Snow

So last night, a lot of white stuff started falling out of the sky.  It is cold and it will go right up your nose if you put your head up to look for where your sisters got to and see who is sneaking up on you.  A couple of times before we had some white stuff falling down but that was just a little bit of white stuff and this time there is a whole lot of it.  The wind is blowing so the white stuff is making piles and ridges so some places the ground is dark and hard and rough and other places it is soft and white.   Us ponies went in our big shed to get out of the wind.  There is no white stuff in our shed.  This morning, we heard the little green truck thing that brings us our nice hay, so we ran up the hill to the boxes to wait for it.  But the green truck thing  went to our shed and the lady threw our hay in front of the shed so we didn't have to eat it out of the boxes.  You know we hate those boxes, because they get in the way of our hay.  So we ate the hay fast and then we didn't have anything to do again, except stand in the shed and watch the wind blow the white stuff around.  The ground in the White Hill is white too, so I don't think we are going to get a chance to go in there any time too soon either.   The white stuff feels good on our feet, but I am ready for it to stop now.  We have enough white stuff.

lady laminitis?

So everyone and everything was way wet and we had to stand in our shed for days.  There was hardly any sun and the dirt got really super soft and it is deep and shiny and a little bit slippery.  Some of the ponies like to lay down and roll around and then when they get up, you can hardly tell who they are. I do not do that because I prefer to keep my beautiful coat all fluffy and shiny.  A couple of days ago, a different lady came and put hay in our boxes for breakfast and for dinner.  And then the next day, our lady was back, but she walked funny.  Have you heard about how some ponies walk when they eat too much nice green grass, or they go in the barn and eat lots of good grain and then their feet hurt?  I have never seen any ponies that this happened to, so maybe it is a farm legend.  All of us ponies have feet that are pretty and feel good.  Anyway, the lady was walking like her feet hurt like those ponies.  I don't know where she would have found a lot of green grass, because all our grass is brown. She was having a lot of trouble walking in the deep mushy ground with her floppy shiny big feet.  It was taking her forever to put our hay in our boxes.  We tried to get her to go faster by grabbing the bales of hay with our teeth but she didn't seem to like that at all.  And when we crowded around her,  sometimes her floppy feet disappeared completely, -- so how could we help it if we accidentally put a hoof on top of them?   So today she was almost normal but maybe that was because the ground was harder because it was really cold last night.  If she starts to walk like a normal pony, maybe I will get to go into the White Hill soon.   

boredom

I thought I'd have something interesting to blog about before now, but really, it is so boring around here there was not much to say.  There is stuff happening sometimes, but it is more of the same stuff.  There are still stupid geese swimming around in the pond with the little brown fuzzy animals with the skinny tails, still brown deer walking around in the fields eating nice grass and we are still stuck eating our hay out of boxes with nasty nets in them.  One day we tore the whole top off one of the boxes, but the lady made a new one and put it on.  After Tux got better and came back to live with us, that little gray filly, Mixtique, got sick and then her head swelled all up.  Toby said he got sick like that a bunch of years ago, but he is fine now.  He doesn't have a big head now, but he has a big ego.  When the lady comes out to put a halter on one of us ponies so we can go eat carrots with her in the White Hill, Toby is always right up there in the front with Harley and Billy.  And now Tux thinks he has to get in on the action too.  I think it must be a boy thing.  Of course, I want to go eat carrots, but I can't even edge my head in between those pushy guys.  My sister, Gypsy is really pushy, so she bites them, so she does get to go with the lady sometimes.  Yesterday, the lady had a bunch of pipes that she took into the White Hill and she was making loud noises in there.  Then she came and got some of us ponies and took us in there and I got to go too!  But after we stepped up on the wooden square thing, she went into the White Hill and I started to follow her, but when we got the gate, I stopped and didn't think I even wanted to walk in there.  There were pipes all over the ground!   They looked really scary and I was pretty sure they were super dangerous.  But the lady convinced me to walk inside and then we both walked right over top of the pipes.  Sometimes my feet would hit the pipe and it moved a little bit and made a clunky noise, but I hardly even flinched.  Then the lady made me walk over them by myself and when I would get to the pipe, she would say "Jump!"  Then I would get a carrot.  I am not sure what this "Jump" business is, but I think I am really good at it.  I am glad us ponies are finally getting to have fun in the White Hill, because it seemed like the lady was only taking those horses in there recently.  She would bring up Jewel and Alexis and Fleur and Mari but us ponies were way neglected.   Then the lady took Alexis and Fleur over to the barn because she said she thought they were ponies.  She put a shiny stick next to them that she said would show if they were ponies.  It is pretty obvious that they are horses because everyone knows that horses are big doofuses and ponies are cute and smart and short and all that.  Anyway, the shiny stick has a shorter black part that lays across their backs by their necks and makes them freak out. Then the lady reads a number on the shiny part.  "15" it said.  So the lady says they are horses.  Like everyone didn't already know that.   But I am not sure what that stick would say if she put it next to Mixtique.  She is cute and gray and ponyish.   Her brothers, Mak and Mat, are pretty short too.
   So I hope we get more excitement soon.   I want to see what happens with those pipes.       

