New shoes

I got to see my Shoe Man the other day. That was nice. I like my Shoe Man. He pets me and plays with my feet and he smells interesting and has fun toys. He has this big metal thing that he puts my shoes on and then he pounds on them with a big pounder thing. It's kind of exciting. And the metal thing smells kind of like my bit. Sometimes I lick it.

My mom got there and instead of getting me out she just gave me a hay snack and petted me real quick. Then she got Sparky out. I was a little confused about that but I had a hay snack so I didn't mind too much. Later I realized that she must have taken Spark to see the Shoe Man first. Spark is a little afraid of having his feet played with. He told me one time that he's not even sure why. He just gets tense and is afraid something bad will happen. He thinks maybe something bad did happen one time when he was small or something and he just can't seem to relax about it, even though our Shoe Man is nice and pets him and stuff. Poor Spark. It's not fun to feel nervous and not be able to do anything about it.

It must have gone all right though because it wasn't long before they went back past me. Spark's feet were all nice and trimmed and he looked pretty happy because he was going back out to the pasture. Mom came to get me then and I was excited to go out. She put my halter on and my chain lead, and then she put my regular lead on too. That seemed kind of funny but I realized what was all about later.

We started walking over to where the Shoe Man likes to work and I saw Spencer ahead of us walking with his mom. Spencer is weird. He can be nice enough and then all of a sudden he can be nasty. He's always kicking at his neighbor - not Cocoa but his neighbor on the other side. Razuli. Razuli is weird too and he kicks back and the two of them make an awful racket kicking at each other because they have big boards on the fence between them, probably to keep them from hurting each other while they're kicking. It's really dumb. I sometimes kick at my neighbors but only when I'm mad, or waiting for my dinner or something. They do it all the time.

Anyway, they were walking along and were kind of in our way so my mom led me sort of behind them. We weren't close to them at all - I've been lots closer to other horses that I didn't even know. Sometimes when you ride in an arena with other horses, you pass them or catch up to them and you get really close. Most horses just keep doing what they're supposed to because that's all part of Manners. You have to behave when your mom is leading or riding you, even if you don't like having other horses close to you which most of us don't unless they're friends who we're used to. It's not comfortable having strange horses right near you. But Manners are more important than anything, that's what I've learned.

Spencer doesn't have any Manners at all though. As soon as we got behind him, he started swishing his tail and putting his ears back and then he kicked out with both heels really hard! Luckily we weren't close and I just jumped aside so I didn't get kicked but I was pretty mad! I don't care if I get kicked - I can give as good as I get if I have to - but he could have hurt my mom! His mom got all fussy and kind of yelled at my mom for getting too close and my mom said she was sorry but I don't see what SHE had to be sorry about. Spencer was the bad one and his mom didn't even yell at him. My mom would have made me sorry if I ever kicked at anyone while she was leading me! I know better than that and I even admit that I sometimes forget my Manners.

My mom petted me though and told me I was a Good Girl for just getting out of the way so that made me feel nice. She notices when I behave myself and always lets me know it. So I didn't care about old Spencer anymore. You can bet though that if I get close to him, I'll bite him good. As long as my mom isn't leading me, that is.

My Shoe Man was glad to see me and he petted me and started playing with my feet. Mom tied me using my cotton lead but she kept my chain lead on too and I realized that was just in case I forgot to behave. She also had a riding crop with her. She does that sometimes because I get tired of standing still and sometimes I get cranky and bitey so she smacks me with the crop so I remember to behave. But she also had a lot of cookies in her pocket. I could smell them and I tried really hard to be good so I could have some. Mom gave me lots of pets and stuff while the Shoe Man worked and every once in a while she'd give me a cookie. So it made the time go by faster. She also asked me to do my trick where I touch her hand with my nose and that took my mind off the fact that I was standing still.

I just don't like standing still. It's dumb. I like to be moving around. You can see lots more that way and it feels good. My muscles get bored when I'm just standing. If I HAVE to stand, I need to be doing something with my mouth. Like playing with the riding crop. Mom lets me do that and it helps. I bite it and mouth it and wave it around. It's fun. I used to try to play with the Shoe Man's clothes. He wears this thing made of leather around his waist and it has a hanging strap that I used to try to grab. But Mom won't let me so I don't do that anymore. I guess it's not Manners.

I felt lots better when he was all done and I had new shoes on. I love getting new shoes. My feet feel really good and it makes my legs and everything feel nice. Even my sore leg feels better. Horses feet grow, you know. And when they grow, it changes the way you stand and move and everything. Once they're trimmed up and level and even and stuff, your whole body feels better. I always want to run after I get new shoes but Mom wouldn't let me this time. I still have to be careful of my leg, after all. Instead she brought me back to my stall and gave me a nice bucket dinner and cleaned my stall. She got Spark out again too and gave him his bucket dinner. Spark is so nice. Even though he had just had his feet done, which he doesn't like, he came right to the gate nickering when she went to get him. He's always happy to come out no matter what. He's got really nice Manners.

It's raining now. I like the rain. It smells nice and it's kind of cozy to just nap in my stall door and watch it come down. I hope we can go for a walk today. Mom came out kind of late last night and just fed me without really doing much of anything. She did feel my leg though and said that there was no heat or swelling at all so that's good. Hopefully that means we can start doing a little more.