Such an exciting day!

I had a really exciting day today but first let me tell you about yesterday which wasn't exciting at all and in fact was pretty dumb.

I was hanging around in my stall, looking forward to seeing my mom when I heard Sparky's mom arrive. Well, that usually means that my mom is on the way but I waited and waited patiently and no mom. Sparky's mom fussed with him for what seemed like forever and then finally she came and got me.

Well, of course I was mad. She's not my mom and my mom wasn't even there and here she was getting me out. I hadn't had a hay snack and we're still getting that oat hay that I don't really like, so I kind of pulled a little bit and went over to Sparky's stall to see if he had anything good to eat. He didn't, and Sparky's mom was squawking at me and telling me I was Bad just because I was starving to death and looking for food. And then I wanted to visit with Chip and she wouldn't even let me! She's so mean! She never lets me do anything and I try so hard to be Good but she just treats me like dirt!

I really wanted my mom but then Sparky's mom took me to the Round Pen and turned me out with Spark so that was kind of nice. I love Spark but I don't know how he puts up with his mom. She's dumb and she doesn't know anything about horses. She's nice to me when my mom is around but she gets all mean and unreasonable when we're alone.

She brought us both back to our stalls together and I tried to be really good on the lead like I always do. She didn't clean my stall, and she didn't groom me, and she didn't give me a proper dinner... it was a pretty awful day. She just put me in my stall and went off to ride stupid old Sparky.

They rode in the Flat Arena and I watched because I didn't have anything else to do since my mom wasn't there. Sparky was really Good, I have to say, and it looked like fun. He was kind of frisky and was trotting happily and one time he asked his mom if he could canter and she let him and he popped into a nice canter. He told me later that they had a nice ride. I didn't tell him how dumb I thought his mom was. That's not really very nice. He loves her after all.

Today was lots better. My mom came out nice and early with Sparky's mom (who was all nice to me like nothing Bad ever happened yesterday). I was so happy to see her. I whinnied loudly when they drove up and I nickered nicely when she got to my stall. There was stupid oat hay all over the place in there because it tastes dumb and I don't really like it much but she'd brought me a little hay snack with some grass hay and that was so nice! I was nearly starving after all, what with having to eat oat hay and having barely any dinner the day before.

My mom cleaned my stall up and then she groomed me really well and made me all shiny. She cleaned my butt with some nice warm water too. I had kind of a loose poop yesterday afternoon and it sort of dribbled down my backside so my butt and my legs were kind of gross. My mom notices that sort of thing though and she keeps a special bucket and sponge just for my butt. At first I didn't like it at all when she cleaned me like that. It seemed pretty invasive, if you know what I mean, and I'd swish my tail and lift my leg like I was going to kick. But she wouldn't put up with that and now I don't really mind so much. I know she's just trying to take good care of me and keep me from getting infections in my lady parts.

After all the grooming and cleaning, she put my fly spray on and then tacked me up so I knew we were going to ride. We've been riding more and more lately and I like it. She put my Dressage saddle on - we're using that one all the time now. We both love it. Sparky's mom was tacking him up too so I was happy. I love to ride with my brother.

First we rode in the Flat Arena. It was okay. We walked in circles for a while and then Mickey came in with his mom and he did some lunging. It was kind of fun to watch him. I like watching other horses at work. After we got all warmed up, my mom asked me for a trot and I broke into a nice one without even thinking about it. She was really happy about that because it's been a long time since I trotted without fussing about it. Then Sparky's mom asked about riding around the Loop and my mom said okay.

I got excited about it as soon as we got on the road. It's been so long since I rode Poop Loops and it seemed like a real adventure. We rode up the hill near the pasture and I got really fussy and was asking my mom if I could run. I was dancing and prancing and going sideways and instead of getting mad at me and pulling on my reins, she loosened them and pushed me forward so I broke into a big gallop and raced up that hill! My mom was trying to pull me gently down into a trot but I just wanted to go so it was more like a bounce up the hill. It was really fun.

I was still excited when we got to the top and dropped to a walk. I couldn't help it. I was sort of prancing along sideways and my mom was just telling me with her seat to relax and calm down. I was actually getting ready to do it even though there was a big tractor thingy pushing the manure around in the manure pile - it was on the other side of it so you couldn't really see it properly, you could just hear it and that made it extra exciting - but then I saw a bunch of guys on the hills way above walking around and doing stuff and it just spooked the hooves off of me!

I don't know why it made me so scared but it did. They looked so odd up there and all I could really see was their white shirts moving around on the side of the hill. It made me feel funny and shaky and unsure and I suddenly went from being silly and prancy to being really scared. I spooked badly and began backing up, looking for a way to get out of that scary place. I could hardly feel my mom on my back. She was doing her best to calm me, pushing me with her legs to stop me from backing up and talking to me and trying to reassure me. But I was panicked by then, and just wanted to get away and going forward seemed really scary. I backed up until I could sense that I was about to run into things - there were barns and fences and stuff back there - then I bucked a little. I couldn't help it.

My mom didn't get mad. She knew I was scared. She just kept talking soothingly and finally the words, "Whoa, Belly" got through to me and I stopped for a moment. I felt her lean forward then, the way she does when she gets off me and I stood nicely while she did that.

Things were better then because my mom was on the ground with me and she was petting me and letting me know that she wouldn't let anything bad happen to me. Sparky was cheerfully walking along all this time, not the least perturbed, and that settled me down some too. His mom continued to ride along the Loop and my mom led me along with them. I was pretty fussy and silly at first but once I realized that my mom was with me and no one was going to hurt me, I was okay. I still don't really know why I got so scared and I feel a little silly about it but Spark says that horses get scared like that in order to protect themselves in the wild and that it's nothing to be ashamed of. I love Spark. He makes me feel a lot better sometimes.

After that, we had a nice walk around the farm. My mom let me visit with Cozzie for a few minutes which really helped calm me down, and then I visited with Indian too which also helped. They were both sympathetic and said they'd spooked before and it wasn't a bad thing - sometimes horses can't help it. So I felt better. My mom wasn't mad at all and seemed to understand so it was okay.

She hand walked me the whole way around and when we got back to the Flat Arena, she got on again and just rode me one time around it, just to remind me that it was okay to be ridden and that we're a team. I was good there. I'm used to the Flat Arena but I just get excited when we go to places I'm not used to anymore. Then she got off and petted me and took me to my stall and unsaddled me. Coco was just coming back from her ride - her mom had arrived while I was getting groomed and we all got ready to work together. We're all Riding Horses now, after all.

I got a new bed and my mom gave me my beet pulp kind of early. That was nice. I ate it all up with no fuss because I was hungry. I hope we get some good grass hay soon because I'm sick of this oat stuff and so is Spark. He eats even less of it than I do but he at least gets alfalfa in the afternoon.