Stupid rain!

It was kind of a stupid day today. I had gotten used to the weather being nice and warm and sunny but today was all cold and wet and rainy. I didn't much like it. My paddock was all full of water and mud and I couldn't stand out there and nap in the sunshine like I like to do.

When my mom got here, she was all wet and smelled like Sparky so I knew she had taken care of him first. That was okay. I know Sparky needs to get taken care of too and I wasn't mad. She was with Sparky's mom too so that was nice. I haven't seen Sparky's mom in a long time and she stopped to say hello to me then grabbed my red halter and lead and went to the pasture. That was kind of strange because I knew Spark wasn't in the pasture anymore but then my mom put my rope halter on me and brought me to the Round Pen so I forgot about it.

I was eager to get out. My mom didn't come out to see me at all yesterday so I was kind of frisky. I still remembered my Manners though even though it was hard. Mom made it a little easier by letting me eat some of the nice wet grass on the way. Wet grass tastes so good! It's juicy and sweet and smells wonderful.

I thought we'd play some Cone Game or something but my mom just popped me in the Round Pen and told me to exercise myself. Then she went back to my stall. I saw her grab a rolling bucket thing on her way so I knew she was going to clean my stall. I didn't mind not playing our games. Sometimes it's fun to just play on my own and do whatever I want to do. I started running around in the rain and bucking and kicking up my heels. It was fun! Every now and then my mom would poke her head out of my stall and say hello to me and tell me I was being a Good Girl. So that was nice.

After a while though I got sick of it. It was pretty cold and the rain was coming down hard. Besides I could see that Mom and Sparky's mom had another horse in front of my stall and I was anxious to see who it was. The horse was eating something and I thought it might be my food. My mom is really good about feeding me and even though I sometimes have to share a hay snack she makes sure I get enough. Even so, it's hard to watch someone else eating at your stall when you're not there.

I was waiting patiently by the gate when I saw my mom coming but then she turned and went behind the food area place and I got mad! I reared right up and pawed the air like a wild horse! I thought I probably looked pretty scary but then I heard Sparky's mom yelling, "Look! Bella's so cute!" and that kind of ruined it. My mom came to get me then and when I tried to act fussy and bouncy she just shook her Bag Stick at me and told me I had to behave whether I liked it or not so I did. It's hard to be six sometimes.

But then I got to go back to my stall, or rather to Cocoa's stall because Mom tied me up outside of her stall. I like Cocoa. We're good friends even if she is sort of weird. She always whinnies a lot when I go anywhere and acts like I'm never going to come back. She won't even eat her dinner if I'm not in my stall. Then when I come back, she gets all huffy like I went away on purpose or something. Well, I have to go when my mom tells me to, besides I like to go out and do things. Cocoa just doesn't understand because her mom never takes her anywhere. She used to be a Broodmare which is a horse that just has babies. That's its job which seems like a strange job to me but Cocoa says my mom was probably a Broodmare too. Anyway, because of that she really likes babies and she seems to think I'm her baby or something even though I'm a Big Girl and six now. I don't mind because it's kind of nice to have a horse fuss over me like that.

So I was in front of Cocoa's stall and I didn't have anything to eat because Mom didn't bring me a hay snack or anything. I could see now that the horse Sparky's mom had brought from the pasture was Sparky's friend Dooley and he was all wet and very cold and looked kind of sad and miserable. Mom and Sparky's mom had dried him off and put my rain sheet on him and given him a Bran Mash but he was still kind of tense and uncomfortable so I poked my nose out at him and tried to make him feel better. I could hardly reach him but we sniffed noses and he smelled so nice! I liked him immediately. I've never had a chance to really meet Dooley but he seemed like a really nice gelding so I told him that my mom would take good care of him and he didn't have to worry about things now. Which is true. My mom always takes good care of me so I knew she'd make him feel all right.

He seemed a little more relaxed then which was good and he was warming up nicely by then. So I started poking around with my nose to see what i could play with. I just like to play with things. I don't know why. Finally I found a towel on the ground nearby - I think they'd used it to dry Dooley off - so I picked that up and started shaking it. Dooley seemed interested so he started poking around with his nose too. He grabbed my bag of shavings and pulled on that and that made me like him even more because I like to play with my shavings. Then I played with my food dish and he played with his bucket and he rubbed his head on Sparky's mom and I played bite-face with Cocoa and then my mom yelled at me because I kept picking up my hind foot. I wasn't going to kick anyone - I just wanted to warn Cocoa not to mess with me but it's not Manners so Mom got mad. I made my foal face at her but she seemed to mean it so I tried to be good after that.

Finally she was done with my stall and she put me back in it and started opening my shavings bag. I was excited because I love to help spread my shavings but just then that box thing of hers made a racket and she started talking to it and I had to wait. I kept pawing at them to tell her I wanted to get my shavings out but she just kept yakking. Sometimes people are just clueless.

At last she put the thing back in her pocket and while she helped me open the bag she told Sparky's mom that she could put Dooley back in his stall instead of the pasture. I was glad to hear it and so was Dooley. He didn't want to go back out there and I would have felt so sorry for him if he'd had to. But now he's in a nice warm stall and so am I. I had a good roll and then my mom brought my bucket dinner and it smelled really good today. I still dumped it out and picked out all the carrots but then I started eating some of it and it actually tasted kind of nice. I think my mom put something special in it. I ate it all up.

It's still raining but my tummy is full and I have a clean bed and a big pile of hay. I'm glad all my friends are safe from the weather. Really it was a good day after all.