of the letter B so I like to look in case there's more. Besides, B is for Bella.

So now I'm just waiting until my Shoe Man can get out and put some more shoes on me. My mom says we're not going to use those dumb glue-on shoes again. She was just using them so my feet would grow out enough to put regular shoes on and they have now because they're a lot more healthy at this Ranch. I hope it's soon because I want to go back out trail riding and work on our dressage. It's nice sometimes to just hang out with friends but I like to work.

Back at our old barn

I'm really a rotten blogger. I just get so busy! But right now I don't have any shoes on so I'm not doing much. I'll tell you how that came to be but first I'll tell you about our move. That's my nose sticking out of the Trailer up there on Moving Day.

All of us really liked the place where we were with its big pasture. It had lots of nice places to graze or to nap or to stand in the shade. The herd was quite nice too. A couple of the mares were bossy but Sparky says that's how mares are supposed to be. They weren't very bossy to me. In fact, they seemed to like me and I got used to standing with some of them, swishing flies off each other or standing on guard while they napped. Then I'd lay down and take a nap and they'd guard me. That's how it's done in a herd. Everyone has to take part in keeping the herd safe.

Sometimes we'd see Wild Animals. There were Deer, which are very pretty. I used to see deer at our old barn but only from my stall or a turnout. I was never in the same area where I was able to really see them or get close enough to sniff them. They didn't let me sniff them in the pasture either but I could sniff where they'd been. They smell very wild. They're small, smaller than horses, with tiny, thin legs and delicate noses. But they're very strong. You can tell. They have solid muscles in their body and especially their neck and hind parts. When they run, they sort of bounce and they go very fast, even the little ones. I liked seeing the Deer.

There was also a Bobcat. It was a girl Bobcat - you could tell because she had Bobkittens. They were cute but kind of scary. The Bobcat was lots bigger than a regular cat and it would sometimes catch the Chickens and eat them. Sparky said that Bobcats won't hurt horses but if I ever saw one that had a long tail, I should watch out because that's not a Bobcat, it's a Mountain Lion and they do eat horses. Well, I don't want to be eaten. It sounds awful and for awhile after he told me that, I felt kind of bad about grazing because I thought the grass might feel the same way. But Dooley said I was silly and grass can't tell if it's being eaten or not so I felt better. I was glad too because I really like grass.

It was a great pasture. Sometimes our moms would come and call us and we'd see them way down below by the gate. I'd whinny happily but Dooley said that sometimes it's better not to go when they call us because then they'd get to come out to where we were and see how nice the pasture was and how happy we were. So we'd wait for them and they'd get to take a nice walk up the hill and spend some time outdoors. Dooley says it's important to make sure your mom gets good exercise and that makes sense. After all, my mom makes sure I get good exercise so it's only fair that I do the same for her.

Sometimes we'd get new horses in the pasture. Chance was one of them. He's a black Arab and when he moved in, he was kind of dumb. He didn't know how to behave in a pasture. Sparky tried to teach him. This is Sparky telling him to stop being silly.

The only problem there was that I couldn't seem to keep my shoes on. My mom got a new Shoe Man for me and I really like him and she does too. He's very careful with my feet and makes sure my hoofs are nicely trimmed and balanced. He'd put beautiful new shoes on me and I'd feel so good but within a week, I'd lose one. Then my hoof would break and chip and there would be nail holes in it which would make it hard to put another shoe on so the shoe would come off even easier.

My mom was getting frustrated and she said my feet were very dry. Dooley's mom said his were too and that was unusual because Dooley never has problems with his feet. Even my doctor said they were too dry. So our moms started spraying water on our feet and then putting smelly oily stuff on and that helped a little but I still dropped shoes. My mom said it was because of the soil. She said the soil in that particular valley was made up of something called Alum which is very dry and pulled the moisture out of my feet. She and Dooley's mom decided it was time to move again.

We didn't know that we were moving but we did know something was up. You can always tell with people. They can't hide anything. For one thing, they started pulling out that stupid Trailer and asking me to get on it. Well, I don't trust Trailers. As you know, I had a Bad Experience when we moved the first time and I've never felt comfortable in them since. My mom worked and worked with me on several occasions over a couple of weeks leading up to the move. Some days I'd go right on. Other days I didn't want anything to do with the darn thing. But she kept trying. It was very dumb and I didn't like it one bit.

