Modeling gig and a trailering adventure

I have been so busy lately! It's all I can do to get a nap in. Let me tell you all about it.

First of all, my mom came out to my stall one day a couple of weeks ago and brought me to the wash rack for a Bath. I don't mind Baths, but I don't much like standing still, and I hadn't stood in the wash rack for a while so I was kind of a pain. I got bored. It takes sooooo long to have a Bath! And my mom sprays the water all over my back and legs and tail (I hate it when she gets my tail all wet. It feels so heavy and strange and I get water running down the backs of my legs and it tickles) but she doesn't spray me in the face nearly enough. I like to play in the water, and drink it, and then stick my wet mouth in the dirt so I have a big muddy spot on my muzzle. That's fun.

But she didn't let me do any of that. She scrubbed me so clean I felt like I'd lost half my fur. Then she let me graze while I dried off but wouldn't you know it, the Horseflies came buzzing all around me! My mom said they liked the water on me and she tried to kill them quick. Horseflies are slow, you know, but they hurt when they sting so they scare me when they land on me. I kept bucking and kicking every time one landed and my mom would tell me to cut it out so she could kill it and I tried really hard but it was pretty bad. Finally she brought me to my stall and dried me with towels. That was better, even if it did mean I couldn't eat grass.

When I was all dry, she groomed me really well. She told me that a nice lady was going to take my picture. Well, I like having my picture taken. When my mom gets out her box thing that she talks to and takes pictures with, I try to help by coming right up to her and looking at it as closely as I can so she gets me in the picture. She's never very appreciative which is just like a person. They're not polite like horses.

But this was special because this person was a Professional. That means that taking pictures of horses is her Job. My mom got me all pretty and put my clean bridle on me and brought me over by the stalls where the vaulting horses sometimes live. There weren't any vaulting horses in there but there was a lady bustling around putting up big poles with lumps on the top and when she fiddled with a gadget, the lumps would make light. It was very interesting. They were set up all around and she made them make light a few times so I wouldn't be scared. I wasn't of course. It was just light. But some horses are silly so she was just being careful.

Then she had my mom walk me back and forth and stop just so, and then she'd make silly noises, or kissy sounds or talk nice to me and I'd look at her and put my ears up. It was fun and I liked it. I was a really Good Girl, my mom said so, and the lady seemed happy. She gave me a treat that she called Sugar and it was quite tasty though I prefer peppermints. And I do think the pictures are pretty. That's one of them at the top. Here's another:

While we were doing all this, other horses began arriving to get their pictures taken. There were some pasture horses that Sparky knows, and a pretty chestnut mare, and then Sparky came along with his mom! I was happy to see him and he was happy to see me too. He was nervous. Spark doesn't like doing new things and he's not a natural-born model like me. But his pictures are nice, too. Here's one of them. It's my favorite because it really shows how handsome he is:

That was a good day and we had some fun working and riding and playing and stuff. I got adjusted by Dooley's mom which felt really nice. She always makes me feel better. And everything was going along really well until just a couple of days ago when Dooley's mom drove up with a Trailer hitched to her truck.

Well, I like Trailers. My mom has brought me in a few of them and they always have hay in them which is really nice. We go in, I eat some hay, she tells me what a Good Girl I am, and we go out again. Trailers can be very good things.

This Trailer wasn't though.

Dooley's mom took him out of his stall and put him in the Trailer. She put a funny bar thing against him and he didn't mind at all even though he was trapped in there. Then Sparky's mom came along with Sparky and asked him to go in. He didn't want to and she had to ask him a lot of times. Finally he climbed in but his big butt didn't fit. I thought that was funny. Spark picks on me for being so big but he has an enormous butt and it wasn't going in that Trailer. I guess in that kind of Trailer, you have to get in and step over sideways and he didn't want to so he kept coming back out.

So they took Dooley out and tried putting Spark in the front. He'd go in but he wouldn't step over and he'd get nervous and back out again. So they tried me.

I clomped right in. There was a hay bag in there and it was a nice Trailer, I thought, but then my mom asked me to move over and that seemed stupid and I didn't want to. She kept trying and I fussed a bit and backed out, then I went back in and I was sort of pushed over and my mom clipped me in.

Well, I kind of panicked when I felt that strap clip on and I pulled back, and it broke, and that scared me even more, and I went barreling out backwards and then there was just no way I was going back in that Trailer because it was a very Scary place.

My mom told me she was sorry, and she calmed me down and tried to get me back in but I got stubborn, and then I got belligerent, and then I got mad. So I started making a big fuss, hoping they'd just leave me alone and let me go back in my stall. But then Indy's mom came by and she began working with me. She was so persistent! She kept tap-tap-tap-ing me with a crop on my butt, not hard but it was really annoying. If I took a step forward, she stopped, but if I went backward, or tried to rush past her, she made me go around her until I stopped and then tap-tap-tap again. It was really dumb and I was sick to death of it all. Oh, I cooperated some. I knew what she wanted. I'd stand nicely, or move forward, and once or twice I even got on the dumb Trailer, but I got right back off. Then I'd feel mad and I'd rear or fight or pull and we'd start all over.

At one point, I stepped on her foot as I was trying to rush past her and I accidentally knocked her down. My mom grabbed my lead and I rushed around her in a circle but then I stepped on HER foot and accidentally knocked her down! Then Indy's mom grabbed the lead. Those two were quick. Meanwhile, Dooley's mom was on the Trailer because she was holding the rope to keep my head pointed in the Trailer instead of away from it. Sparky's mom took a picture. It's not my best moment but you CAN see my dapples.

Finally, I got so I was standing nicely at the door of the Trailer and not fighting but I wasn't going to go on. It was hot and everyone was tired so they got Sparky back out and got him on by himself and just closed the door and took him away. I felt bad. I was worried about Sparky and didn't know what was going to happen to him. Indy's mom took me to the Round Pen and made me go in when she pointed in, and then come out when she pointed out, and we did that about a thousand times and when I was finally doing it really good, she let me go home and have dinner. It was really dumb though because my brother was gone and I didn't know where.