Kind of a Funny Week

As I've told you in other posts, my mom comes to see me almost every single day. Well, she has to. I need to have my stall cleaned and my bucket dinner made after all. But she likes to come see me too. I can tell. She's always happy when she's with me and besides, she tells me she likes to see me and I believe her. But this past week, I didn't see her for days!

It was very strange. She came out one day and everything was normal. She cleaned me and fed me and we went for a nice ride and had a really good time. I was looking forward to seeing her the next day. But the next day came and she never arrived.

Instead, Sparky's Mom came. Well, I like Sparky's Mom now and I don't mind when she takes care of me so I was happy to see her. She said hello to me and gave me a carrot and then went to get Sparky. Back when I was a baby, that would have made me pretty mad. I used to think that everyone had to pay attention to just me and that it wasn't fair when Sparky got attention. I thought it meant that he got more attention than me or that Sparky's Mom didn't like me as much. But now I know that it's okay. All us horses need to be taken care of and people can only take care of one at a time. That's just how it is. I knew my turn would come so I was okay.

After a while, Sparky's Mom put him away and came and got me. She brought me to the Round Pen just like my mom does lots of times. I tried to be a Good Girl about it but it had started getting kind of windy and I was frisky so I might have been a little Bad. I don't remember. But what I do remember is the Deer. We have lots of Deer on the farm and I always want to sniff them. Sometimes I see them in the grass where my mom lets me graze but I can never get close to them. But this time, while I was in the Round Pen, a Deer came right up near it! Oh, I was so excited! I poked my head through the gate and leaned out as far as I could, trying with all my might to reach it but it was just too far away. I wanted it to come over to see me but it just wouldn't! Dumb Deer. Sparky's Mom took a picture - you can see how close it was.

Finally, the Deer went away and Sparky's Mom came and got me. She put me back in my nice clean stall and gave me my dinner. Sparky's Mom doesn't clean my stall exactly the way my mom does, and she makes my dinner just a little different but that's okay. That used to make me mad too but now I know that it's okay. I'm just grateful that she takes care of me. And she's nice to me now. She asks me to do tricks and gives me treats for it just like my mom does. In fact, she taught me some of my tricks.

I figured my mom had just been busy or something so I wasn't too concerned. I figured I'd see her the next day and everything would be back to normal. But the next day came, and no mom. And to make it worse, even Sparky's Mom didn't come. No one did, at least not to take care of me. Indy's mom came, and Warren's. Grace's mom and River's mom and Chip's mom all came, and that girl who takes care of Raz when his dad can't come out came. But no one for Bella.

I'm always kind of worried when that happens. I start to wonder if my mom forgot about me or if something Bad happened to her. I don't want anything Bad happening to my mom of course, but I also can't help wondering what would happen to me. Who would take care of me? Who would clean my stall just the way I like it, and make sure my ball toy is hanging correctly? Who would pet me in all the right places, and take me for walks, and let me eat grass, and visit with Chip? It's a scary thought. So I was worried all night and I paced my stall a lot and didn't sleep very good.

One thing that helped calm me down was watching my Pigeons. I have Pigeons in my stall now. Pigeons are a kind of bird and we have lots of them around here. Usually they just fly around and I don't notice them much except when they drink out of my water bucket. I don't mind when they do that. They need water too after all and I have lots. And I like them. I can't get quite close enough to the Pigeons to sniff them because they get scared and fly away, but I at least get to see them really well when they drink out of my bucket.

The Pigeons are in my stall because they're building a Nest on top of my duds closet. They did the same thing last year. That's what Pigeons do. They build a Nest, which is like a stall for Pigeons, out of stuff like hay and grass and that sort of thing, and then they make Eggs. And after a while, baby Pigeons come out of the Eggs! Last year, I had two baby Pigeons come out, and they were kind of funny looking at first but then they got cute. They'd make little squawky Pigeon noises up there and their mom and dad would come and give them food and then they'd quiet down and go to sleep. When they got bigger, they'd walk around and play and make noises and scuffle and sometimes I'd see them looking down at me. I love having my Pigeons there. My mom says it's because they're just like me - loud and messy and obnoxious. I don't know what "obnoxious" means. It's probably another word for "cute."

Anyway, the babies finally got big and learned how to fly and that was exciting! I remember how they'd stand at the edge of my duds closet roof and flap their wings and get all ready to go but then they'd lose their nerve and go back to their Nest and think about it awhile. Well, I don't blame them. It would be scary to fly for the first time. I can't imagine! But at last one of them got up its nerve and took off and flew across my stall to the door where he landed on top of it! He was awfully proud of himself, you could tell. The other one tried it not too long after that and then they started going on longer and longer flights until they left for good.

I missed them when they were gone, but I had my mom so I kind of forgot about them after awhile. But now my mom was gone and all I had were my Pigeons and it wasn't nearly as nice.

The next day it was still windy and I was upset so when Sparky's Mom finally came, I was nearly frantic! I was still upset because it wasn't my mom but I was so happy to see somebody that I could hardly stand it. The feed truck had brought my hay so she came in to clean my stall while I ate but I wasn't interested in my food. I wanted comfort and I wouldn't leave her alone. I frantically poked my face into hers, giving her kisses like my mom had taught me, and I backed up, and tried to bow, and pretty much did all my tricks over and over so she'd pet me and tell me how Good I am and make me feel better.