The boys were nervous too. We all stayed together in a little group because we were afraid if we didn't, they'd take one of us away and we'd never see each other again. I've heard of that happening to other horses. And I've had friends leave in a Trailer and never come back. Chance left one day. And a long time ago, my friend Cozzie left. We didn't want that happening to us but when your mom comes and gets only one of you out, you have to go. It's Manners.

Sparky's girl was upset too. That was obvious. She'd sometimes come to the pasture and just hug him and cry. And when she rode him, he said she was extra sweet and loving to him. He was very upset. He didn't like to see her cry and he'd put his head and neck around her body and try to make her feel better but he said that just made it worse. He didn't know what to do. It was a very trying time for all of us.

Then one day, my mom and Dooley's mom pulled out the Trailer again. I figured they were just going to work on loading again so I wasn't too worried. But then they took Spark and Dooley out, put them on the Trailer and drove away! It was horrible. I knew they weren't just going for a trail ride. I could just tell. And here I was, left all alone in the pasture. Well, all alone except for the herd.

They were gone a long time. When they came back, they got me. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to go in the stupid Trailer but I wanted to be with my brothers. It was so upsetting. They worked and worked on loading me but I was too wound up. At first, I'd put my two front feet in and they seemed pretty happy with that but then they wanted me to put all my feet in. I'd start to but then I'd back out again. And the more I backed out, the less I wanted to go in. It went on and on and on.

Finally, it got dark out. I put my front feet in and stood there and my mom patted my neck and said that was enough. She was tired, I was tired, Dooley's mom was tired. She put me back in the pasture and they left.

That was a long night. I'd never been in a pasture for a whole night with my brothers. I was lonely and scared and wondered where they were and if they were okay. I knew my mom would try to get me in the Trailer again the next day and I didn't want to do it. But I didn't want to be alone either. I was pretty miserable. I almost lost my appetite! But I managed to eat. It's important to keep your strength up.

The next day, my mom got me out and led me to the Trailer. I immediately knew that something was up. There were two other people there, the woman who gives lessons to Sparky and his girl and another lady I remembered from our last barn. They had lunge lines tied to either side of the Trailer, making a sort of chute that led to that dumb open door. They each held a lunge whip. I wondered if I was in trouble.

My mom led me to the door of the Trailer. As always, I walked right up to it. Then she asked me to step up - that's what she says. "Step up." I put one hoof in then I backed up. Immediately, the lunge lines started slapping my sides. I tried to back up some more but I couldn't because my mom had my head facing that trailer and she wouldn't let me.

Well, I tried everything I could think of to outsmart that bunch. I tried ducking to either side but the lunge lines blocked my way and if I got too far over, they'd poke me with a lunge whip handle. I tried rearing but no one was impressed. I tried bouncing and pulling and twirling but I couldn't because my mom was just calmly in the Trailer encouraging me to come in while everyone outside was making life very unpleasant.

It finally got to be too much. After an hour of this, I stepped onto the trailer and just stood there. My mom petted me and told me I was a Good Girl. There was a hay net in there with Alfalfa in it so that was nice. They closed the door and then Dooley's mom came in and slowly and carefully pushed a bar thing over to make a sort of stall at the front of the trailer. It made me stand sort of slanted with my head near the hay net. I didn't mind. It wasn't scary or anything which kind of surprised me.

Then they all stood around and talked for about forever while I stood in the Trailer wondering if we were ever going to go anywhere. Finally my mom and Dooley's mom got in the truck and we started going. I discovered that I could poke my nose out the open spots and the wind made my nostrils flap and that was fun. So it was okay.

When we stopped and I got off, I discovered that I was back at the first barn I'd lived at when I came to live with my mom! I remembered it very well. They put me in the Pony Arena to trot around and relax then my mom took me to a stall. I didn't stay in the stall too long though. After a couple of weeks, she put me in a small pasture with two other horses. They're okay. They're both geldings. One is a dark bay gelding named Kass and the other is a Paint named Freedom. They were kind of dumb when I first moved in. They chased me a little and were crabby about the hay. But we're friends now. It's pretty nice. And I found Sparky and Dooley. They're back in the pasture they used to live in. I can't live with them because they don't let mares live in it which is stupid but it's the Rules. So I have my own little pasture.

