But the other day she got a new one and she took some pictures of me so I can get back to work and update you on what's been going on in my life!
For one thing, I've been doing a lot of work and it seems to be paying off. Lots of times, people stop us to tell my mom how good I'm looking and how pretty I am. They often say that I'm "really filling out." That doesn't mean I'm fat - it means that I'm growing up and getting nice muscles so it's a good thing. Sometimes they compliment us on how nicely I'm working out in the Flat Arena. Those compliments make us both feel good. It really seems like my mom and I are becoming riding partners. We understand each other pretty well now and like to work together.
One thing I've learned is how to recognize just what it is that my mom wants me to do. You might think that's easy but it's not at all. After all, I'm a horse and she's a person so it's not like we normally speak the same language. She has to find signals to give me that I can understand and I have to learn to recognize them. Back when I was more of a baby, I wasn't very good at it. I got impatient too fast. If I didn't understand something right off, I just got mad. But now I'm a lot more receptive. My mom thinks that's partly because of all the work we did in the Round Pen and I agree with her. I learned a lot about what she wanted in there and she learned a lot about communicating with me. The Cone Game is a good example - it was really easy for me to figure out that she wanted me to stop at those Cones because of the way she taught me to do it. She was patient and clear and let me know exactly what she wanted before she just went ahead and asked me.
Once we started riding again, she took her time with each new signal and I tried very hard to figure out what she wanted instead of getting mad. It was kind of like a game and it turned out to be fun. So now I know that when she sort of pushes me with her seat and squeezes my sides with both her legs, she wants me to trot. When she just kind of brushes her heel against my outside flank, it means she wants me to keep moving smoothly through a turn. When she changes her bounce at the trot (she calls it a diagonal), it means we're changing direction. And when she lifts her inside rein just a little and gives me a single kick with her outside heel, it means she wants me to canter.
It makes it a lot more fun when you know what the signals mean and it's a lot less stressful. Horses get anxious when their person is telling them something but they don't know what it means. Anyone would. So now that I know all those basic commands, my mom is able to work on helping me keep a nice rhythm in my trot and canter without rushing. We do lots of circles and turns and serpentines because they help keep you focused and you have to concentrate on where your feet are and stay balanced. It's hard work but it is fun. Usually we only walk when we're warming up or cooling down, and sometimes in the middle of our workout so I can stretch my neck and back and relax a bit. Mostly we trot and we almost always canter some now.
We've had a couple of exciting things happen and one pretty Bad thing. One day we went riding with Sparky and his mom and we headed up the hill by the pasture. I love that hill! My mom usually asks me to trot up it but I always want to canter and I usually manage to. On this particular day, we'd done a lot of really intense trotting in the Flat Arena so I wanted to sort of let loose. As soon as my mom asked me to trot, I kicked up my heels in a HUGE buck and began racing up that hill! It was pretty Bad of me and I knew it but I just couldn't seem to help it. Luckily my mom never falls off me - I don't know how she does it because I can buck pretty hard if I put my mind to it. But she didn't even lose a stirrup and she quickly pulled me back down to a trot and scolded me.
I was still feeling pretty spunky though and when we got to the top of the hill, I saw some of the farm workers up on the roof of one of the horse shelters. They were doing some kind of building work and were using noisy machines and stuff and it was pretty exciting to see them up there like that. I wasn't really afraid but it made me dance and bounce a bit. Sparky was spooked by it though, and he tried to get behind me so he could pass them as far away as possible. I wasn't paying any attention to where he was in my excited and silly state so when I felt him brush against my hindquarters, it startled me and before I could think, I gave a big bounce and sort of a bucking kick!
Well, I felt my hooves hit hard and as soon as they did, I heard a scream of pain from Sparky's mom! I'd gotten her right in the leg and she was yelling her head off which actually did spook me some. Sparky had immediately stopped spooking and stood dead still - he always takes care of his mom no matter how scared he is - and my mom quickly slid off my back to see if she was okay. She took the time to smack me and yell at me before she turned her attention away though and I can't say as I blame her. I'm a big girl now and I do know better than to kick out without thinking.
Poor Sparky's mom had blood pouring down her leg and she was obviously in a lot of pain. She hadn't fallen off though and now she carefully dismounted and began leading Spark home. My mom called to the guys on the roof to help and one of them took Sparky's mom in the little open-topped car they use around the farm while the other led Spark down the hill. Spark was so good. Normally he'd be nervous and balky with a stranger leading him but he knew his mom was hurt and he was doing his best to just be a Good Boy and not cause any trouble. I need to be more like him but sometimes I just don't think before I act.
I was still pretty wound up going down the hill but I tried to be good because I knew things were bad and I was in trouble. About halfway down the hill, Fila and Merlot's mom came and grabbed Spark and she brought him to his stall and unsaddled him. Fila and Merlot live in the pasture. They're nice bay Thoroughbred boys and me and Spark like them both. Their mom is nice too and she was concerned about Sparky's mom.