Fall UnEase

    I don't know what is going on with everyone getting sick around here.  First AA, that big Thoroughbred mare that used to live in Boston had a belly ache and she was lying down and pawing until the lady gave her some medicine and then she felt better.  Then my Mom Tudi started lying down and was sad.  So the lady called some guy who stuck a needle in her neck and then she felt better.  And then yesterday, the black Tux, who lives with us, got sick and he didn't want to move.  He would just stand there.  He is quiet and sensitive and doesn't say much and the (other) bossy ponies didn't even know he was sick at first.  They would tell him to get out of their way and when he didn't, they would bite him. So the lady made him go into the White Hill with her and she washed off his feet and then another lady came when it was dark and she stuck a bunch of needles in his neck.  So I think he is feeling better now.  He is getting a lot of hay to eat in there and he doesn't even have to eat it through these nets in boxes.  
   But the lady said she is getting fed up with all these sick and dead and suicidal and stupid animals.  She has to keep dumping out Fusion and Artie's water trough because mice jump in there that can't swim. And then there was the raccoon.  He had decorated his fur with burdocks, so I guess he wanted to show it off.  He walked right up in the middle of the day and sat by the barn door watching the lady while she was making loud bang noises with a long brown stick.  You know, the barn is full of those noisy little brown birds, and sometimes after she pointed the stick at the birds, one would fall down. So she saw the raccoon sitting there watching her and she said "Shoo!"  I don't know why she thought saying "Shoo" would make the raccoon run away if the loud bang noises didn't.  Wow, if that was me, I would have run off when I heard the first bang, but not that raccoon. He just strolled over closer to the lady and sat down.  So then the lady went in the place where she keeps medicines and some carrots and brown and black leather things and when she came back out, she pointed the stick at the raccoon and it went bang again.  Then the raccoon fell over dead.   I think the lady felt bad for the raccoon, what with it being all friendly and everything, but she said that wild things are supposed to act like wild things, like the deer that run off and wave their tails at her when she gets close to them.  And she didn't think those dogs that live in the other barn with her would want to be friends with the raccoon.
   So I hope no one else is acting weird or sick around here.  It is getting chilly and we are all wearing warm fuzzy coats and are pretty chubby, so I guess we are ready for when that white cold stuff falls out of the sky.  But I would rather have nice grass!      

