Turnout!

Yesterday my mom took me to the Pony Arena and gave me a turnout. It was so much fun! We've been spending a lot of time in the Round Pen working on Cones and things, and that's fun but sometimes I really need to run fast. It feels good and you just can't run that fast in a Round Pen. It's too small. Big horses like me, with long legs need lots of space to get up our speed. So I was happy to go to the Pony Arena.

Whenever we go there though, I think about that Bad Day when I hurt my mom. That's where it happened, after all. It was just outside that arena. I was Bad then and didn't have Manners, and that's what happens when horses don't have Manners. People get hurt. I don't know if my mom thinks about it but it doesn't seem to bother her. She just walks me right to the arena like it's no different than any other place. I'm glad she's not mad at me.

I was good on the walk. Since we're walking more now, it's easier for me to remember to be good. I was happy when she brought me to the arena though, and as soon as I got in and she took my halter off, I trotted off across it and began to sniff all over the ground. Horses like to sniff the ground because you can tell what other horses have been there. If there's poop on the ground, we like to smell that because that really tells you a lot about other horses. So I sniffed around for a little bit and my mom let me because she knows that's important.

Finally, I lifted my head and looked at her so she said, "Are you ready now?" and I tossed my head and waited. Sure enough, she moved to the center of the arena and held out her Bag Stick and I began trotting around in a circle around her. Pretty soon though I broke into a canter and then a fast canter. And then I put my head down and galloped!

Oh! It was fun! I raced around and around, and then Mom asked me to change directions and I did and I raced even faster the other way. Mom just let me - she didn't try to make me go a certain gait, or do turns or anything like that. She knew I just needed some exercise.

I finally settled down to a nice trot and trotted around for a while, then Mom picked up her Bag Stick and I knew I was allowed to come to the middle and visit with her. I like that part. She pets me and tells me what a Good Girl I am and feels my chest to see how hot I am. I was pretty hot yesterday but it felt good. Then she let me just walk around again and do whatever I wanted to. That's always nice. Sometimes there are other horses waiting to have a turnout so we have to be polite and go but when no one is there, she always lets me just wander around.

It was such a nice day. Sunny and warm and it smelled so nice. After I had a nice roll, Mom put my halter and lead back on and we walked all around the farm. First she brought me into the Rolling Arena and I had an even better roll. Then we stopped to visit Indian, and we stopped and visited Sparky, then we stopped and visited Dooley, and then we visited Cozzie. And then we walked back to the barn and when we got there, Mom led me onto the grass and told me I could graze! So I got to munch on some wonderful, yummy grass too!

She let me graze a long time and when she made me leave, she still let me stop and take a few bites now and then as we walked back to my stall. That was nice and made it a little easier to walk away from it. All in all, it was another great day.