Sparky's mom was sitting in a chair outside the stalls when we got there. Her leg was very bloody and she and my mom were using the word "broken" like they thought it might be and that worried me quite a lot. One time when I was at the racetrack, a horse from another barn got a broken leg. We all heard about it. He was in a race and something bad happened and his leg broke and he had to be "Put Down." That's when a horse doctor gives the horse one of those poking needle things and the horse just dies. I was worried. I didn't want Sparky's mom to be Put Down. I wanted to ask Sparky if that's what would happen but I didn't want to make him more upset than he already was.
My mom just threw me in my stall and quickly took off my duds. Then she put a bandage on Sparky's mom's leg and got her car and she and Sparky's mom left. I felt a little better because of the bandage - if she was going to be Put Down, she probably wouldn't have had a bandage put on. And sure enough, a lot later, past dinnertime, they came back. Sparky's mom couldn't walk very well but me and Spark were both glad to see her. My mom said she got 8 stitches in her leg but it wasn't broken so that was good. I don't know what my mom would have done to me if she'd had to have Sparky's mom Put Down. She really likes Sparky's mom.
Another time, I got to go out for a turnout with Favre in the Pony Arena. I wasn't crazy about the idea at first because one time I went out with him and Sparky and he was really dumb and wanted to sniff my butt a lot and that made me mad. But this time it turned out to be fun. Favre's a Thoroughbred after all, and he likes to run and so do I so we had a good time running and racing and playing. We were kicking up our heels and bouncing together and it was really exciting. The only bad thing was that I somehow lost both my back shoes. I didn't even notice when it happened but once we'd stopped racing around, I realized they were gone. My mom found them - one of them was in the arena and the other one was way out in the grass outside the arena! My Shoe Man came out and put them back on a few days later but I missed being in a Show because I didn't have shoes.
We've been going to the Pony Arena for turnouts quite a lot. That's where the Bad Accident happened when I hit my mom in the face with my hoof and she lied down in the road. For a long time, she and I both got kind of nervous and anxious when we went there but it's been better and better every time and now it's pretty much okay. Me and Spark got to turn out there the other day and we had a lot of fun and I was a really Good Girl leading there and back. I'm glad because it's one of my favorite arenas to turn out in. It's round like the Round Pen but lots bigger so you can go in circles without getting stuck in corners but it's big enough to run really fast.
I've also had a couple of new neighbors but none of them have stayed for long. For a while, Solo was in the stall next to me - the one between me and Mickey. Solo is a big, black gelding who usually lives on the hill in one of the fields. In fact, it was his shelter building the guys were working on the day I kicked Sparky's mom. Anyway, while they were rebuilding his field, he lived in that stall and I liked that a lot. He was a really sweet horse and we became good friends quickly. He still whinnies to me and Spark, and to our moms even though he's back on the hill now. My mom always lets me sniff noses with him when we walk up there.
After he left, Glamour was in that stall for a while. Glamour is one of the pasture horses and he and his brother Teddy are good friends of Sparky's. Their mom is really nice and often gives us cookies or carrots and sometimes our moms help take care of her boys so we all know each other. I love Glamour and he was nice to have next door too. He's a chestnut Thoroughbred and he keeps getting hurt out in the pasture so he has a big bandage on his leg and his mom has him in a stall until he's all better. We spent a lot of time visiting over the fence and he chewed most of my forelock off but I don't mind. I like to chew things too.
One of the pictures my mom took with her new camera is the one I'm posting. It's me eating my Beet Pulp. I love my Beet Pulp and one of the things I love about it is how fun it is to eat. My mom and I have a whole routine that we go through every day and it's so fun! First of all, she mixes it up in a big bucket and when she carries it to my stall, I nicker a lot and kind of bounce on my toes waiting for her to bring it in. She puts my big rubber feed tub in my stall and then comes in with my dinner and makes me stand nicely while she pours it in.
As soon as it's in my dish, I grab the edge with my teeth and pick it up. I fling it away from me and Beet Pulp goes flying across my stall! Sometimes it even splats on my wall but most of it goes on my floor. Then I happily root through it, picking out all the little bites of carrot (because my mom always puts lots of carrot in it) and then eating the rest of it off the floor. You can see how messy it is in the picture. I love being messy. It's fun.
You can also see my keys in that picture. My mom has keys that she keeps on a ring that attaches to a loop on her pants. I love to play with her keys. They make a fun jingling noise and they feel funny in my mouth. She lets me play with them but she also brought me my own set of keys to play with! They're made out of some hard stuff like my stall snack holder and they flop around and bang against each other just like my mom's keys do. Now when she's not around, I can still play with keys. My mom is pretty nice that way.
So that's what I've been up to for the last month. Now that we have a box thing again, I'll make sure my mom takes lots of pictures so I can keep up with this blog!
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