For kicks

    Today was wonderful!  The boxes that the lady brought to our field with the big orange machine were sitting there this morning and here came that lady with hay in the back of the little green truck and she put it right inside the boxes.  We all shoved each other out of the way and tried to pull the hay out through those nasty nets, but now there are so many boxes that everyone can eat hay at the same time so even when we are jostling and switching around we can still be eating.  Even Haylie and little Krissy can eat from some of the boxes.  Then the sun was out and warm, so most of us laid down and the lady came out and handed out carrots.  It was so nice with our bellies full and lying in the sun that we didn't even get up.  We made that lady reach down and give us the carrots. She took Harley and Krissy and Tux over to the White Hill and they got to eat carrots there and then they even went down to the barn where they got their forelocks combed.  The rest of us didn't even care because it was so nice out there by the boxes.
     Then the lady took some carrots out to the young horses and ponies that live with that cranky Red mare.  She took the little bay horse, Mat, with the white feet in front and combed him and put brown stuff on him and squirted stuff in his mouth.  Then she started to make his feet pretty.  Actually, his feet looked fine to me, so I don't know why she wanted to mess with them.  He didn't want her to mess with them either and he told her so a couple of times.  Sometimes that lady just doesn't listen to reason.  So she went to pick up his foot and Wham!  -- she was flying back into the wall.  Her dark shade things that she wears in front of her eyes went into the dirt and she had mud all down the side of her face and there was even red stuff under her mouth. She got up and looked pretty surprised.  I don't usually notice things like this, but I think her teeth were shorter.   So then she picked up his feet again anyway, but she only trimmed a little bit off the one that kicked her in the face.  And she didn't trim anything off the other ones. She just put him back in the pasture and went into her barn where she lives.  Then we didn't see her for a while, but when she came back, she didn't have dirt on her face any more and parts of it were really pink and shiny.  We didn't get any more carrots, so we are hopeful there will be more tomorrow.        

innocent ponies

Ha! Ha!  We are all such clever ponies!  Some tree branches fell on our fence tape and it was flat.  We could walk right over it.   We went into a wonderful grassy field and ran all around.  Then we went up a big hill and at the top the ground was black and hard and there were barns with windows that had people inside them.  So we ran back down the hill. You know that man with the nice grass in his yard?  He came to the lady's house and he told her that we ran up the hill and back down.  He said that some people called his house because they thought we belonged to him.  Ha!  If that man belonged to us we would be eating his nice grass! So the lady and the man came back to look at us, but we all acted like we hadn't been anywhere.  We just stood there in a bunch in our pasture and hoped the lady didn't notice that the fence tape was flat.  But she walked back there and put it back up.  Then that smart man asked which one I was?  He said he recognized me and said that I will have something exciting to write in my blog today!     

Fall fashion

My new do

burdocks

weeds w/burrs

So Fall is here which means that the opportunities abound for those of us fashion conscious gals to accessorize.  Of course, I am already glamorous in my luxurious shiny new coat with its intricate shading of red, gray and black.  But even I like to make a little extra effort as the pastures offer up a chance to try new forelock styles.  Some of the ponies go in for the whole mane effect and others even decorate their tails, but I personally find that less is more in that department.  So I am currently flaunting a fairly discreet if intricate forelock roll.   How do I do it, you ask?  Well, you need the right sort of ornamental plants in your pasture, for starters.  Everyone knows the classic pony adornment is the burdock.  These are robust plants and grow to large sizes, so they can be used by horses as well as ponies. As you can see in the pic, they are currently in perfect condition to be introduced into the forelock and can then be shaped and molded as the pony desires.  Burdocks have the additional bonus of coming apart as they age, so they are perfect for those who prefer a more extreme style, like the unicorn look that Krissy was sporting this morning.   A more recent arrival on the decorative scene is this weird weed that usually grows by the streams.  It has a hard burr that really sticks to your forelock and it doesn't come out easily, so it is excellent for the long term.  This weed can get pretty tall, but it tends to stoop down low as it grows, so you mostly have to walk along the stream to get it.  I was thinking the lady didn't like these weeds too much, because she whacked them down in my dad Bob's pasture (he had REALLY fancied up his mane and tail with them!)  but then today, she came down to our stream and cut them all down and carried them away back up to the barn.  So she must want them all for herself.  And she combed out everyone's forelock and tail except I wouldn't let her do mine.  I prefer to be the fashion plate of the farm! 