And here's Sparky and Dooley. They said that when they arrived, the first pasture horse to greet them was Chance! His mom had moved him to the same place. So we all had a friend we knew which was nice.

Since then we've seen a few other horses that we remember from before. One of them is Favre who was always a special friend of Spark's. He's kind of sweet on me now. Every time he sees me he gets a goofy look in his eyes and he wants to sniff me all over and nibble on my neck. So we're all settled in and pretty happy. My mom has brought me out Trail Riding a bunch of times and I love it! It's kind of nice being grown up.

Back to the Pasture

Life was getting pretty boring in that stall. I'd forgotten how much I hated stall rest. At first it was kind of fun. I got to visit with some different horses and I didn't have to share my hay at all. But I couldn't walk around like I can in the pasture and browse for little bits of grass. I couldn't go out under the trees for my nap. I couldn't take a gallop across the hills. I was just stuck in a dumb old stall and paddock.

My mom came out every day and got me out and that was nice but it wasn't for long enough. I'm used to being out all day and all night. Only getting out for a few hours a day was starting to feel really stupid. She'd groom me, and feed me, and ride me, or walk me around and that was nice. And we'd go play on the tires or the teeter-totter bridge thing and that was fun. We'd go down to the other end of the ranch and she'd let me drink out of the water trough that has the fish in it. I like that one. The fish tickle your nose. I stick my nose deep in the water so it's right up to my eyes and I let the fish swim up to me and nibble on me. It doesn't hurt. They just want to see what you are and it feels funny. I love those fish! I wish we had fish in our water trough.

But I missed my friends and I especially missed my brothers. One day I saw Sparky and his girl walking by and I was so sad! Sparky's girl is nice and later she came in the barn and gave me some carrots and petted me but I was still kind of sad because I wasn't able to sniff Sparky's nose and let him know that I miss him. The paddock has a sort of steep hill at the edge of it so he couldn't come close enough. So I just stood there and looked at him. His girl took a picture. I guess I look pretty pathetic.

I also hated being in that dumb stall because when my mom took me out of it, I had to walk down the aisle with horses on either side all trying to bite my butt! All of them! I'd come out the stall door and I'd get nervous right away because I knew what was coming but my mom would make me stand there while she closed the door and the whole time I'd have my butt clenched up tight, just waiting for someone to bite it. Then she'd ask me to walk and I'd bounce forward so I could get out of there quick and she'd get mad at me! Can you imagine!? Here I was getting my butt bit right to pieces and she expected me to walk nicely down that aisle of rotten, savage, cannibalistic miscreants! It was very annoying. My mom is usually pretty good about understanding what I'm telling her but she's also a stickler for Manners and she said she didn't care if they chewed my butt to ribbons, I better walk nicely and not run her over or I'd be sorry.

To be fair, I never actually did get bit but it was a close thing and it's only because I'm quick on my feet. I'm sure of it. Anyway, it doesn't matter now because my mom came out on Thanksgiving and decided to put me back in the pasture.

It was a windy day but nice. She saddled me up and rode me all over the ranch the way she has been and I was very good, even though I'd been cooped up in a stall and the wind was blowing. I only startled once when a chicken appeared out of nowhere. I'm not afraid of chickens. I like them actually. They make nice sounds and sometimes they came in my stall which I liked because they were company. And sometimes they have baby chickens and they're really cute. There are some babies out there now, just little small fluffy yellow things that make a funny chirp, chirp, chirp noise. So I like chickens. But this chicken just popped out from behind a fence and startled me something awful.

There was a time that I would have bounced sideways and tried to take off running. I don't do that anymore though. For one thing, it's not Manners at all. But for another, I trust my mom. I could tell that she was a little startled too but she wasn't afraid and she was still nice and quiet on my back. So I startled - I couldn't help that - but it was just a quick startle in place. Then I saw it was a chicken and I went right on. I wasn't embarrassed. After all, even my mom was taken by surprise. And I knew I'd behaved well because she pet me and told me I was a Good Girl. So that was all right.

