I've had a couple of scuffs since I moved into this field. Nothing serious. It's just the usual sort of thing that happens when you're getting to know new horses and as you can see, my mom put a nice Band-Aid on this one. Since I've learned how to be a Pasture Horse I wasn't too surprised but it was a little intimidating moving into a new situation without Sparky and Dooley. I've never lived with other horses without them being around too.
I didn't realize how much they took care of me, to be honest. When we moved into that first little Pasture and it was just the three of us, I kind of bossed them around a little and they let me. Then when our moms opened the gate so we could go into the big Pasture with the other horses, it wasn't really very different because we'd all been sniffing each other over the fence for a couple of months so we weren't strangers. I didn't know much about Herd Rankings at that point and I didn't think about it much because Sparky and Dooley were leaders of our Herd and they made sure I had plenty of hay at feed time and a spot under the shelter when it rained. I didn't realize that the other horses were letting me get those things because of Spark and Dooley. I just thought it was nice that I was cozy and dry and had a full belly.
When we moved to the last place before this one, it was different. We all got moved into a Pasture that had a big Herd in it and we didn't know any of the horses. Me and Dooley wanted to go meet them right off but Spark wouldn't let us. He said it would be better if we kept to ourselves for awhile to get used to the new place and learn our way around. I was kind of mad about that but I did what he said because he's my brother and he knows more than me and Dooley did too because he didn't want to be the only one meeting a new Herd. So for a few weeks, we just stayed in a little Herd of three. There was lots of grass in that Pasture at the time and the guys didn't even give us any hay so there was no reason to join the big Herd so we didn't. Then our friends Rose and Enzo moved in. We'd known them from the other place as you know so now we were a Herd of five.
We did eventually join the big Herd and made a lot of friends. I learned a lot about being a Pasture Horse there and got very comfortable with it. But it was still a little scary moving into this field. I had been living in a stall as I mentioned in my last post, and I liked it well enough. It was a pretty big stall, lots bigger than the one I'd lived in before I became a Pasture Horse. It had a pretty big paddock attached to it and I could go outside in the paddock whenever I wanted to. My paddock shared a fence on each side with another horse, and the back fence of the paddock shared a fence with a horse just across from me. That horse's paddock had two horses on each side of her, so all of us were able to sniff noses with lots of other horses. It was very nice.
I soon made friends with all my neighbors but my best neighbor was the mare across from me. Her name was Haiku and she was a bay Thoroughbred mare like me! We had lots in common and after she got over her habit of charging at me, we became great friends. We spent a lot of time visiting over the fence and grooming each other. Sometimes when my mom took me out to ride, Haiku would call to me. It made me feel bad that she missed me but I was happy to get out and do things with my mom.
One thing my mom did was take me trail riding. We'd only been there a day or two when she first took me out. It was exciting. I hadn't been on a trail with my mom in a long time. She'd ridden me once or twice on the trails in my big Pasture but this was different. This was on trails that weren't on our Ranch at all.
It used to be when we lived here before that I'd behave badly on the trails. My mom said I got them mixed up with the Sixth Race at Belmont. I'm not entirely sure what that means but I did like to gallop on them and I'd get mad when she wouldn't let me. She'd let me gallop up a hill and then when we got to the top, she'd ask me to walk. I'd get mad and I'd start jigging and bouncing and twirling and rearing and bucking and generally being a pill. It was because I wanted to go fast but it wasn't safe to go fast once we were at the top of the hills because then the trail goes downhill. I was just young though, and I didn't know.
Also, I wasn't an experienced Pasture Horse then so I didn't know how to walk downhill efficiently, or pick my path on the trail, so my mom had to spend a lot of time directing me which was a pain for her and annoyed me. So trail riding wasn't much fun for either one of us.
Now though, I'm a really Good Girl out on the trail. I know how to pick a path and pay attention to where I'm going and I have a good, fast walk that my mom loves. When she asks me to trot or canter on a flat part or up a hill, I do it and it's lots of fun but I don't make a fuss when she asks me to slow back down to a walk. And I know how to walk downhill so well that my mom can let me pick my way while she keeps my reins nice and loose. In fact she keeps them loose for the whole ride and just lets me swing along. It's so much fun!
Sometimes we see other riders on the trail. It might be one or two riders or it might be a whole long line of horses with young kids or beginners on them, being led by one of the Ranch Workers on a lead horse. We always pass them politely and keep going on our way. It's interesting to see other horses but I don't try to join them or follow them. I have enough fun with just my mom.
We also see people on Bicycles. Bicycles are strange. They're slim metal things with a wheel in the front and another in the back. A person sits on them between the two wheels and they roll along the trail, sometimes pretty fast. I don't mind them unless they come around a corner unexpectedly but even then I don't spook or anything. It just startles me for a moment. But then I see that it's a Bicycle and let it pass us going whichever direction it's going. They don't hurt anything.