fall days

    The days are perfect!  We had been eating nice grass by our pond and after we ate that all up, now we are back in the other field.  There is only a little bit of grass out here so we have to look for it really hard and we almost get dirt in our teeth trying to bite it off.  But it's not like we have a whole lot of other stuff to do every day.  Now we are getting luxurious fur coats and all of us pony mares are glamorously Rubenesque.  There are hardly any bugs.  It is grand.
    The lady came down to our field with the big noisy orange machine and looked at a gate into my dad Bob's pasture that is right next to our field.  She never uses that gate, but I guess she wanted to do something different with the big orange machine. But there was a great big gray nest with a hole in the bottom of it hanging on the fence right next to the gate.  So the lady got one of those red metal can things and a long shiny stick and in the morning, she squirted white stuff on the nest and then she poked it with the stick.  All us ponies went over to watch.  We thought those skinny yellow bugs would come out of it.  But nothing happened. So the lady knocked it down and still nothing happened.  There was only one bug inside and it was big and black.  So that ended up being pretty boring.
   So then she came down to see us and she had carrots and was trying to give us the carrots but my brother Harley kept butting his nose in and biting us.  He wanted all the carrots for himself.  So the lady sat on his back and he didn't have a halter on his head or anything. The lady would say "Wo" and Harley would stop and then he'd get a carrot.  So then my little sister Elf came over to see if she could get a carrot. Harley is not big on sharing so he took off after Elf to try to bite her.  You should have seen that lady's face!  Wahoo! Harley did not stop when she said "Wo."  So she jumped off and told Harley he was naughty and he didn't get any more carrots. Harley was sad and he followed her all the way over to the fence.  So then none of us got any more carrots.  I think that Harley ruined it for everyone.           

sunny day

Can you believe that horse Rita came along and hijacked MY blog?   I was pretty annoyed when I saw it.  If she had been  here, I would have jumped at her and tried to bite her like I did with Toby when he came barging in between me and the lady the other day and the lady almost fell down.  But you know, yesterday was a perfect day, hardly any bugs and the sun was warm and it was breezy and we got to go out in the nice grass by the pond and there was even extra grass where the lady moved the fence, so I got over it pretty fast.  You know, that Rita is the same color as my Mom.  And I was that color when I was little too. So MAYBE I will let her do that again some time.
   So, like I was saying, yesterday was super fun and all us ponies were standing around in the sun with our bellies full and here comes that lady with a halter.  Well, there was no way we were going to leave that nice grass forever, never, at all, ever.  So we turned around and pretended that lady was nowhere around.  We stuck our noses in the grass so she could see how starving and busy we were. I guess she could see how important it was for us to eat that grass, because she just walked up to one of the ponies and started one of the carrot-getting games.  It is a simple game once you figure it out.  The lady paws at her face and makes a funny noise with her mouth and kind of sticks her lips out.  "Kiss," she says.  At first, when she did that we thought she had flies on her face and was trying to get them off.  So we stayed back because we have enough of our own flies.  So then she would hold a carrot up by her face and do it some more. Once I saw that carrot, I figured she wanted me to have it and I stuck my nose up toward it and she made that other funny noise that means "carrot!" and then I got the carrot.  So it turns out that all you have to do is stick your nose against her face and you get a carrot.  The hard part is waiting.  You don't get a carrot if you just stick your nose in her face.  Some of the ponies haven't figured that out yet.  So anyway, as soon as we saw the carrot game was underway, we all wanted to get in on it. My brother Harley, of course, got right in the middle and then he followed the lady around and warned everyone else away.  So she put the halter on him and had him do some of the other carrot games.  He got a lot of carrots.
   It is nice by our pond because the stupid geese are not there.  A couple of days ago, right when the sun came up, there were lots of bangs in the field by where Rita lives and some geese fell out of the sky.  So maybe that is why the geese are gone.  That big yellow coyote has been hanging around here, but  I don't think he made the geese go away.  He tries to sneak up on the geese but they laugh at him and fly away.  I think the lady calls him Wily.                      