Once we were done, she checked my neck carefully and told me she was going to put me back out with my brothers. She said my neck was healing nicely and she poked it and it didn't even hurt. So she fed me my bucket outside like I usually get it and then brought me to the pasture gate. I was happy to be back in there. I stood by the gate a few minutes just looking up the hill at the herd and then I saw Sparky move away from the others and start toward me. I let out a big whinny and began running toward him and he whinnied in return with his deep, welcoming voice. We sniffed each other all over and squealed a little bit because we were so happy to see each other again. He sniffed my neck carefully and then Dooley came over and joined us and he and I sniffed each other and it was so good to be with them again! Then we all moved off together in our little herd and everything felt right with the world.

So now I'm happy again. Yesterday my mom came out to check on me and I was taking a nap. She walked up to me but I didn't feel like getting up so I just rolled up onto my chest and greeted her with a nicker. She petted me and scratched my withers for a while but she told me I didn't have to get up. She just wanted to check my neck which she did and said it looked fine. She stayed with me for quite a while just petting me and it was really nice. Then she went and said hello to Sparky. Sparky was off in another area of the pasture with Fargo and Fargo's brother and the little Palomino gelding whose name I've forgotten. They're all very nice but they're young and Sparky said he was going to Take Them Under His Wing. I'm not sure why he said that because he doesn't have any wings that I've ever seen but Dooley said that it meant Sparky was going to Show Them the Ropes. Well, I'm not sure what that means either. There aren't any ropes out here. There are a lot of fly masks because people keep putting them on their horses and we all take them off because pasture horses don't need fly masks. That's what Sparky says anyway. He says we should live like wild horses and wild horses don't wear silly masks. One horse has been wearing a blanket the past few days and she looks awfully embarrassed, poor thing. Some of the other horses snicker behind her butt but Sparky said we shouldn't because it's not her fault. It was her person who did it to her.

Anyway, what I think is that Sparky is teaching those young horses how to be good pasture horses like he taught me. He's letting them know where to poop and how to stay warm when it's cold and windy. He's showing them where they can find the best napping and rolling spots and how to stand guard over the herd. Sparky's good at all that stuff and he likes teaching the new horses because he says they need to learn to do things the right way so they don't endanger us by being foolish.

Dooley meanwhile was off being foolish.

So everything is back to normal and I'm glad of it. Hopefully my mom will come out today and we'll have some more nice times.

Light Work

Since I have this cut on my neck, I can't do my usual work which is carrying my mom around in lessons or working hard on the stuff we've learned. My mom says that if I do too much hard work or bending I might tear my stitches and that wouldn't be good. So I'm just doing light work and it's actually pretty fun.

Yesterday my mom came out and said she was happy with the way my neck looked. My doctor had said that there would probably be a lot of swelling but there wasn't any at all and it wasn't hot or tender either. That made us both happy. I don't like it when things hurt. My mom took me for a nice walk, leading me all over the ranch. It was fun. We walked out by the pasture and I got to see all my friends out there. I got to eat some grass where it's growing near the gate and that was wonderful. The grass is just starting to grow in the pasture but of course us horses eat it as soon as it comes up so there's not too much of it. This patch of grass was nice and thick and juicy and my mom let me eat a lot of it. It tasted so good and I was hoping Sparky would come over so I could show off how lucky I was. He was busy though. He's gotten pretty attached to a new mare now that Rose isn't in the pasture and he wouldn't leave her for a minute. The two of them were nibbling on some leftover hay from breakfast and he never even looked my way. I didn't mind. I'm glad he's found a new girlfriend.

Dooley wasn't in the pasture. He was with his mom, riding in the arena. My mom took me over there and we said hello then my mom let me walk across the teeter-totter bridge thing that I like to walk on. She took me over to one of the big tires on the ground next. Those tires are kind of strange. They're lying on their sides and the middle part is filled with dirt so that there's a sort of platform in it. You can see it in the picture on top. My mom and Dooley's mom have been trying to get us to put our front feet on those stupid tires forever but we've been stepping around them because it makes more sense to us. But yesterday, my mom led me over to one and I thought I might as well step on it. I was in a good mood and it didn't seem like a big deal. So I clomped up on it with my front feet and stood there and you would have thought I had discovered the cure for cancer the way she carried on.

