Weather's changing

It's suddenly cooled off pretty dramatically. Luckily I have a nice, fuzzy winter coat so I don't mind. My mom says that all the horses got heavy coats early this year and it does seem like we're especially fluffy. Even Sparky, who doesn't normally get that heavy a coat, is shaggy as a Shetland. My mom thinks we might have an especially cold winter because of that. She thinks us horses know. That wouldn't surprise me. Horses are pretty smart.

I like the cooler weather though. It makes me frisky and being frisky is fun. Yesterday my mom and Sparky's mom took the two of us to the Pony Arena for a turnout and it was wonderful! We bounced and played and ran! I was especially excited. As soon as I got in there and my mom let me loose, I went tearing across the arena bucking and bouncing and trying to get Spark to play. He wanted to roll first of course - he always wants to roll first - and I waited impatiently while he did it but as soon as he came up, I charged around again, pawing at him and begging him to run with me. He did then, and we had some good fun.

It was such a good turnout! At one point, after we'd settled down a bit, we heard a funny noise from behind the fence. On one side of that arena, the fence is solid and it's covered with viney things growing all over it. It's kind of scary because you can't see what's behind it and sometimes weird noises come from that direction. Yesterday the noises sounded kind of like birds but not any kind of bird I'm familiar with. My mom said later they were Chickens but I don't know what a Chicken is and neither does Spark. We were curious though and we started carefully toward that fence but just as we were getting kind of close, the Chickens made noises again and it spooked us both good! We ran, with our tails up and our nostrils wide open, snorting. Oh, it was fun! Sometimes it's fun to spook, especially when you're pretty sure you're safe because your mom's right there.

Then some people went by running and that spooked us again so we were all excited and bouncy when a man came leading a pretty mare. He obviously wanted to turn her out so our moms came in to get us. Spark settled down quickly - he seems to be able to do that but it's harder for me for some reason. I was still awfully frisky and dancy when my mom got me to the gate. She knew I was going to be a handful and had a good hold of my halter. She was telling me firmly, "Walk, Belly, just walk" but I burst out of that gate like it was the starting gate at the Belmont Stakes. I was twirling and bouncing and I even kind of struck just a little bit.

My mom was firm with me and kept bringing me around in circles and when I finally settled down enough to really listen to her, she snapped at me, "Now, HO!" and made me back up several steps. That kind of brought me to my senses and made me pay closer attention to her. I was still prancing as we moved on but I stopped twirling and being Bad.

All this time, Spark was being a Good Boy which was lucky because his mom was carrying her new Dog. It's a cute little Dog named Menace and I got to sniff it. I like it - well, I guess it's a "him" and not an "it." He's nice. He trots around while we eat and stuff and he's not really afraid of us now though he was a bit at first. He's only small - he doesn't even come up to my knees - so Sparky's mom and my mom can just carry him around if they want. I like having a Dog around. He's another friend for us.

Anyway, I was pretty good on the walk back to our barn but still pretty lively so my mom put me in the Round Pen while Spark and his mom went on to the barn. She didn't chase me or anything, just let me run around and get my energy out and that made me feel a lot better. By the time she came to get me, I'd settled right down and she petted me and scratched me for a while before bringing me to my stall where my dinner hay was waiting.

Part of the reason I was so bouncy is because I was In Heat. I've been In Heat before but this time it seemed a little different. Mares come In Heat sometimes and that means they smell really good to boy horses and they could have a foal if they were turned out with the right boy. When I was more of a baby, I just got kind of fussy and felt funny when I was In Heat but that was all. Now that I'm a Big Girl, I kind of wanted to get sniffed a lot and it made me feel all antsy and sassy. It was really hard to focus on anything but my mom seemed to understand and while she didn't put up with any foolishness, she didn't get mad at me either.

Even so, I still remembered to be good the day before when she rode me. I was In Heat then too and my mom noticed because she washed my butt. Then she saddled me up and took me out in the Flat Arena but not before I got to watch the Guys do some very interesting stuff in Warren's stall.

I was standing outside my stall, tied up like I often am, when two of the Guys who feed us and do work around the barns came along with a wheeled bucket and a shovel like my mom uses to pick up my poops. They stood there like they were waiting for something and then I saw one of the big machine truck things coming down the hill. It was the one that has a big scoop thing on the front of it and the scoop was filled with some kind of dirt. The Guys seemed to be concerned that I'd be scared but my mom who was grooming me at the time, told them I wouldn't be because I'm not afraid of anything. She sounded proud of me about that which was nice.