Robust Rita

So I am not Tinkerbelle.  All of us horses think that maybe Tink is a little biased and you are not getting enough of the right information about us.  So the other horses voted me to be the horse rep.  I am Rita.  We know we are in the minority here on the farm,  And we are not all dazzling different colors like those fancy ponies are, but someone ought to be extolling our virtues anyway.  Besides, everyone knows that the lady likes brown horses with black points and she isn't keen on white feet, so what would you expect most of us horses to look like?  So anyway,  I live in a big pasture with five other mares.  The lady calls us the "Bay Bunch."  There is a mare named A and her daughters Jewel and Alexis.  A actually has a long name that she used when she was at the racetrack.   But it is too long to use around the farm.  And there is a funny three year old named Fleur Scho.  Her Mom, Red, lives next door with a bunch of young ponies. Red used to be the boss of everyone, so Fleur thought she was quite the princess when she moved in here, but we taught her a thing or two.  And then there is my Mom, Mari.  Mari's full name is Mariposa because the lady thinks she looks like one of those Monarch butterflies.  (She used to go see lots of those butterflies when she lived in Mexico.)  Mari could have been a race horse too, like A, except that she doesn't have some kind of papers that horses need to do that.  Her dad won a fancy race a long time ago called the Kentucky Derby.   But she never met her dad and she doesn't have any racetrack stories.  My Dad. Lafleur, died last year.  He used to live next door where that Red mare lives with the ponies now.  My full name is La Florita, which means little flower.   I am very pretty and only a little bit bossy.  When I was just a year old, I saw that the one gate to our pasture was open a little bit, so I stuck my head in there to see if I could reach some of the grass on the other side. But it didn't open any further, so I tried to yank my head back out and the gate grabbed my head and held on to it.  AHHH!   I threw my head around and the latch pin from the gate went right into my head below my ear.  OWW!   When I got free, I had a hole about as big around as my eye and as deep as half my hoof  in my head.  Lots of the blood inside me ran out the hole and then I could hardly walk.  And then my face felt funny and didn't work right.  So then I got better and now I just have some white hairs where the hole was in my head, but my nose is crooked and half of my mouth is kind of floppy.  I think it is getting more like it used to be tho.  The lady tells me to eat grass for therapy, so I am good at that.  After my Dad died,  a lot of horses and ponies moved around to different pastures and me and A moved out back and lived with two ponies named Taca and Bob.  That Bob!  He is pushy and noisy and I just tried to ignore him when I got back there, but he kind of grows on you after a while.   So I decided he could be my boyfriend.   And then when the trees started to get leaves on them, me and A moved back up here with these mares again.  So I have only seen Bob in passing a few times since.  The lady says I look pregnant, but you know, we have a lot of green grass and so she says ALL of us mares look pregnant.  We are a robust bunch.      

tricks

Hooray!  It is raining, so we should be getting more nice grass.  And maybe we will even get to eat nice grass by our pond, where we can see the grass is very green.  If we go out there, then my dad Bob and his mares can't eat grass in the field next to us because Bob doesn't like some of us ponies being too close to his family.  He stands by the fence and makes nasty faces at us.  So sometimes we just go out there at night.  Today it is super windy and some big branches fell off the trees.  Some of us ponies went to the white hill, but it was flapping and making a lot of noise, so it was very scary.  The lady has a new game where we have to "step up" to get carrots.  There are wood slats on top of other pieces of wood and they are about a hoof height off the ground.  And on top of them is a bouncy black mat with lots of little round holes in it.  I do not think it is very scary and I got lots of carrots for stepping on it.  But some of the ponies are pretty sure that they are going to get sucked into those little holes, so they don't want to step on it.  They got a couple of carrots for standing next to it, but I got way more carrots than they did. Harley gets lots of carrots because he is a favorite.  We are all getting our winter coats already, so Harley is jet black and looks quite stunning.  You know, he is bossy, and he really likes carrots, so he tries everything to get more of them.  If he just knows the lady has carrots in her pockets, he starts doing all the stuff that got him carrots before, but it only works if the lady asks him to do it first, but he doesn't care. So he ends up nodding and prancing and pawing and shoving his head on her shoulder or under her arm.  I get tired just watching him.  Now he has been learning about taking her hanky in his mouth and he bit her twice today.  Hard.  Actually, he still got carrots, but she yelled anyway.  I never bite the lady, but I didn't even get to see that purple hanky.  Yet.          

No leaping!