People are so strange. They ask horses to do things that don't make any sense and make a big fuss over us when we do them. But other times they ask us to do things that are hard or unpleasant and just get mad if we don't like it. Or they ask us to do something fun and get upset if we like it so much we want to do it all the time. They're hard to figure out but once I knew that my mom was going to be so happy about it, I kept stepping up every time she asked.

After a while, Dooley and his mom came out of the arena and my mom had me show them how I was doing it. Dooley's mom made him watch then asked him to do it. Well, of course he did. He could see how excited they got over it and figured he might as well. Then our moms had to act all surprised and pleased as if they didn't think we actually paid attention to what the other was doing or talked about it amongst ourselves. I wish we could have shows where we could make our people do stuff. We could get them to do all kinds of foolishness.

Once we were done with all that, we went back to our tack shed and I had to stand around while my mom and Dooley's mom talked and talked and talked. I kept pawing because I wanted my bucket but my mom just yelled at me and finally smacked me with a stick when I wouldn't stop. I know I'm not supposed to paw but I was just trying to remind her that I was hungry and besides, Dooley got his food first which was really unfair. She didn't seem very impressed by that though.

Once Dooley went back out to the pasture, his mom Lasered my cut. I'll try to explain what that is though I really don't understand it. The Laser is a think about the size of a carrot and kind of shaped like one. It's attached to a bigger piece by a stiff sort of thin rope. Dooley's mom pushes some buttons on the bigger piece and then moves the carrot-shaped one over whatever part she's trying to heal. It feels kind of warm, especially on a cut, but it doesn't hurt at all and it makes things feel better. Some things feel better right away and that's how it was with my cut. I was pretty good and stood fairly still for it and they both told me I was a Good Girl which was some compensation for not getting fed. Dooley's mom gave me some carrot too which was even better compensation.

Then my mom put me back in my stall and gave me my bucket. I could tell there was some Medicine in it but it tasted okay so I ate it all.

Today when my mom came out, she saddled me up and rode me around the ranch. She said that my neck looked so good that it would be okay as long as we didn't work hard. It was a lot of fun. We walked all over the place and visited lots of horses. We went all the way to the far end where the paddocks are on the hill. There's a lane that runs along between the rows of paddocks and we went up the lane and across the top and down the lane on the other side. The last paddock before the end of the lane is where one of the Foals lives. She's pretty cute and I sniffed her nose. Her name is Belle which is a lot like Bella and her mom died when she was just a baby which is very sad. She had a nice foster mom though and now she's living on her own because she's old enough.

The other Foal is named Luna. She lived with her mom until recently when they got separated. That's what happens with Foals. They get taken away from their moms so they can learn to be grown-up horses. Luna goes out in a field next to the pasture so I get to sniff noses with her a lot. She used to be in there with her mom but now she goes in with Poncho who is a gelding in her family. He's really nice and takes good care of her. Luna lives in the same barn as me now and I can see her from my stall.

We rode up the other lane that goes behind the houses and next to more paddocks where we saw Soldier and some other horses I know. And we went out in the field where Luna goes because no one was out there and there's a road that leads out to the back pasture gate. We rode down to the main pasture gate too but I couldn't eat grass because I had my bit in my mouth and that's not Manners. Then we rode to the obstacle course and I went over the teeter-totter a few times and put my front feet on the tire things and I even backed all the way through the little road thing with the poles that mark the sides. That's not easy because it makes a turn about halfway through so you have to listen to your mom when she tells you to turn.

It was a nice time and I felt good when we were done. My mom cleaned my neck and put some gooey stuff on, then she put me away and fed me my bucket. I'm sorry I got hurt but at least I can spend my time doing fun stuff.

I Got To See My Doctor Today

As you can see, I got a cut on my neck. My mom came out to see me and of course when I heard her calling me, I came hurrying toward the gate. Dooley was already over there and I was afraid he'd get all my treats. Besides, she's my mom. I whinnied and kept coming and as I got closer, I heard my mom say, "Oh, Bella! Now what!?"

