My mom and Sparky's mom came out today and my mom had a bucket with a bunch of stuff in it. I was pretty curious but I was also a little busy because she'd brought me out and tied me in front of my stall and I was whuffling around trying to find a decent hay snack. We got some really weird hay this morning. My mom said it was Oat Hay. It was strange. It had kind of thick stems and big flowers on it. The flowers were okay, I guess, but I'm used to my grass hay now. I didn't much like it and left kind of a lot of it in my stall. Sparky didn't eat any of his.
But I couldn't find anything but more Oat Hay outside my stall so I ate some. When that's all there is, that's what you eat. I wasn't that excited about it though so when my mom came with that bucket, I stopped to help her look at the things in it.
There were some sponges. That wasn't really very interesting. Sponges are boring, and they don't taste good. I just kind of gave them a quick sniff and poked my nose toward the bucket to see what else there was. Then she pulled out a funny ring made out of rope. It was about as big around as a bucket, and the rope was thick and braided. On one side, there was a sort of tube of hard rubbery stuff around it, kind of like a handle. My mom told me it was a toy for me and that we were going to use it to play a new game but we never did play with it today. Maybe another time.
Then she pulled out a new bit. She held it up for me to sniff and I did. It smelled good. I don't know if you know anything about bits but they're all different. Some of them are made out of stuff that doesn't really taste very good, and some of them don't taste like much of anything. Some of them taste kind of nice though, and that's the kind I like. I have lots of bits. The first bit my mom used on me was just a regular old snaffle. It had a little bit of a curve to the mouthpiece and it was jointed in the middle. It was an okay bit and I liked it well enough, but it didn't taste like anything and sometimes I was a little fussy with it.
Then my mom got me a snaffle with a little piece in the center of the joint. She called it a French Link. I liked that better. It didn't pinch the roof of my mouth like the other one sometimes did, and the link was fun to play with. It still didn't taste like anything much but I liked it fine.
Later my mom got me a different bit. That one tasted really good. It had just one link again, but it had these neat little rolling things made out of a tasty metal - my mom called it Copper. That confused me because I know a horse named Copper and it seemed really strange to make a bit out of him. Besides, I could still see him in his pasture when I went that way, and he isn't made of metal anyhow. Finally Sparky explained to me that Copper is a type of metal and lots of bits have it. His does and he likes it too. So I felt less confused and was able to enjoy the taste of the bit then.
I liked that bit a lot but it wasn't curved like my other bits were and that felt kind of funny. It laid against my tongue too much or something so while I liked the taste, and played with the Copper roller things a lot, I also didn't like the way it felt sometimes. When my mom started riding me again just recently, she put my French Link bit back on. And that's what we've been using until today when she put my new bit on my bridle.
It's really pretty and you can see it in the picture I used. It's black and my mom calls it Sweet Iron. It tastes really, really good and it has little bits of Copper in it too that make it taste even better. The sides don't pinch my mouth at all which can sometimes happen with a bit, and it's curved so it's really comfortable. I just love that bit! When my mom first put it on me, I mouthed it and mouthed it a lot getting used to it, and by the time she got on my back, I had my head down low and I was just enjoying it. My mouth got all wet and slobbery which felt nice, and the bit was really soft in my mouth.
We had fun riding today. Sparky didn't come with us because his mom was cleaning his stall and later she was giving him a bath which he didn't like at all. Spark's kind of funny that way. He hates the water. Not to drink. I don't mean that. Horses have to drink water after all. But he hates having water hosed on him, or even sponged on if it's splashy. He gets all scared and nervous and stuff and tries to get away from it. I don't know why. I like to get hosed off when it's hot and baths are kind of fun. And even if I don't really feel like it, I don't mind getting washed. It's just water. It doesn't hurt. But Sparky won't listen to me when I tell him that. He says I don't understand. Well, he's right. I don't.
But anyway, that's why he wasn't riding with us but that was okay because two other horses were. We rode in the Flat Arena and Sparky's mom took a break from cleaning to bring that box thing along and point it at me. My mom had groomed me all up, and put my wraps on, and a pretty red saddle pad, and my new dressage saddle, and my pretty rope reins. Also, one of the things she brought today was a new head bucket thing for her so she was looking all pretty too. So I felt good and it was kind of fun to be out with other horses.
I didn't forget to be Good though. I'm six now, and a Big Girl, and when you're Big, you have to be good and listen to your mom. So I didn't buck or bolt or get silly - I just tried to do what she wanted me to do. First we just walked around which was okay but a little bit boring. I was having a good time looking at the other horses though. One of them was a big bay who was doing all kinds of fancy stuff like Kia used to do. He'd trot along all squashed up with his head pulled in and his back legs right under him, then he'd go across the arena the long way and stretch his legs right out like he was flying. It was pretty to watch. Then he'd go almost sideways for a while - I can do that but my mom usually tells me not to.
I wanted to go fast too so I kind of told my mom and she told me I could if I wanted. So I broke into a trot and she let me go kind of fast. It was fun! I was sort of surprised at that because I've had the idea that trotting is dumb. Maybe it's because I'm six now, or maybe it's because I have a new saddle, but whatever it is, I decided that trotting wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was. I didn't do it too long because I got kind of excited and didn't know what to do so I stopped. But my mom petted me and told me I was a Good Girl so we got going again and after a while I trotted some more.
It was really fun. One time I sort of bounced in a silly way instead of breaking into my trot nicely but Mom let me know I needed to just go forward and I did. Then another time I broke into a canter instead but she gently pulled me back into a trot so that was okay. I think she was proud of me though. Even with other horses in there trotting and cantering, I paid attention to her and behaved myself.
After we were done, she put me in my stall and cleaned my paddock while I ate my dinner hay. I was happy to get real grass hay this time and enjoyed it a lot. And my mom opened up my duds closet to put things away so I got to sniff all my stuff which I love to do. Best of all, she'd bought me a new stall snack and had hung it in my stall so I have something to munch on this evening. I love my life! I'm a really happy horse.
No comments:
Post a Comment