So us ponies have been getting a lot of good carrot time in the big box and the White Hill.  Almost all us ponies walked into the box after we checked it our, except for that Tux.  He is really suspicious.  He didn't want to even put his toes on the ramp. He didn't get nearly as many carrots as the rest of us.  You know, that little bossy dog goes zipping by us all the time to run back to our pond and then she jumps into the water and makes a lot of noise and sticks her head in holes.  When she comes out, she is so muddy, we are thinking of making her an honorary pony.  The geese don't like it too much, but we wish those stupid geese would go away anyway.  There are like a hundred of them and we have feathers everywhere.
   Those big dogs have not been back to bite my dad Bob and his mares, but his face got sore again and had  red blood dripping from it.  The lady puts stuff on it to keep the flies off.  The lady was trimming Taca's hooves in their shed and she asked Taca why none of the other ponies were in the shed.  She could tell there were a lot of flies around because there was a lot of buzzing, but the ponies were standing outside the shed and even Taca wanted to leave to be with the others.  Then the lady looked up and saw a round gray nest as big as Taca's head on the wall right next to them.  There were yellow buzzing bugs flying in and out alot!  So she decided to finish Taca's feet outside the shed.  And then she went down later and put white stuff on the round thing and the bugs fell out and stopped buzzing.  So now Bob and the mares go back in the shed.
   This morning the lady took Harley to the White Hill and sat on his back.  She didn't have a saddle or bridle, she just had carrots, so when Harley went the right way he got a carrot.  Harley is overly enthusiastic about carrots. He has been ridden a lot and is a good jumper, but he never played this game before.  He really wanted the carrots and he didn't think he was getting them fast enough.  It is frustrating to have to wait for the lady to ask you to do stuff and then figure out what she wants before you get a carrot.  So Harley was pretty revved up about the carrot/riding game.  So he started leaping into the air.  He was thinking he was one of those Lipizzaners.  The lady didn't like the leaping.  She told him she didn't ask for leaping, so he didn't get any carrots for that.   I will be next and I will get a lot of carrots!     

gigantic box on wheels

    So there has been much excitement around here since those big bad dogs were here.  My dad Bob had to stay in the barn for a couple of days but now he is back out with his mares, although his face has sores and looks funny and the lady comes out with a big needle a couple of times during the day and pokes it in his neck.  Bob doesn't like that too much.   But we have not seen those big bad dogs again.  The lady doesn't let Bob and his mares go out in the pasture where the big bad dogs were, but she let us ponies go out to eat the nice grass by our pond yesterday.  The grass is better since we got all that rain.  There was like a horse hoof high of rain!    
    Some of us ponies and some of the horses got to look and walk into the gigantic box with wheels.  There is a noisy, kind of bouncy, dark ramp that you have to put your foot on before you can walk into the gigantic box.  She takes Ferris in there the most.  Ferris has a bump on his face but it isn't because of the gigantic box.  Yesterday she was making hissing noises with metal tubes inside the box and then some of those skinny bugs fell down from the top of it.  Then when Harley walked up the ramp to the box, one of those skinny bugs fell right on his head!  Harley was so surprised, he didn't think walking in the box was a good idea.  So the lady said he could wait and walk in the box another day.  I walked right into the box because there was a little bucket at the front of it and I know the lady carries good grain in those buckets.  I got carrots and grain!  I didn't ever want to leave that box, but I had to back out of it anyway.  Then I got carrots for backing out.  And then we went to the White Hill and the lady sat on top of me.  I still think she doesn't know what she is doing.  But whatever -- I walk around and get carrots and she wiggles her legs and shifts her weight around up there, which is not any big deal to me. I mostly just try to ignore her until it seems like a carrot is coming my way.          

Bad dogs!

Even tho it has been hot, we have had pretty much activity here.  The lady has been taking us to the White Hill and we get lots of carrots.   I mean LOTS!  She has a bag of carrots as big as a baby pony in that little green truck thing.  We get to walk and trot around and she sits on our backs.  It is kind of fun because there are hardly any bugs at all in the White Hill.  This morning  the lady pulled this big gigantic box with wheels around the White Hill with her gray truck.  When she got out of the truck, she looked around because there was a lot of dog barking going on.  She looked at the little bossy dog that was in the truck and the other two little dogs and they were not barking.  So she ran to the top of the hill and looked down by the pond.  All us ponies had already run down to the pond because that was where all the excitement was.  There were two big dogs dancing around my dad Bob and his mares and foal.  Bob would charge at the big dogs to try to keep them away, but the one big dog would run at Bob and bite his nose or his legs.  The other big dog was happy about it and kept jumping up and down and egging his friend on.  The lady grabbed her little dogs and put them in the barn and then ran down the hill with a lead rope.  She yelled at the big nasty dogs and they stopped attacking Bob and looked at her.  Then they decided to run off and ran to the end of the pasture.  Poor Bob had blood all over him and that is not a good look for a white pony.  Now Bob and his mares are back inside their "predator proof" fence in hopes that the big dogs won't be able to bite him any more.    