Well, I knew she was talking about my neck. I couldn't see it of course but I could tell it was kind of a big cut. I'd felt the blood running down my neck when I did it and it hurt. I'm not even sure how I did it. I was just hanging around with the other horses near the fence and it started hurting. Maybe it happened when I was trying to reach some grass through the wires. Or maybe I scraped it on one of the fence posts. I don't know. Sometimes you don't realize you've hurt yourself just when it happens but a little later, someone says, "Bella, you're bleeding" and you realize you must have.

Sparky had been concerned. He's always concerned when I hurt myself. He tries his best to look out for me but I am a big girl now so he tries not to baby me too much. He's been kind of preoccupied now that Rose isn't out in the pasture anymore. Sparky likes having a mare to be friends with. Not like me. I'm just his sister. He likes having a mare to be sort of his girlfriend. Rose was nice for that. They'd eat together and sometimes they'd groom each other. They always walked together and everyone knew that they were special friends and no gelding would try to get close to Rose, just like none of the other mares tried to be good friends with Sparky. That's how it is when you have a boyfriend or girlfriend.

Dooley's mom sometimes calls me Dooley's girlfriend but that's just silly. We're just Best Friends and that's different. He's more like another brother but a kind of special one because we're a lot alike. I love Sparky and he's my Best Brother Ever but Dooley is kind of silly like me and we like to do things together because we do them the same way. So we like to share our bucket dinners and ride with our moms together and that sort of thing because it's more fun when you do things with a friend.

So anyway, Sparky had noticed right off that I hurt myself and Dooley was very interested because he wanted to know what I cut it on so he could go investigate. Like I said though, I wasn't sure. Then my mom came and took me out. We were supposed to have a Lesson but we couldn't because my neck was pretty swollen and it did hurt. My mom won't make me work if I'm hurt. She's really good about stuff like that. So she took me over to the Arena and told my Trainer that we couldn't ride today because I tried to slice my throat. That's what she said, which was silly. I wasn't trying to slice my throat at all. That would be a dumb thing to do. People say very strange things sometimes.

My Trainer is nice. He always pets me and tells me I'm a Good Girl. Plus he has a nice horse named Dakar who is a friend of mine. My Trainer never makes me do anything. He just stands in the Arena and yells at my mom while I carry her around. She makes me work pretty hard when he's yelling like that but I don't mind. I like to work. I'm learning how to do Dressage after all and you have to work hard to get good at that sort of thing.

My mom let me eat a pile of hay while we waited for my Doctor to get there. She hosed my cut to get it clean but then left it alone. Sometimes my mom takes care of my hurts herself but there's some things she can't do as well as my Doctor so she gets him out. I love my Doctor. Some horses don't like seeing the Doctor but I don't mind. My Doctor is really nice and he's very gentle. He never hurts me like some Doctors do and he's quiet and calm and makes me feel like everything is fine. My mom told him that she thinks I miss him sometimes and that's why I get hurt. That's kind of funny and I do like to see him but I don't get hurt on purpose. That would just be silly.

My Doctor gave me a shot that made me feel pretty funny. He sometimes does that when he has to take care of something and needs me to stand still. I'm pretty good about standing still but it's hard when your Doctor is doing something that hurts so the shot helps. It makes me feel sleepy and strange. It's not a bad feeling but it is kind of strange. I just press my nose up against my mom's chest and she pets my ears and tells me what a Good Girl I am. So that's what I did while my Doctor wiped the cut and got it all ready to stitch up.

That's what Doctors have to do with some cuts. They pull the skin back together and then tie it in place with pieces of stuff that's a lot like my tail hairs. They do it with a sharp thing that they poke through the skin. Then the stiff hair stuff goes through after the sharp thing and they tie it together. They call that stitches. I got about fifteen stitches, my mom said. I guess that's kind of a lot. I was a really Good Horse for the whole thing, even though the flies were bothering me a lot. They kept landing on my legs. I hate flies! I don't know why we have to have them. They're very stupid.

That's what it looked like after it was all stitched. It didn't really hurt at all at that point because the Doctor had given me that shot and he had also used some stuff right on the cut to make it not hurt. After it was all stitched up, he put some gooey stuff on it and then my mom put me in a stall. It's the same stall I was in last time I got hurt so I know both the horses on either side. There's a young Mustang gelding named Rocky on one side. He's a pretty nice guy, though I do make faces at him when he gets too nosy. He's kind of a blackish grey color, pretty handsome really. Then on the other side, there's a nice bay mare. I don't know what her name is but she's friendly and we like to stand together. I'm glad I'm near horses I know. I'd rather be out in the pasture with my brothers and my herd but my mom said I have to stay in here while my neck heals and I suppose she's right. So I have to make the best of it.

