Changes

There have been a lot of changes lately at our farm. It's been pretty exciting. For one thing, we can't use the Dressage arena because it's all dug up! One day, I was snoozing in my paddock after breakfast when the big machine they use to pile up the manure pile went driving into it. That machine is huge! It's yellow, and it's not shaped like a car or a truck or a horse trailer. It has big, interesting wheels on it (I've sniffed them when it was sitting still) and a sort of box on top where a person sits. On the front is a giant bucket type of thing, and when it's moving, the bucket goes up and down, and scoops up dirt or manure and then turns upside down and dumps it out again. I've always liked watching it when my mom and I ride by and it's working on the manure pile, but I'd never had a chance to see it working really closely before or for a long time.

Now I did though because it was right outside my own paddock! It was exciting. It rumbled out into the arena and scooped up mounds of dirt. A big, giant truck followed. It was kind of like the hay truck which has a big open part in the back where they keep the hay, only this one was about ten times bigger! The Bucket Truck dumped the dirt into the Giant Hay Truck until it was all full, then it drove away. They kept doing that until all the soft dirt on top was scraped away.

Other machines were out there too. There was the one my mom calls the Bulldozer, and another, smaller, Bucket Truck and the truck that sprays water all over the place. I've seen that truck before because it comes out every morning in the summer and sprays the Dressage arena. I've always liked to watch that.

This has gone on for the last few days. More Giant Hay Trucks have brought more dirt that they dumped out in huge piles. It seems funny to me that they took lots of dirt away and then brought more dirt. It seems a lot of trouble to go through. But my mom said they wanted to use new dirt and I can kind of understand that. I like dirt, and I kind of know a lot about it. When the same dirt is in a paddock or an arena for a long time, it gets all mixed up with other stuff, like poop, and trash, and little fuzzy things. You wouldn't really think dirt could get dirty but it can. So I guess they're using clean dirt. My mom says they're making a new arena for us.

Well, that's nice but in the meantime, we have to find other places to ride. We almost always ride in the Dressage arena, except when we do Poop Loops. It just makes sense. It's right there near our barn and besides, the footing in there was always really good. So I'm not really used to working in any of the other arenas. It's kind of funny because we used to work in all of them at one time or another. When I first came here, my stall was near the Gremlin Arena so we rode there a lot. The Jumping Arena was close too, so we'd ride there sometimes. I've never ridden a lot in the Main Arena, which is the one I used to call the Rolling Arena, but we did now and then. And for a while we were riding a lot in the Pony Arena, especially with Sparky and his mom. But for quite a while, we've been sticking to the Dressage arena so it's been sort of exciting to go to the other ones.

My mom has been taking me in them now and then, probably because she knew they were going to tear up our arena. She's pretty smart like that. But now, we have no choice. So a couple of days ago, she rode me right to the Main Arena and we went on in.

It was very exciting. There were a lot of horses working in there, going in all directions. That arena is big, and it has a roof over most of it while the sides are open. You have to get used to it. You go from a sunny part where there's no roof to a darker part in the shade where it's all covered. And way up above you is the roof, and you can hear strange sounds up there from the pigeons or the wind rattling on the metal. All along the sides runs a rail about as high as my belly. It has big poles at intervals, probably to hold up the roof, and funny metal doodads that Sparky suspects have water in them. He doesn't trust them at all. I think they're interesting and I always want to sniff them and fiddle with them with my mouth but my mom won't let me for long. She says we have to pay attention and work there.

The arena is shaped like the Dressage arena, with two long sides and two shorter sides. There are gates in each of the shorter sides. One gate leads to the road and that's where we always go in. The other gate leads to the Office area where the string horses live and where the Trail rides begin. Just outside one long side there is a steep hill that goes up to where you can see a little trail and sometimes a horse and rider will appear along it. It can startle you if you're not ready for it. Just above the trail, you can just barely see part of the Jumping Arena but there are lots of trees on that hill so it's hard to tell just what is moving around. It makes me jumpy at first.

On the other side, there's a short hill down to a little road that runs behind some barns and the place where my mom says they make Wine, which is a drink of some sort. The Wine place has lots of interesting machines and Barrels and is sometimes noisy. There are some bushes on that side that block the view a little bit and so that can be scary too when all of a sudden you hear a noise but you can't see where it's coming from. And people ride by on that little road and all of a sudden you'll see a horse's head bobbing along but not the rest of him because he's down a hill. It's just kind of weird until you get used to it.

The Main Arena is usually pretty busy. Lots of horses have lessons there so there are people standing along the rails or in the middle shouting at the riders. Other horses are working on circles, or cantering, or just going around and around. It's confusing and you have to pay attention to your mom while you're looking out for other horses and trying not to run into anybody all at the same time. Still, my mom said I was very good. We even trotted a little bit and I was fine.

Then the next day we went in and it was empty except for us. What a relief! It was lots easier to work. My mom walked me around a few times and then asked me to trot but I burst into a happy canter and just flew down the arena! She let me do it - I was being Good and not bucking or anything, and I think she figured it would do me good to get it out of my system - but I was going pretty fast and I wasn't really collected so when it was time to turn, I had to drop to a trot. I was pretty excited by it all, and I kept trying to canter after that but she was firm and made me trot.

At first, I was a little mad, but I settled down and we did lots of figure 8's and just got used to working in there. Since it's so big, I can stretch my legs right out and trot and my mom let me as long as I was listening and keeping my rhythm. She likes my big trot - it's the bounciness that she frowns on. But I wasn't bouncy at all really. I kept trying to sort of scoot to one side now and then, like I was shying but I wasn't really. I was just trying to have fun. But she just kept her legs on me and told me to go straight and that helped settle me down. By the time we were done, I was trotting really well, with my neck nicely arched and my back legs under me. It was lots of fun.

Yesterday, it was pretty hot so we just moseyed around a bit. We were riding along the Poop Loop when we met Alice and Gunsmoke. I love Alice. She used to ride my old neighbor Mickey and she always gave me bites of apple and petted me. She took the picture of my mom and me up above. We rode with them along the Poop Loop and then we all went into the Jumping Arena. There were lots of Poles laid out on the ground so we walked over them for a while and then we just stood still and watched a funny little squirrel on the ground. He was hot, so he was lying in the shade of the big Tree with his legs all sprawled behind him. He seemed almost flat and he was the same color as the dirt so it was hard to see him, but then he'd jump up, run a few feet, and plop down again. It was fun to watch.

Alice and Gunsmoke left after a while but my mom and I stayed and played with those Poles for a bit. Then we rode home. We never did any trotting or cantering but we rode for a while and it was so hot that just from walking, I was pretty sweaty. That's okay. It's been fun riding more often. My mom says that pretty soon, we'll try going out on a Trail.