Well, the Scoop Machine thing came right up to the barn and turned so it could drive right under the roof of the aisle with the scoop pointing toward Warren's stall door. It was right in front of me, so close I could almost touch it with my nose but I wasn't afraid of it at all, even though it was very noisy. I'm not afraid of trucks and stuff because I've seen a lot of them and none of them has ever hurt a horse that I've known of. People are always sitting inside them so I think they can make them go where they want and of course they wouldn't make them run into a horse!

The Guys seemed to think it was cute that I was so interested - they were smiling at me and talking nicely to me which I liked. I kept poking my nose out trying to get a sniff of that dirt so finally my mom picked up a handful and let me smell it. It smelled a lot like the dirt in my paddock and sure enough, I saw later that Warren's paddock had a nice layer of it all smoothed out across it. So they were fixing his paddock with new dirt.

The Guys began shoveling the dirt into their wheeled bucket and pushing it through Warren's stall. Then they'd come back for more and when they used all the dirt, the Scoop Machine would leave and then come back with more. I could have stayed there all day watching but eventually my mom finished grooming me and saddled me up and we went out into the Flat Arena.

It was a really windy day that day. The trees and bushes that surround the Flat Arena were bending and swaying in the wind and it made weird noises rattling around in their leaves. I spooked one time - I heard a strange noise right next to the arena and it startled me - but my mom just talked to me and asked me to go on and so I did. Then she asked me to make a square corner and I forgot to pay attention to the wind because square corners can be tricky. You have to turn your body kind of quickly rather than the slow curve you do in a normal corner. It's not easy and I used to get stuck a lot but I'm getting better and better at it. After a few times, my mom began pushing with her inside leg when we hit the corner and I realized she was asking me to move my hindquarters over as I made the turn. That was pretty neat because when I did, it made the turn easier to do. I kind of began the turn, then she asked me to move my butt and I did and all of a sudden I was pointing straight down the next part of the arena.

We worked on that for a while and it was fun. I was really concentrating on it. I love learning these new things. They're getting more and more interesting and harder to do and it's a challenge to get them right. Now that I understand my mom's signals better, I can figure out what it is she's asking for so I'm catching on quicker and I don't get frustrated anymore. If I don't get it the first time, my mom will let me walk on or do something I know how to do and then we'll go back to it and try again. Usually I get it within a couple of tries.

After I got the idea of moving my hindquarters over, she rode me more into the middle of the arena and stopped me. Then she tapped me with one foot just behind the girth and said, "over." At first, I just focused on her foot and tried to move forward but she stopped me and did it again so I knew forward wasn't what she was looking for. Next, I tried going backwards but she put her legs on to keep me from going that way so I knew I was wrong again. Then she poked with that foot again and repeated the word "over" and it occurred to me that that's what she says to me when she's in my stall and she wants me to step sideways out of her way. So I took a step sideways with my back feet to see if that's what she wanted and she immediately took her leg off me and let me stand and petted and praised me so I knew I was right. The next time she poked me, I stepped right over and she let off the pressure and praised me again.

We did that a few times and every time I got it right, she was really happy with me. Then we tried it the other direction and I got that right too. So that was fun. She called it a turn on the forehand and said I did a really good job.

Then we walked around a little bit more and she directed me down the center line. When we were about halfway along, she moved her seat so it was pointing kind of to the right and opened up her right rein. She put a little pressure on my side with her left leg and I began moving forward and right at the same time because I know she likes me to go in the direction of her seat. She really liked that and I moved along for a good three or four strides before I got a little off balance. Then we did it the other way and she seemed happy with that too. She calls that one a leg yield.

We finished up our workout with some work on halt. I have a pretty good halt anyway - I know that I'm supposed to halt when my mom kind of "drops" her seat and says "ho" but sometimes it takes me a few steps to do. My mom wanted to get me to halt more quickly so we really worked on it, walking several strides and then stopping. A couple of times, she gave a light tug on the rein and said "ho" sharply and that made me stop quicker. I soon realized that's what she wanted so then I paid more attention to her cues and by the end of it all, I was stopping as soon as I felt her seat drop. She was really happy with me, especially since I'd paid so much attention to her even with the wind all exciting the way it was. When I was more of a baby, i would have bouncing my head off but now I'm six so I know I have a Job to do. And I like my Job.

When my mom unsaddled me and put me away, she told me that I'm starting to look like Kia out there. That was so nice to hear! I still remember Kia and how pretty she looked when she worked with her mom. That's all I really want, to be like her.