After all the shots and things wore off, my neck got kind of sore. It's not horrible but it is pretty uncomfortable. I guess I'm just accident prone. That's what my mom says anyway. I don't know why these things always happen to me. They never happen to Sparky and even Dooley doesn't get hurt as much as I do. I think it's just Bad Luck but my mom says I need to be more careful.

Still, it was nice to see my Doctor. I'm sure he was happy to see me too. Now I'm going to get some rest. It's been a long day.

New Beginnings

It's been way too long since I wrote a blog post! Pasture life is far busier than stall life so finding time to blog - and finding a quiet place to do it without being interrupted - has been difficult. And to be honest, I've been enjoying myself so much that blogging has been pretty far from my mind.
But I do want to share what's been going on in my life because I'm happier than I've ever been.

The picture at the top shows me and Sparky in our new Pasture. Yup, we moved again. We were at our other place for close to a year and we all liked it quite a bit. First we lived in the small Pasture I told you about, then one day our moms opened up a gate in between that Pasture and a bigger one and we all got to live together with other horses. I loved it! As you know, I'd never lived in a Pasture before. It was very exciting for me and I felt like I was the luckiest horse on earth. The Pasture seemed so big! I could run from one end to the other and really stretch my legs.

The rest of the place was nice too. There was an arena to ride in and some round pens and turnouts. All of us got used to it very quickly and stopped whinnying for each other when one of us was out. We made lots of friends too. There was a big chestnut gelding there named Soldier who was really nice. His mom was nice too. And a bay TB gelding named Kisses who was my special friend except when he tried to sniff my butt. That was kind of dumb. But our special friends were two other Pasture horses. Rose was a pretty chestnut mare with a wide white stripe down her face. She was very sensible and had a round build kind of like Sparky only a little bigger. Her brother Enzo was chestnut too but built lighter, more like a TB. He had a star on his face and a sweet, gentle nature. Me and Spark and Dooley formed our own little herd with the two of them and we were really happy.

But this past spring, strange things began happening. Horses began leaving, first one or two at a time and then lots of horses would leave in the span of days. We began getting nervous. It seemed like every day there were more empty stalls and paddocks. Our people were nervous too. We could tell. They were talking a lot to each other in low voices and saying things that made us think something bad was going on. Rose and Enzo moved to a paddock and the other Pasture horses left and it was only me and Spark and Dooley left in the Pasture and almost nobody else on the whole place. It was awful. We got so we'd whinny to each other again when one was out, just to make sure we were all still on the property.

Then one day, my mom moved me to the paddock next to Rose and Enzo. That was kind of odd but at least I was near horses I knew. I'd been in that paddock before when I hurt my eye one time so I wasn't as nervous as I might have been but I was still pretty jumpy. Then I saw her and Dooley's mom get Dooley's Trailer out and load the boys into it.

By this time, Sparky had gotten lots better about loading. He told me that our moms took him and Dooley in the Trailer to go on trail rides sometimes. He was nervous at first and it took a while to get him on the Trailer but he finally went in and they only went a short way and then had a really fun trail ride. He was surprised. He didn't realize you could go for a ride in a Trailer and do something fun. Then when they were done with their ride, they got back on the Trailer and came home. He was so relieved! He thought that getting in a Trailer meant you were moving forever. Dooley laughed at both of us but not in a mean way. Dooley's used to riding in Trailers because he's a Show Horse. But me and Sparky didn't have that kind of experience.

Anyway, both Sparky and Dooley got right on the Trailer, though they were worried about me. I whinnied and fussed for a while and stood with Rose and Enzo but my mom and Dooley's mom came back pretty soon without the boys. So I knew we were moving again. My mom came to get me and she gave me a Shot which she said would help calm me down so I'd load in the trailer. But I just wanted to be with my brothers again and get out of this creepy place that had no horses on it. She led me to the Trailer and I just got right on. It wasn't until I was already at the new place that I felt a little drowsy from the Shot.

