What a wonderful day I had!

I know I just blogged this morning but I can't wait until tomorrow! I had such a good day today and just when I thought it couldn't have been better, it was because my mom and Sparky's mom brought me the most wonderful surprise! And I'll tell you about it but first I have to tell you what happened before that.

It was another hot day. I had my breakfast hay and took my nap and I was standing around in my paddock being companionable with Coco when I heard my mom's car arrive. Well of course I whinnied, and Spark whinnied too because my mom is his Grammie and besides his mom is usually with her. And Chip whinnied because he loves my mom, partly because she's MY mom and partly because she loves him and always stops to visit with him and snuggle his nose. So it's quite an event at the barn when my mom's car arrives.

I like that all the other horses love my mom. It means she's a really special mom but it's especially special because she's MY mom and she comes to see me and not any of those others. Even though she likes them all, and she loves Spark, she loves me best. So I feel pretty good about that. After all, there are lots of other nice moms and dads at the barn but none of us greet them like we do mine.

Our moms got us out of our stalls and immediately started grooming us and putting on our duds. So we knew we were going riding. We were both pretty happy about that. I haven't been riding since before I hurt my knee and Spark hasn't gone riding since he went on a trail ride one time. My mom cleaned me up nicely and sprayed me real well with fly spray. I was glad of that because the flies were driving me nuts! I hate flies! I know all horses hate them but I think they bother me more than most. They tickle so! And they bite. And they just feel awful landing on you, and even just flying near you. I can't stand them, they make me mad, and they make me fidget.

My mom understands how I feel so she does keep me sprayed and she keeps my fly spray machine thing in my stall working. But they still bother me.

Once I was cleaned up, she put my boots on. She put my regular red front boots on but then she put some different boots on my back legs. I don't much like having boots on my back legs. I have a set of red boots that my mom calls Skid Boots but I hate them! They feel so funny and they make me kick. My mom hardly ever makes me wear them. She usually puts my Polo Wraps on and I like them as long as they don't come down over my fetlocks. But instead of my Polos, today she put on these other boots which were blue. She said they were Sparky's and he was letting me borrow them.

Well, that was nice of him but I wasn't too sure about them at first. When my mom put the first one on, I was a little fussy and I did kick at it once or twice after it was on but then I was okay with it. It wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as those Skid Boots. It just covered a short part of my lower leg and the inside of my fetlock joint but it didn't go around my fetlock itself. It actually felt a lot like my Polos and I decided it was okay. So my mom put the other one on and I was fine. Later, Sparky's mom said I could have them and that Spark wouldn't mind. That was so nice! I love Sparky and his mom.

We rode in the Flat Arena today and it was a lot of fun. Spark was frisky and got kind of spunky when his mom got on him but he just likes to do that in order to get his bounces out. He's not like me - when I bounce, I kind of keep bouncing. It's hard for me to stop. But he just has a couple of good bounces and then settles down. He's older than me though. Maybe when I'm ten, I'll be like that too but now I'm only six.

I was feeling good too but I stayed at a nice walk like my mom asked me to. I'm not stopping a lot anymore and I can tell she likes that. I walk along pretty well and only get stuck occasionally. I did have to stop for several moments today to look in that Mirror thing because I thought I looked extra pretty and I wanted to make sure the new boots didn't look odd. But they looked fine.

After some good walking, my mom asked me to trot. I was excited about that and kind of wiggled across the arena but she straightened me out and asked again and I broke into a sort of head-tossy, bouncing trot that was almost sort of bucky. If I could have gotten my head down, I think it might have been. I was just pretty excited. My mom just lightly kept my head up though and kept me trotting though it was pretty awkward and bouncy. I finally sort of shuffled to a walk again but she petted me and praised me anyway because I did do what I was asked. Then she asked me again and I did it better, and on the third time I broke into a pretty normal trot.

