Bad day then a good day

Sometimes you have a day you think is going to be just awful but then it turns out to be really good. That's how today was.

I was in kind of a crabby mood because my mom never came to see me yesterday and I didn't get my stall cleaned, and I didn't get my bucket dinner, and I didn't get my carrot or cookies or anything. You can understand why that would make me upset. But then Sparky's mom came this morning. I was happy to see her and I whinnied at her. She stopped to say hello to me but then she went to the pasture and got Sparky out!

Well, I got mad. It's not fair. Sparky gets all the attention and I was waiting so patiently in my dirty stall with nothing to eat. Oh, she did give me a hay snack but it was small and besides she didn't do it right. I'm supposed to come out of my stall and get tied up in the aisle while I eat my hay snack. And then she's supposed to clean my stall and talk nice to me and call me Belly and give me cookies and things. Instead she had to go get stupid old Sparky.

She came in my stall and started rummaging around in my duds closet and I poked my nose at her and tried to be cute so she'd give me cookies and be nice to me but she was just mean and told me to go away. So I bit her. I know Mom will be mad at me when she finds out but I couldn't help it. She said, "BELLA!" and I tossed my head. She's not my mom. I don't have to be good for her. And besides, what was she doing in my duds closet if she wasn't getting something for me?

She took some funny box thing out of there and left me and I could hear her and Favre's mom talking and laughing. And then they just left! She saddled Spark up and I saw them riding in the Flat Arena with Favre and his mom and then they left and went up the hill and were gone for the longest time. Spark said later that they'd gone on a trail ride. How do you like that? I'm left in a messy stall while they're out having fun on the trail!

Spark got groomed. Spark got fed. What did I get? Nothing. Well, I got that hay snack. And a carrot. But still!

So the day wasn't shaping up too well for me. But then it got better. Later in the afternoon, I heard my mom's car! I let out the biggest whinny you ever heard and by the time she got to my stall I was nickering and pacing and being cute. She opened the door and petted me and called me a Good Girl and gave me nose kisses and stuff. All the right stuff that she's supposed to do. Then she put my halter on and tied me outside just the way I like it and gave me a nice big hay snack and cleaned my stall right up. She even scrubbed out my water bucket.

I felt lots better. My mom knows how to take care of me. She went to say hi to Spark but I don't mind that, as long as she takes care of me properly. Spark's my best friend, after all.

Well, when she was done with my stall, she groomed me and cleaned my feet and put fly spray on me and then she began putting on my boots. I was excited. Boots usually mean a turnout! I haven't had a turnout since I hurt my leg and I sure could use one. She put my front boots on and then she put the back ones on too. I hate those stupid old back boots! They feel funny on my legs. They have special padding on them - Mom says it's to keep me from getting all scuffed - and it's all stiff and strange. It makes me want to kick my legs out.

Mom made me stand still for them though so I had to. Then she put on my chain lead and took me out for a walk. I was kind of disappointed that she wasn't turning me out but I was happy to walk down the road instead of just around and around in the Flat Arena. Mom let me walk along with my head down so I could sniff all the poop on the road. Horses like to sniff poop. It tells us who else has been that way. I sniffed all sorts of horses' poop. I even found some that was Spark's! It was really interesting and fun and Mom took pictures of me as I poked along.

We got to the Little Rolling Arena and suddenly something made me jump. It was a little windy and the leaves just there are dry and rattly so when they blow, it sounds funny. I don't know, maybe it was that, maybe it was the horse being led down in the arena but I got really jumpy all of a sudden. It was as if I all of a sudden remembered that I was frisky. I started snorting and staring and sniffing the air and that made me even more excited. All of a sudden I'd bolt and try to race around Mom and run back toward my barn!

Mom was as calm as she always is. She just holds my lead and talks to me. She seems to understand just how I feel. I kept suddenly bursting into these fits, rearing and striking, or bolting, or kicking and she'd just stand still and talk quietly. Then I'd settle down a little bit and we'd go on walking until suddenly I couldn't take it and I'd start bouncing around again. It was lots of fun and very exciting and the more excited I got, the more bouncy I became.

Mom finally got me turned toward home and we started walking but I kept exploding every few feet. I just have so much energy inside me! When we finally got back to the Flat Arena, she led me in there and started walking me around in it. That settled me down a little - I'm used to walking in there now. Then she began asking me to do all my tricks and pretty soon I forgot all about being silly and started focusing on what she was going to ask me next. I did all my tricks and I did them really well too. Mom said so and she gave me lots of cookies for doing them. So that was really nice. Then we went back to my stall but we stopped so I could sniff noses with Chip on the way.

I had a nice new clean bed to pee and roll in, and a tasty bucket dinner too. Mom checked my leg and said it was just a little warm but not swollen and she put some medicine on it but no bandage. So it must be almost better. I'm glad about that. I hope I can really run soon. I miss it a lot.