Guest Blogger: Sparky!

Hello there, this is Sparky, Bella’s brother doing another guest blog. It has been a while since I did one and a lot of stuff has happened in my life, so Bella thought I should share it with her readers. The main thing that has happened is that I am not a Pasture Horse anymore. At first that made me kind of sad, I missed my friends and being able to run around free in the field. My Mom said that I was going to live in a stall now because the pasture gets muddy, cold, and dangerous in the winter and she doesn’t want me to get hurt or sick. I love my Mom and I always want to be a Goodboy and do what she wants because she knows what is best, but this time it was really hard!

It didn’t take too long for me to get used to my new life though, and once I did I realized it is pretty nice! Now I live in a cozy stall with good sturdy walls that keep out the wind and rain. My Mom makes sure it is clean and has nice comfy shavings in it, although I do my part by keeping my bed very neat. I poop in one neat little pile and I don’t walk through it at all, mostly I pee outside but if I pee inside it is just in one spot so it is easy for her to clean up. Inside my stall I have a yummy salt lick, an automatic water bucket in my favorite color: blue, and a hangy treat holder that has a carrot flavored treat in it. I don’t really like the carrot flavor as much as the apple flavor but I don’t think Mom knew that. The walls of my stall are all wood and are solid all the way up, but the front part has a gate on it made out of metal pipes. Over it is an open space so I can hang my head out and the guys can toss me my hay. I get my OWN hay piles for breakfast and for dinner! I like that part. I also really like the outside part of my stall.

When I lived in Minnesota I had a stall but it was just a big square box with one door and if that door was closed I couldn’t get out. It was okay because I only lived in there at night to eat my hay and sleep, but now I have a big doorway right across from the gate that leads to a big paddock! I can go out there any time I want to and no one has to let me out or anything. I spend a lot of time out there dozing in the sun, playing or sniffing noses with my neighbors, and just watching things. I am a lucky horse because my paddock is bigger and nicer than some of them. I am also lucky because I am surrounded by friends. Bella only has two friends at her stall but I have lots. Plus there are mares and geldings which is nice because that is what I am used to.

My two next-to-me neighbors are both mares. One is not very nice to me, her name is Sadie. She bites at me and kicks, and if my Mom is giving me a snack she rudely bangs her hoof on the wall or fence. I don’t like that stuff so I pin my ears at her and try to tell her not to do it, but mares don’t always listen or make sense. On the other side is Polly, she is a pony but not so small that she is scary. Although she can be scary when she wants to be! I respect Polly because she is fair, she likes to sniff noses and chat like a normal horse but when a horse does something she doesn’t like she is firm! I don’t like to make Polly mad so I’m careful not to bug her when she is irritated. I can see a mare named Lily from my paddock but we are not nose-neighbors. I know her from when Bella lived in her first stall. My good friend Cisco’s paddock is right up behind mine so we play a lot together. He is a chestnut quarter horse, the same age as me, we have a lot in common so we get along well. Next to Cisco is Classy. She is a very pretty Tennessee Walker mare. I like her a lot. We don’t play but lots of times she will stand in the corner of her paddock near mine and we will sleep with our noses near each other. I haven’t liked a mare this much since Treasure *nicker*

Another thing that makes my new stall good is that my best friend Dooley lives in a stall right nearby! We can smell each other and call to each other and if I am in front of my stall tied up, I can see his stall! My Mom and Grammy were taking care of Dooley for a while because his mom was hurt and couldn’t do the things she normally did. Dooley wasn’t worried though because he knows my Mom and Grammy and his mom came to visit him, she just couldn’t clean or groom and ride him and stuff. Our Moms are friends too so we ride together a lot and we get to turn out together almost every time! I love to turn out with Dooley, he is my best, most favorite friend! First we both roll right away, we really like to roll. Then we like to run around and pretend that we’re wild Arabs! I always get to be the stallion because I was the Herd Boss. We like to play biteface too, Dooley is fun to play with because he is quick and really good at it like me, sometimes we even rear up and strike at each other but our Moms know we’re just playing, we never really hit each other.

Another important thing in my life is that I am learning to be a Trail Horse. This means that I carry my Mom outside of the arenas, not on the farm, out in the woods and I don’t get scared. It is really hard because there are a lot of strange, scary things out there and it is my job to make sure my Mom is safe. I get nervous sometimes when I don’t think I can protect us from something but my Mom tells me not to run. Like one time we saw some people on Bicycles on the trail, that was really scary. A lady at my old barn used to ride a Bicycle and that wasn’t scary, but I think that is because it was moving slow and I knew her and it was right there at the barn so it seemed safer. The ones on the trail were fast and they were ridden by strangers! At first I was scared and tried to run, but Mom was calm and firm and made me turn around. The people on the Bicycles stopped and talked to me so that they were less scary but I still didn’t like it. Still I have to admit that the next Bicycles we saw were a little easier to take, maybe someday I will just ignore them like Dooley does. Another time we had to cross a Bridge! A Bridge is flat pieces of wood, like the walls of a stall, laid down over nothing!! They are just kind of floating there all hollow. The one we crossed smelled a little like water, but there wasn’t any; Dooley said that sometimes there is water running under them! I don’t like water at all, I’m a desert horse, and I didn’t like that bridge either! My Mom asked me to step onto it and I started to but then stopped, I wanted to be a Goodboy, but I was scared. So Dooley went first to show me that it was okay and I followed him when my Mom asked me to. Once we were over it I felt pretty excited, like I was invincible, I even broke into a little trot!

Being a Trail Horse is kind of scary sometimes but when I’m not scared I really like it! It is fun to see new places and smell new smells. I like exploring with my friends and my Mom. Sometimes we get to run and that is really fun! Mom says I am also going to learn to be a Jumping Horse. I already knew that because I kind of am a Jumping Horse already. Mom used to set up small jumps for me and lunge me over them, I loved it! As soon as I am facing the jump I prick my ears up and speed up a little because I am excited! A couple of times Mom let me go over little jumps while she was on my back! I liked that a lot, it was like we were flying together and she was so proud of me! Once last week when me and Dooley were turned out in the Jumping arena I decided to go over a jump on my own just because I wanted to! Mom and Grammy said that I had really good “form” which meant that I went right over the middle of the jump and tucked my feet up nicely. Mom wants to get a trainer to work with us on jumping because she says I have natural talent and enjoy it and she wants to make sure we do everything right. My Mom is really smart and she is very careful because she wants us to both be safe, that makes me feel so good.

At night times Mom or Grammy come and make me my dinner. I love my dinner, it is warm and has alfalfa, pelleted horse food, and bran in it. Usually it has carrots too. I nicker when I see Mom get my blue dish or the kettle that warms up my water. Sometimes Mom brings me my favorite snack: Ritz crackers! They are so yummy! They are crispy and salty and I would rather have one of those than any other snack in the world! After dinner I munch hay with my friends and enjoy the cool night air. Once it gets too cold I just go in my warm stall and curl up safe and cozy. Sometimes I miss sleeping with the guys in the field but I have a really nice life! I am one lucky boy! Thanks for reading my guest blog!

~Sparky