I could tell she felt really sorry for me because she stopped cleaning and petted me and stuff. Then she asked me if I wanted to go have a turnout. I was so happy! Me and Sparky's Mom have really gotten so we understand each other a lot better. It's not that I ever didn't like her, or that she didn't like me, but we didn't really communicate very well and that was frustrating, especially when I was a baby and got mad so easily. Now we're friends, and she knew right off that I was stressed and needed to run. Instead of taking me to the Round Pen, she put on my halter and just began leading me up the hill by the pasture.

I was surprised because she usually doesn't take me very far. Once I got over my shock though, I began to pull a bit and quick as a wink, and just like my mom, she said, "Belly, wait!" I didn't even think about it - I stopped pulling and walked politely and it wasn't until a couple of seconds had passed that I realized what had just happened. She knew about that "wait" command too! Well, of course she did. She's the one who taught it to me a long time ago but I'd forgotten that. But she understood that asking me to wait really does calm me down and lets me know that eventually, I'll get what I want, which in this case was to run and play.

She took me first to the Gremlin Arena but there was another horse already in there, so she took me down the hill and then walked me through Misty's barn. That was fun and kind of a surprise. Sparky's Mom knows how to keep me on my toes. She does things I don't expect and that's really neat. I was a little Bad in there, I have to admit. There was a big, gray horse eating his hay dinner and his stall was wide open except for one of those little round stall chain thingys that go across the front of your stall. I'm not sure what they're for. I have one on my stall and my mom pushes the wheeled bucket thing under it to clean sometimes. I just poke my head under it and scoot out of my stall when it's there but I think I'm actually not supposed to do that because my mom makes the Bad Girl noise when I do.

Anyway, there was that interesting looking horse, with his interesting looking pile of hay, and without thinking, I kind of dove toward it and Sparky's Mom had to really pull hard to keep me from charging right in. I didn't mean to. I just wasn't thinking.

I poked my head into Misty's stall to say hello but she was eating and was pretty cranky about it so we kept going and all of a sudden, I saw that we were at the Little Fence Arena! That was very sneaky of Sparky's Mom because usually you get to that arena a different way. I got excited then and I sort of dashed toward the gate and almost knocked Sparky's Mom over. I kind of cut in front of her and the next thing I knew, I had almost fallen over a hill that was suddenly there and it was pretty scary. I was a little miffed at Sparky's Mom for letting me get so close to a dangerous spot like that but she doesn't really know. And I forgot all about it when we got inside and she let me go.

I kind of rushed back and forth in excitement by the gate a few times and then Sparky's Mom, who had begun to walk toward the big Tree that's in there, called me and said, "Come on, Belly, let's go play." So I started following her and she broke into a trot! People can trot, you know. So I trotted too and we trotted together for a little bit and that was fun. Then I trotted over some poles on the ground accidentally and that was so exciting that I just burst into a gallop and ran full speed across the arena!

That was fun! I had a good turnout, with some fun running and stuff, and every now and then I'd trot up to Sparky's Mom and check to make sure she was still there, because I was still a little nervous and upset, and it was very windy. After a while, I started thinking that I wanted to go home. Even though it's fun to run and play, my stall is the place I feel safest and I'd had a very stressful couple of days. Sparky's Mom immediately understood and she put my halter back on and we left the arena. I tried really hard to be Good on the walk, and Sparky's Mom seemed pleased with me. She's really nice. I love her almost as much as I love my mom now because I know I can trust her. Trust is so important to a horse.

I felt a lot better after that. Sparky's Mom gave me a good dinner and lots of carrots and I didn't worry too much that night because I thought that probably if my mom was sick or something, Sparky's Mom would take care of me. As it turned out, the next day my mom came to see me! I was so happy to see her and sure enough, she had been sick. I heard her telling Grace's mom about it and she said she'd missed me so much. Well, I'd missed her too.

We didn't ride that day but I didn't care. Instead, we played games in the Round Pen. First she let me run around a little bit and then we did tricks. It was still windy as you can see from the picture - my mane is blowing all around me - but we had a lot of fun. My mom let me play with the whip which I always like to do, and then she asked me to do a lot of tricks. She was really happy with how well I can bow now - I go right down with hardly any urging. She just says the word "bow" and touches my leg and I do it. We also did some hard stuff like turning on my haunches but I'm getting a lot better at that.

Yesterday, the wind had died down a lot and my mom rode me bareback. That's when you don't have a saddle on. We haven't done that in a long time and I'd kind of forgotten what it was like. It took her a while to get on because I kept moving around at the mounting block but I finally stood still and she slid on. I was a little apprehensive at first because she feels so different up there. I was kind of afraid she'd fall off and that would have made me feel really bad, but after a few circuits of the Dressage Arena, I could tell that she was fine. Then she asked me to go out on the road and we did a whole Poop Loop bareback! I was really Good and didn't bounce at all. She did end up getting off when we were almost home because we had to go down the steep hill by the pasture. I wasn't being Bad or anything but I do have a very fast walk and it wasn't as comfortable for her going downhill. When we went down the hill by Favre's barn, she was a little awkward. She said she felt like she was going to slide right down my neck and off over my head! But she didn't.

I like riding bareback. It's fun and relaxing. I hope we do more of it this summer. Anyway, that's how my week went. The wind has calmed down and my mom is back and the Pigeons have Eggs in their Nest now so life is pretty good.