Same with people walking. I used to worry when I saw them. I thought maybe they lost their horses and I worried that the poor horses might be lost out on the trail. But since then, I've learned that some people like to walk instead of ride horses. I don't know why. You'd think they'd get tired and lonely but a lot of them do it. Some of them bring Dogs with them so they at least have that.
Anyway, one day my mom got me out of my stall and brought me down to the area near the Pasture and the field. She didn't put me in the field though. Instead she put me in the Round Pen and went and got Sparky. She put him in with me. That was nice. We had a nice visit and we both rolled. After a while though, I saw our Shoe Man's truck and trailer drive up so I knew it was time to get new shoes.
That was good because I'd lost my back shoes at the other Ranch and hadn't had them replaced. My feet were doing okay. They were a little tender where the ground was hardest but they weren't bad. Still, I was happy I was going to get shoes put on them because I'm a lot more comfortable with them.
However, instead of putting my usual shoes on, my Shoe Man used a very strange kind of shoe. He called them glue-on shoes. They were made of a hard but flexible black stuff, kind of like the tires that my mom had me step up on at the last Ranch. First he trimmed my feet very carefully and then he put a bunch of soft, slimy stuff into the shoes. They had thin sides that reached up over the sides of my hooves and he held onto them for a long time while the soft stuff dried. Then he put my hoof down and added more soft stuff. That was the glue and he said it would keep the shoes on until the next time I needed to be trimmed. This is what they looked like.
My mom was curious because I am pretty good at getting shoes off. So she asked him specifically if they'd stay on and he said, "I've never lot one." I thought that was pretty interesting. I don't actually try to get my shoes off but I do lose a lot of them. I wondered if they'd stay on me like they do other horses.
Once I was done, my mom brought me back to my stall for a while but later that day she brought me back down and put me in the field. I wasn't quite prepared for that. Still, I tried to do what Sparky and Dooley had taught me when meeting new horses. I stood in one place and let the other two horses come over to me. When they did, I sniffed noses politely and didn't get mad or grumpy. They were polite too. None of us squealed or bit or tried to kick. It seemed like a good start.
After that, I explored the field. It's nice and big! Not as big as a Pasture but there's plenty of room to run around. I cantered around the whole thing a couple of times and Kass and Freedom got excited and cantered with me. It was fun. I got kind of hot and worked up running so my mom took me out after a while and hosed me off but she put me back in again afterward. By that time, I was a little anxious because I had gotten the feeling that she was going to leave me there and I was a little afraid about being in a strange field with strange horses without my mom or Sparky and Dooley there too. My mom stayed for quite a long time, just sitting in a chair and letting me know she was there but she finally left. I followed her car along the fence line and I probably looked pretty pathetic but not long after that the guys came and threw hay into our feeders. That made me feel better. It was nice to know I'd still get hay. Both the guys were a little pushy about the food - they'd eat at one feeder for a while and then chase me away from mine so they could eat there. But I just went to the feeder they'd left so it was okay.
My mom came back the next day and checked me all over. I was fine and she gave me a bucket and groomed me. She didn't ride me that day. She said she wanted to let me get used to the field before she took me out for too long. But then she came the day after that and I'd lost two shoes.
I lost the right front shoe and the left rear. I'm not sure how it happened. I never am. One minute I'm walking around minding my own business and the next, I have a loose shoe. And then all of a sudden it falls off. I just can't help it.
My mom was amazed and she called my Shoe Man and he was amazed too. He said I should be in the Olympics for throwing shoes. I don't know what the Olympics are but it sounds like a compliment. Anyway, my mom couldn't ride me then because I was so uneven it felt like I was limping even though I wasn't really. She tried putting some Boots on my bare feet and riding me that way but the dumb Boots got all twisted around and felt weird. I was good about it and didn't fuss but Dooley's mom who was riding him with us noticed that I had some blood where one of them was rubbing. My mom felt bad about that but it wasn't anything serious. Still, she got right off and took those dumb Boots off.
My Shoe Man wasn't able to come right out and fix things so I was uneven for several days. Then I lost the other rear shoe. That was lots better though my mom didn't seem to think it was as nice as I did. She couldn't believe I got another shoe off but she decided that she might as well try to get the last one off too so my feet would be the same all the way around. She got some tools and fussed with it and finally got it. But my front feet are very tender without shoes. She rode me bareback in the dressage arena where it's nice and soft but I can't stand being on the road or the trail. It was nice in the dressage arena though. She let me look at myself in mirror and I got to check the letter B for water. One time when we used to live here, I found water in the top of the letter B so I like to look in case there's more. Besides, B is for Bella.
So now I'm just waiting until my Shoe Man can get out and put some more shoes on me. My mom says we're not going to use those dumb glue-on shoes again. She was just using them so my feet would grow out enough to put regular shoes on and they have now because they're a lot more healthy at this Ranch. I hope it's soon because I want to go back out trail riding and work on our dressage. It's nice sometimes to just hang out with friends but I like to work.
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