Work

It's been kind of a while since I posted. That's mostly because I've been so busy Working. Us riding horses do have Jobs, you know, and this is the time of year when we get busy. It's not easy being a Riding Horse. I've been carting my mom around a lot lately, and remembering how to behave under saddle which is a lot of work. So you'll have to excuse me if I've been a little lax in my blogging.

We've mostly been riding in the Round Pen which is okay but kind of boring. You can't do much in a Round Pen after all, except go around and around. I don't mind really, and I do tend to learn a lot in there but sometimes it gets sort of stupid. My mom doesn't usually ride me every day - she tends to change it up with some free lunging or sometimes she puts my saddle and bridle on and lunges me on a line. When she does that, she sometimes rides me after and sometimes she doesn't. So I'm never sure just what we're going to do. Even though I like to have a routine, I don't mind that. It's still a routine because I'm getting out and doing something.

One day my mom rode me around the farm. That was pretty fun. We haven't done that in a long time. First she groomed me really well. Then she brought out my new Dressage saddle. I had to sniff it all over because I'm not used to it yet. I thought she was going to put it on me but she just set it on my back and checked the way it fit. Then she took it off and got my other saddle. Well, I had to sniff that one very carefully too just to make sure it was really mine. I'm pretty curious and kind of picky about my duds. I like to examine them and my mom lets me. I think that's nice of her.

Anyway, she saddled me up and put my wraps on and then she walked me to the mounting block near the Flat Arena. I knew then that we were going to do something different because when she rides me in the Round Pen, she gets on me in there. I was a Good Girl while she got on. It's easy to stand still near that mounting block because there's a big bush that grows right there and I like to nibble on it while she mounts. She doesn't really mind although she sometimes pulls any extra big pieces of bush out of my mouth once she's on.

She asked me to walk on and I did and she rode me right out onto the road and off we went. It was nice. The sun was shining and it was a pretty day. There were horses in the pasture on one side of me and more horses in the little small pastures on the other side. I was interested in everything because it had been so long since I'd gone that way. My mom has hand walked me around the farm but it always seems like it's different when she's on my back. I don't know why.

I wanted to stop a lot and look around but my mom made sure I paid attention to her and kept moving. That's pretty hard. When you're a Riding Horse, you have to remember that it's your Job and you're not allowed to just poke along or stop all the time. People don't like to ride like that for some reason. They'd rather hurry along in a straight line which isn't really natural for a horse. Horses like to take their time and they like to browse which means they're poking along with their heads down, smelling things and maybe eating as they go. It's just not natural to move the way people like to move.

But when I'm being ridden, my mom is the one in charge so I tried pretty hard to be Good. I did really well up until we got to the Little Rolling Arena, then I got a bit excited. That part of the road is always exciting. I'm not sure why. There's something about the way those kids jump on and off the big horses that just makes me bouncy. So I started to get a little fussy and began to dance and trot along sideways and stuff.

My mom talked to me quietly and worked with her seat to calm me down but I didn't want to calm down and kept fussing. I even gave a couple of little half-bucks as we went past the Rolling Arena. It was Bad and I knew it, but I wanted to bounce or run so badly, I couldn't help it. My mom knew it, and while she wouldn't let me get out of hand, she did let me begin trotting slowly up the hill once I was straightened out.

It helped a lot. Sometimes a trot is just what a horse needs. It's funny because as you know I'm not a big fan of trotting much of the time but somehow when it's my idea, it seems just fine. I guess I'm sort of silly that way but at any rate, by the time I got to the top of the hill, I was ready to walk and felt much better. At that point, Mom got off me and praised me a lot for being so good. Then she hand walked me back to my part of the farm and got on my again. We finished up by riding around closer to where I live and that was nice. I was less bouncy and able to pay attention better, and we had a good time practicing stuff. It was a nice change.

We've done other stuff too. One day I got to go out in the Round Pen with Sparky. That was really fun. It's been a while since we were able to play together and we had a good time playing some bite-face and running around together. We did some sniffing and squealing - that's always fun - and Spark pretended to be a herd boss and bunched me for a little bit. I don't really like being bunched but Spark enjoys doing it so we make a game out of it. That makes it a lot nicer. I love Sparky after all.

We've also been doing some lunging on the line, and sometimes with my saddle on. It's a lot of hard work being a riding horse and now that the weather is getting better, we get to work more. That's okay. I like to work and get out and see my friends and stuff. It's fun.