It was a very short ride to our new place. As soon as I got there, I felt better. There were lots of horses all around, in barns and paddocks and dotting the hillsides. My mom led me along a little road to a gate and sure enough, there was Sparky and Dooley! I knew they'd bring me to my brothers but I still whinnied in relief. The boys welcomed me and we all went to the water trough to get a drink. Then we looked around.

This place is huge! My mom says the Pasture is 70 acres. I don't know what that means but it's big! It took us all week to explore the whole thing. There are big hills and trees and little valleys in between the hills where you can get out of the wind. There are trails all over the place and I've learned how to go up and down hills by zig-zagging instead of going straight up or straight down. When we moved in, there was so much grass that we didn't even get any hay! We just lived like Wild Horses, eating grass all day and moving around in a herd.

There were a lot of horses already in there. My mom said there were about 25 of them. At first, the three of us pretty much stuck to ourselves. We cautiously approached the other horses and we didn't run away from them but we kept off to one side in our own little group. We didn't feel the need to join their herd. Sparky said we could have our own herd anyway and he knows a lot about herds, being a Herd Leader and all. Dooley wanted to go chase some of the others and I kind of wanted to make friends but Spark said there was plenty of time for that later.

For the first few weeks, we didn't even go to our moms when they called us. We were too busy having fun out in that giant Pasture. For example, this is a picture my mom took of us one day. See the little spots at the top of the hill? That's us.

We'd hear them calling and calling off in the distance but we'd just keep grazing and eventually they'd show up, all huffing and puffing because they'd been walking all over that big Pasture looking for us. It's important to make sure your person gets proper exercise and we certainly did that! Some days they'd be so tired from finding us that they wouldn't even bother to ride. They'd just feed us our bucket dinner and put us back out.

After a few weeks of this, we got another surprise. Rose and Enzo came to live with us again! So now we were back to being a herd of five. Sparky especially was happy because he loves Rose. She's just the type of mare he likes, strong and sensible and not prone to drama. Not like me at all. But I like Rose a lot too and I love Enzo. Not as much as I love Dooley who is my very best friend but lots. Soldier lives here now too. Not in the Pasture but in a paddock and I see him and his mom sometimes.

I've found that Pasture living agrees with me. I've learned so much about being a proper horse. When I first began living in that small Pasture with just Sparky and Dooley, they taught me about how horses sleep outside. I never knew! I didn't know you could actually find a comfy spot on the ground but it turns out that the ground is lots more comfy than a stall. The way it's done is one or two of us lie down to take a nap and then another horse stands guard in case anything dangerous comes along. Then we switch so everyone gets a turn. It's a very smart way to do it and Spark says that's how the Wild Horses stay safe.

I also learned how to move with other horses. You may think this is silly but I never spent a lot of time out with others. Only in turnouts and then I was usually playing. But in a herd, you move as a group, all the horses walking along together. You have to pay attention to where the other horses are so you don't bump into them or get in their way or make them trip. It's not as easy as it seems. When it was just the 3 of us, I made mistakes a lot but I learned soon enough and when we moved into the bigger pasture at the old place, I learned more.

I learned that some horses don't like it when you get too close. And every horse has a place in the herd and you have to know which horses are above you and which are below you in the ranking. You have to let the ones who are higher go first at the water trough or the hay and you have to ask them nicely if you want to share with them. And if they say no, you have to go away instead of getting mad and making a fuss.

Sparky and Dooley looked after me which was very nice. They're both pretty high in every herd so they made sure I got a place under the shelter when it rained and that no one picked on me too much. But they said I had to learn and sometimes I just had to take a kick or a bite and learn from that.

So now I'm a pretty old hand at being a Pasture Horse. When the grass dried up, we started getting fed hay so we joined the Big Herd and now we all live together. I've made new friends but I still like Sparky and Dooley best. Rose and Enzo moved to a paddock again which is too bad but we still get to see them. And I'm taking Lessons with my mom and learning how to be a real Dressage Horse! Sparky has a Girl who comes to ride him regularly and he also gives Lessons to little kids who are just learning to ride. He likes it a lot because he can make sure they get a good start. So we're very happy and I'll try to keep up with my blog better.

Enzo, Dooley, me and Rose.