So Many New Tricks!

My mom and I have been doing so much work on so many things, it's hard to keep track of them all. Just in the past couple of days though we've done a lot of them so I'll tell you about them.

As you know, I love to learn new tricks and there are a couple that we've just recently started working on. A couple of days ago, instead of riding, my mom played with me in the Round Pen and had me do a bunch of them. Some of them were my old tricks that I know really well, like backing up without my halter or anything on. That's easy. I can back up all the way across that Round Pen if my mom wants me to. Or walking along with her and stopping nicely at her shoulder. That's easy.

Some of them are harder though. We worked on one that I used to know how to do pretty well but I'd kind of forgotten. It's the one where my mom asks me to move over with just my front legs while my back legs sort of stay where they are. They don't stay exactly, but they don't move as much as the front ones. It's like moving in a circle only instead of my whole self going around, it's just my front part.

She asks me to do that the other way sometimes - with my back part moving around and my front part staying in one place - and that's a lot easier. I remembered how to do that pretty quickly. But I got kind of frustrated with the other one. I couldn't remember how it worked. First I tried backing up but my mom told me quietly that that wasn't what she wanted and asked me again. So I tried to swing my back end around, even though I sort of knew that wasn't what she was asking for either. She had my halter on and was gently pushing my face in the direction she wanted me to go while she sort of poked at my shoulder. Part of me knew she wanted me to move my shoulder away from her but part of me was kind of mad and frustrated that it wasn't something easy so I got mad and sort of tried to bite her.

She didn't like that and made the Bad Girl noise and when I did it again, she bopped me on the nose which just made me more mad. So she asked me to back up which calmed me down - it always helps me feel better to do something I know how to do really well - and gave me a cookie for getting it right. Then she asked me again to move my shoulder away and I kind of took a step or two and she petted me lots and told me I was a Good Girl so that was okay. Sometimes you just forget things, that's all.

My mom is always gentle and patient about those things and she doesn't push me really hard when I'm having a hard time with a trick. Instead she helps me get it a little bit and then stops that lesson so I can feel like I did something right, and we either finish up or move on to something I know. This time, we moved on to bowing.

That's a pretty neat trick. It was hard at first. I wasn't really sure what my mom wanted and I wasn't sure if I was doing it right. It was kind of like some of the stretches we do sometimes when she holds a cookie or a carrot in a particular spot and I have to stretch my neck to get it. She holds them near my sides, or down by my knees or even under my belly so when she began holding a cookie between my front legs and saying "Bow, Belly" I figured it was another stretching game.

This was different though. Instead of just reaching for the cookie, I found I had to bend my front legs and bend really far down to get it. My mom was really happy and praised me and petted me but I wasn't sure what I'd done that was so good. It wasn't until we'd done it some more that I realized it wasn't just a stretching game but an actual trick, and that the idea was to drop my front part down and lower my head.

At first when I did it, I just bent my front legs and sort of balanced on my toes to reach the cookie. It was very awkward! I felt like I was going to fall right down. But my mom gradually pulled the cookie back toward my hind legs and as I followed it, my body kind of moved back and I found one front leg tended to stretch out in front of me more. It's still kind of awkward but I'm getting the hang of it now. In fact, yesterday I got to show Chip and his mom how I do it, right in front of Chip's stall. They thought it was really smart of me.

I like doing my tricks. I never know which one my mom will ask me for so I have to pay really close attention. It's so much fun and I know she likes it too. We love to show other people and horses all our fun games and tricks. I guess lots of people don't play that sort of thing with their horse which is really too bad. Chip's mom was surprised that he learned to play fetch one time when he got turned out with me but I wasn't. Chip's really smart like me.

My mom also taught me a trick called "kiss." That's when she says "kiss" and makes a kind of smacking sound with her mouth and I have to reach out with my mouth and touch her face right where her mouth is. It's a nice game and I like it. I always feel special when my mom touches my nose with her mouth. She calls it kissing and she kisses my ears sometimes too and I like that too. Sometimes she even kisses my butt.

Today we had fun. My mom came to get me but instead of getting me out and tying me in front of my stall for a hay snack like she usually does, she just put my bridle on me right in my stall only without the reins on so I knew we were going to lunge. There wasn't any hay outside my stall anyway. Lots of times there's some that fell out of the hay truck or got tossed out of Warren's stall but today there wasn't any because it had been sort of windy and it all blew away. I still would have liked a hay snack but I didn't mind too much. I wasn't starving after all and I like to lunge. It's fun, especially out in the Dressage arena.

Sure enough, that's where she took me so I was happy. I popped right into a nice, happy trot and then quickly picked up a canter. I was frisky so I got going kind of fast, and I kicked up my heels a couple of times but my mom didn't mind because I was being good and making a nice circle and going the way she asked. I wasn't pulling either. When I was little, it was hard for me to understand how to make a circle when I was lunging so I'd often kind of hit the end of the line and end up pulling on it. If I was trotting or cantering, I'd sometimes pull really hard. I didn't mean to - it was just because I didn't understand how it worked yet - but I'm sure it wasn't much fun for my mom. She used to always wear gloves when she lunged me so her hands wouldn't get hurt when I pulled but now she sometimes forgets about them and doesn't worry about it because I'm a Big Girl now and know how to do it right.

We had a really fun time. River was lunging too with her mom so that made it more fun. River is related to Warren and Indy. Her mom is family with their moms so that makes her family with them but I'm not really sure how. Anyway, she's nice. She's a little black and white Paint and she's really feisty and fun to play with. I thought she was kind of weird when I first met her because we went out in the Round Pen together and she just wanted to squeal and pretend to kick at me but now we get along fine.

After lunging, my mom saddled me up and we went back out in the arena to ride. There was a chestnut horse in there by this time and him and his rider were having a lesson so we had to be careful not to get in the way but that was okay. I'm lots better about working with other horses now. I don't try to visit with them and stuff because my mom taught me that's not Manners. Dooley and his mom came out and worked too, and then River and her mom. So we were all riding at once and it was fun.

My mom had me doing lots of Laterals, which means we were doing Shoulder In and Leg Yielding. I love doing that stuff and my mom says it's good for strengthening and suppling. After a good workout, we left to go on a Poop Loop. We headed up the hill by the pasture which was fun because we usually go the other way. I like going different ways. We went around by the parked trailers instead of by the horse stalls too and that was fun. And then when we got close to Misty's stall, we went over to the Little Fence arena and watched some horses in there for a few minutes. Then we went along the little trail next to it that goes over by where the String Horses live. The String Horses are the ones that carry kids and people out on the trails for fun rides. They also give lots of lessons. Those String Horses work hard but they seem to like it. Sparky says he's friends with one called Elko. Sparky has lots of friends.

Anyway, we went that way and it was fun and a little exciting but I was really Good because I'm seven now and I've been that way before. Then we rode back to our barn and I thought we'd be done but my mom rode me right past it and toward the hill again! I was all set to be a little mad but then River and her mom rode up beside us and came along so I was happy. I like to ride with other horses. It makes it more interesting.

We just went around the regular way and when we got to the Main Arena, we saw Dooley and his mom coming the other way! They turned around and rode with us so now I got to ride with two friends. It was really nice. I was so happy, I stepped right out in my big long walk that my mom calls my trail walk and got kind of a long way ahead of the other two but that was okay because I knew they were there and my mom was there anyway. When we got back to the barn this time, my mom had me stop and so that was the end of the ride and I was happy because I wanted my dinner hay. But it had been a really fun day.