I haven't been blogging much because I really haven't been doing much. We've just been working on stupid Manners and it's been pretty boring frankly. We take a lot of walks, and I like walks, but my mom insists that I walk nicely, and that I don't bounce, or twirl, or rear, or strike, or anything that's fun. I have to be Polite and walk next to her, and stop when she says to, and remember not to crowd her or step on her feet.
It's not easy. When I'm walking, I like to look around at all the interesting things going on and sometimes I just can't help drifting into her, or getting distracted. It's just my nature. But I'm really trying and she says I am getting better. One thing I do like about my walks is all the friends I get to see. Now that I know where Cozzie lives, I always ask if I can stop to sniff noses with him and my mom almost always lets me because she knows he's my special friend. And Sparky has a stall now near where I used to live so we stop to see him too. Then we go down the hill on the other side and Indian lives over there. Also my friend Misty who we sometimes visit as well. So it is good to get to see my friends. They're always happy to see me. And when I get back to my barn, my mom lets me say hello to Chip.
The last couple of days we haven't gone for walks, though. We've worked in the Round Pen instead and my mom has been using a new thing that is really strange and kind of frightening. The first time she did it, she took me totally by surprise. First she came in with me and petted me for a little bit and told me I'm a Good Girl and pretty and stuff. I always like that. Then she quietly went to the gate and picked up her lunge whip. I thought we were going to have some nice free lungeing but then I saw that she had the lash part tied down and on the very end was the white, rustly thing! I snorted and backed up. I couldn't help it. It was strange and scary and then my mom pointed it at me and just shook it a little bit!
I ran. It made an awful rattling sound and moved in a very strange way. It almost seemed like those bag things that she carries carrots in sometimes but those aren't scary - she just carries them. This was different. It was trying to get me and I didn't like it at all. I ran around that Round Pen trying to get away from it but Mom just stood quietly in the middle and let the whip hang from her hand.
I finally realized that the bag thing wasn't rattling anymore and I calmed down a little bit. I was still running but I wasn't panicked. Mom let me do that for a couple of turns around and then she casually reached out her hand with that stick and bag in it and put it right in front of me!
I screeched to a halt and turned the other direction as fast as I could and she let it hang still again. She let me run around the other way a little bit and then put it in front of me again and again I changed direction with the same result. That got me thinking. I started thinking maybe she was asking me to change direction and not just trying to scare me. I thought maybe it was like some of the games we play where I have to do what she tells me to. I decided to test it to see if I was right and the next time she put it in front of me, I dodged it and ran right past!
Immediately, she moved to another spot in the Round Pen and got right in front of me as I came around again. She held out that bag thing and she shook it hard right at me! Oh, it was scary! I stopped dead and whirled around and went the other way and again, she just held it quiet.
I was starting to get the idea of this game now. It was a game with strict rules. I thought I'd test another thing so as I ran past her one time, I kicked out my heels in her direction.
Wow! I wish I hadn't done that! She shook that bag thing hard at my heels and made the Bad Girl noise really loudly! I scooted right out to the rail and began running nicely again and she immediately dropped it again to hang quiet at her side. So I knew kicking out was against the rules.
After a while, I dropped to a trot and she began making me change direction quicker and quicker. Soon I got so I was going only a few paces in one direction and then a few in the other before she had me change. It was hard work. I had to really concentrate to know when I was going to have to turn. I behaved really, really well though because I didn't want that bag thing shook at me again!
When we were all done, she put it on the ground and let me come in to her. I was glad to do it. I was hot and tired and a little bit stressed but she was really nice to me and told me what a Good Girl I'd been. I felt nice then and was pretty good when she led me out of there and took me to get hosed off.
So that's what we've been doing. Today we did it a lot and I got so hot! I was steaming. It was a warm day and I have a winter coat so I sweat a lot when I'm working. My mom washed me off really well and then she put Sparky's red and blue blanket on me. She sometimes does that when I'm wet. She calls it a cooler.
I didn't mind. I figured she'd get my food and I'd have a hay snack and I'd be nice and comfy. But then she and Sparky's mom went off and left me there. No hay snack. No food. Nothing but that stupid blanket on my back. I don't know if I've told you but I don't much like blankets. I think they're dumb. You can't roll properly in them and they make me itch and stuff. Plus they just sort of hang there stupidly.
I waited patiently for my dinner but she didn't come back and I finally got bored. And I was kind of mad, I'll admit it. I started thinking that she was probably off riding Sparky or Dooley or something. Dooley is a bay horse that used to be in the pasture and I've seen my mom riding him lately. I think she's taking care of him. But it's not fair that he gets all the attention when I'm left starving in my stall after a hard workout!
I got so mad and so impatient and so itchy that I reached around and grabbled that blanket in my teeth! I wasn't going to do anything bad - I just wanted to scratch myself - but when I pulled on it, it came partially off my shoulder. So I pulled on it some more. That's when I felt sort of a rip. I started thinking that maybe I could just take the darn thing off so I pulled even harder and to my surprise, a big chunk of it ripped right off into my mouth!
Well, that got me going. I grabbed it and tore at it, I ripped it and worked at it and pulled on it and twisted around and around tearing at it until I had it all pulled off. Pieces of it were trampled all over my stall and paddock, there were even pieces outside my window where the guys throw the hay in. All that was left on me was the strap that goes around my belly. I couldn't get that off.
I felt pretty satisfied about the whole thing and was just hanging around in my stall when one of the neighbor horse's people saw me there. She called over some other people and soon there were a whole bunch of them staring through the bars of the stall at me. I was happy to see them and I was just wishing one of them would give me a carrot or some dinner when I saw my mom riding down the hill on Dooley with Sparky and his mom.
"I just left a message on your cell phone!" one of the ladies by my stall called out. and my mom said, "Oh, god, what has she done now?" She rode over to my stall and I greeted her happily but she looked kind of surprised. That's when I realized that maybe taking off my blanket wasn't such a good thing to do. I looked around then and realized that I hadn't just taken it off. I had kind of torn it up and that was a little different. And then I remembered that it wasn't really my blanket anyway - it was Sparky's. I started to feel bad then.
My mom and Sparky's mom and the boys rode off then but Mom and Sparky's mom came back after a while. By then, I'd gotten my hay and was eating it. My mom came in with that little box thing and pointed it at all the bits and the band around my belly. She took that off me and said, "Oh, Belly!" and hugged me. I know she was kind of disappointed in me but she also seemed to think it was all kind of funny too. Even Sparky's mom was laughing as she picked up the mess.
So I guess I'm kind of a Bad Horse and I feel sorry that I ruined Spark's blanket. But I didn't really mean to.
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