The only problem was, my knee was still just a little sore and the bounciness hadn't helped much. As soon as my trot leveled out, both my mom and Sparky's mom could see that I was still a little sore so we finished up our ride. My mom was still happy with me though because I'd been a Good Girl and Spark's mom was happy with him because once he settled down, he did a nice trot too. So that was nice. Our mom's took off our duds and let us roll in the Flat Arena which was wonderful and then they hosed us off which felt good.

After that, they gave us hay snacks and cleaned our stalls. Well, I did get a hay snack eventually but I had a little Incident first. When my mom brought me out to hose me, I walked nicely but on the way back up the little hill by Chip's stall, I got distracted by some wisps of grass and lunged for them. I nearly knocked my mom into the manure pile, and I did step on her foot. Oh, she got mad! Once she got her foot out from under mine, she yelled at me and made me back right up fast. Then she made me walk forward several steps and then asked me to stop. And when she said "whoa" she said it like she meant it! I stopped, you better believe it!

Then she made me back up again, and then walk forward, and back up, and go forward, and we did that all the way to my stall. It was pretty dumb but I did it and I did it like I meant it because my mom was really mad at me. Finally she tied me at my stall and told me to stand there. I moved my butt around once while she was taking her boots off and she got mad all over again because I moved it kind of up against her. I just wanted to be close to her but she wasn't putting up with any of it. So I settled down and stood still and after a bit, she petted me and told me I was good for standing and gave me my hay snack. I felt like I really deserved it by then.

Once my stall was all clean, she put me inside it and gave me my beet pulp but she stayed outside cleaning all my duds for the longest time. She took my bridle apart, and cleaned the bit and all the leather, and she cleaned my girth and even her boots and the long leather things she wears over her lower legs. Then she cleaned my saddle and after she'd cleaned everything, she rubbed it with this oily stuff that smelled really good. She said it Conditioned the leather and would make it nice and soft. It sure made it smell nice.

It was a good long day with my mom and most of it was fun so I was happy. She and Sparky's mom eventually cleaned up all the stuff they had out, she put my clean duds away and gave me one last cookie and they left. She told me, as she does every day when she leaves, "I'll see you tomorrow Belly."

It wasn't too much later that the hay truck came and I was knee deep in dinner hay. I ate a lot of it and then I laid down in my new shavings and took a little nap. After such a hot and busy day, that felt good. It was a little while later that I was back up and eating more hay when I heard my mom's car again!

I thought I must be mistaken so I just kept eating. But then I heard Spark greeting his mom and next thing I knew, here was my mom! It was a surprise and it got to be even more of a surprise because she put on my halter and tied me outside my stall. I didn't know what was going on. Were we going to ride again? Was I going to get a turnout? I just didn't know but then she and Sparky's mom came down the aisle carrying a big bucket. it was so big, it took both of them to carry it. Luckily it had a handle on each side so they could each hold one. And from the noises it was making, I could tell it had water in it.

Well, that was very interesting. I love water and I love water troughs. This bucket was like a water trough - in fact, it was like the bucket outside Chip's paddock that catches the rain water off the roof. I love to play in that bucket! It's dry now but during the rainy time, it's always full and my mom lets me go over to it. I'll stick my head right inside it up to my ears in the water and I'll splash and play. So I was excited when I saw this bucket and thought maybe she'd let me have some fun with it.

But instead of stopping near me, they brought it into my stall and out into my paddock! They put it in the corner near Coco's stall and tied it to the fence and the put more water into it with buckets until it was full! I could hardly wait to go in to check it out. As soon as my mom brought me in and let me go, I went and stuck my head in and splashed! It was so much fun! But then I turned my head and saw that Sparky's mom had brought that funny box thing into my paddock so I went over to see what she was doing with it and got all distracted. So my mom and Sparky's mom left.

Since I didn't have anyone to play with, I went back out and examined my new bucket. It's red which is my favorite color, and it's nice and big and deep. I can fit my whole head in it! Oh, I love it! I keep going out in my paddock just to get a drink and dunk my head. It's fun and it keeps me cool. What a wonderful surprise it was! My mom and Sparky's mom really do know how to make a horse happy.