Rewards

Sometimes it really pays to be a Good Horse. Today my mom came out early. Most days she comes close to the time I get my dinner hay but sometimes she comes lots earlier than that. She calls that a Day Off. I like it when she has a Day Off because it means we get to spend more time together doing fun things.

I was napping in my shavings when she got there but I heard her car so I woke up and stood and shook the shavings off me. I was waiting by my stall door nickering when she got there but she knew I'd been lying down because I still had lots of shavings in my mane and tail. She petted me and told me I was cute.

I felt all nice and warm and drowsy the way you do when you've just had a good nap so I was pretty affectionate and cuddly. I know my mom likes it when I'm like that. She always loves me, but I know she enjoys being able to hug me or hold my head close to her and pet my face. Most of the time, I'm just not in the mood for that and she doesn't mind and she doesn't make me but I know it's special for her when she can. Today was one of those days and I could tell she was relaxed and happy being able to pet me like that.

She brought me out of my stall and gave me a nice hay snack. That helped me to wake up and start feeling ready to work. It's always nice to have something in your tummy when you have to work - not a lot of food. That can give you a tummy ache which is never a good thing. But having some hay in there makes you feel more comfortable and able to pay attention better. My mom understands that and usually lets me have at least a little snack. I like that.

After she cleaned my stall, she brought me to the Round Pen. She was really happy with the way I walked. After we did all that work on my walking, I've been trying really hard to behave. You never know when there might be a cookie in it for you and I knew she had some in her pocket because I could smell them. I even lipped a little bit at the pocket but she just tickled my nose and told me, "Not yet, Belly." I like it when she calls me Belly.

The gate on the Round Pen was closed but I backed up nicely when she told me to and stood quietly while she opened it up. She praised me a lot for that because I was pretty bad going to the Round Pen for a while. There's quite a bit of grass growing near the gate and I sometimes pulled really hard toward it. One time I even sort of dragged her as I rushed into it and she had a hard time getting my head up and getting me out of it. She was mad that time and I can't really blame her because I wasn't behaving at all. But today I didn't even hardly look at that grass and she didn't have to pull on my lead at all. She just kept it nice and loose and I followed her like a Good Girl. I am trying.

Once we were inside, she set up my Cones. I followed her around and nosed them as she did it. I like my Cones. They're mine and they're fun to play with. I like to play our games with them and I also like to pick them up and toss them around with my teeth. My mom lets me do it when we're all done with our work. We have to do work first. That's how it's done when you're six.

After that, she put my red halter on me. I haven't worn my red halter in a long time. It's a regular halter with flat straps instead of round ones like my rope halter. I wondered why she did that because I usually don't wear a halter at all when we work but then she clipped the lunge line onto it. I remembered how that works. It's just the same as when I go around by myself but I have a long thing like a lead rope attached and my mom stands in the middle and holds the other end of it.

When I was little and first came to live with my mom, I had never been on a lunge line. I was just a baby back then, only four. My mom spent a lot of time teaching me how to lunge and it was really confusing at first. I didn't know what she wanted me to do and I kept trying to get close to her because it was like a lead rope so I thought she'd want me to walk with her. She was patient with me and she started by keeping the line really, really short and encouraging me with her whip to go in tiny circles around her. At first she had to sort of pull me around while she moved in circles too but eventually I started to understand and she began having me move further out on the circle.

Now I'm a pro on a lunge line. I can walk, and trot, and canter on it, and I can turn around and change direction. I don't even think about it now. It had been quite a while since we used the lunge line but I remembered how and we had a fun time lunging for a while. Then she took it off and petted me and had me do my Cone game for just a little bit. I'm so good at my Cone game now that I don't have to think much about that either. The only thing I have to think about is waiting for her to tell me to whoa because sometimes she doesn't want me to stop at one Cone and makes me keep going to the next one. It's just so I remember to only stop when she tells me to. But it makes it more fun because I have to guess when she's going to want me to go and when she wants me to stop.

I was a Good Girl for the Cone game so then she put all my stuff away and put my rope halter back on. She opened the gate and made me stand quietly for a few seconds like she always does. I have to wait until she says it's time to go through the gate. That's Manners and horses have to do that with stall doors, and gates, and anything like that. I don't really know why but it's okay. I don't mind.

Then we did some walking. Like we have been lately, we just walked around the immediate area of our stall. I think it's because Mom wants to make sure I'm going to behave around the grass and in the aisle thing. I was really good going up and down the road, and when we went under the roof thing, I remembered not to pull toward Chip's stall even though that's really hard. I just love Chip so much and he's always waiting there with his head out his window wanting to sniff noses. My mom almost always lets me say hello eventually but it's hard to remember that I have to wait until she says it's okay.

Today I did though and she was very happy with me. I didn't try to pull her toward the grass at all and only got a little pushy one time when we were near my stall. She reminded me that I'm not allowed to do that though and then I was good. The next time through, she let me say hi to Chip.

Then she led me past my stall again and back out onto the road. She led me back toward the Round Pen but this time she led me up onto the grass! I was happy but I remembered to be good and not fuss or pull and when she asked me to whoa, I did it without just shoving my nose down and just stood quietly. She petted me then and immediately let me put my head down and graze.

That was nice but the grass wasn't really that good. They just cut it recently and what's left is kind of coarse and tasteless. I ate some and found some nice tender new shoots but there weren't a lot of them and I had to really search to find the good stuff. Mom understood. I could tell, and finally she took me off that part of the grass and led me past the Round Pen. I was a little disappointed but came off it nicely and walked well for her and when we got to the area where the road gets narrow and there's a hill on one side, she stopped and directed me to the hill where there was some nice grass that hadn't been cut.

I was really happy then and understood that she was just trying to find some better grazing for me. As I ate, I thought about how when I'm bad, I don't get to graze but today when I tried really hard to be good, I did. I thought maybe it was sort of a reward for behaving. It's something to think about.

She let me eat for quite a while and then she took me to my stall and groomed me really well, and petted me lots, and put fly spray on me. I like fly spray. Flies drive me crazy! They're starting to come around now and I don't like them at all. My mom knows that and she keeps a special box in my stall that sprays nice smelling stuff every now and then that helps keep the flies away. And she always makes sure I have fly spray on when she comes.

My mom's pretty nice to me. She expects me to behave and have Manners but she does nice things for me so it's okay.