wasps

    In the morning, the lady went through the gate to my dad, Bob's pasture where he lives with his mares and then she started jumping around and waving her front legs and saying loud funny words.  You know, with ladies, their front legs don't have hooves, so it's probably a good thing they don't try to walk on them.  They have skinny wiggly things like worms that they can use to open gates.  Anyway, the lady didn't even want to go close to the gate then and after she fed the ponies, she drove the little green truck thing up to the barn and then went back down to the gate.  She had a red cylinder metal thing with a picture of a skinny bug on it and she pointed the top of it at the gate and the gate turned white.   Then skinny yellow bugs like the one on the metal thing started falling off the gate.   Then it was like she was on a mission.  She came to our gates and the gates by the barn and was making those skinny bugs fall down from all the gates. She kept rubbing her one front fetlock and it was red and way bigger than the other one.  
    We have not had much rain, so there is not much nice grass.  We have been out looking for some in the field behind our regular pasture, but there is not much out there.  The little spare lady was driving the orange machine around in our pasture and picking up rocks and putting them in the big orange thing's mouth.  Then she made it spit them out by our hay boxes.  And today our lady was making lots of dust in our pasture by driving the littler orange machine out there.  When she was done, it was pretty flat.  Now we have to eat hay by the rocks.
   I don't know why everyone is getting to go into the white hill except me.  Well, maybe not everyone, but there have been a lot of ponies getting carrots and pedicures.  They don't even have to carry anything or anyone around on their back usually.  It is too hot to carry anything around.   They just get to go in there and try to figure out what that lady wants and then they get a carrot.  I need to get in on some of that action.       

summer daze

Well, now it is hot and there are many bugs. Almost every day, the lady comes out and takes some of us ponies over to the barn or the white hill.  It is nice and cool and bug-free in the barn but sometimes there are other horses in there and stuff keeps moving around so every time I go there it looks scary all over again.  The lady brushes me and combs my tail and sprays wicked-smelling stuff on me and puts gooey stuff in my ears.  Then sometimes she sticks the brown lumpy thing on my back and we go to the white hill and she sits on top of me.  I don't much care for it, but I am trying to be nice to her because I don't think she knows what she is doing.  She makes funny noises and squeezes me with her legs and then she pulls my head sideways even tho I am going a totally different direction.  It is like she can't even tell where we are going. Fortunately, she gives me carrots once in a while if I walk when she squeezes her legs and clucks her mouth.  She does the same thing with the other ponies and some of the horses.   This morning I went with her to the barn and then she made my hooves look nice. I didn't think that was necessary either, but I must admit I like the way they look and feel now.   We have a little bit of grass in our field but we would have more if there was rain.  At night, the lady gives us hay in the boxes, but sometimes we would rather stay out in the field and look for grass.  She doesn't want us to stay in that field.  She thinks we might try to go mow the neighbor's grass again. That is excellent grass, so she might be right.  

muggy and buggy

Ughhh -- now it is hot and muggy and buggy.   All us ponies want to do is stand in our shed and get away from the bugs.  Actually we would like to eat nice grass by the pond, but it is better in the shed.  Yesterday the lady took me to the white hill and I got to trot around and wear the lumpy brown thing on my back.  She had that dark horse Alexis in there earlier and she sat on top of Alexis, so I thought she was going to sit on top of me too, but she didn't.  She just wanted me and Toby to trot around and be gorgeous.  It was  nice in the white hill because the sun can't get in there and there were hardly any bugs, but that was, as I said, yesterday and today would be a different story. Even without sun in there, it is too hot to trot around.  Artie and that hunk Fusion are in the barn and they hardly ever get to hang out in stalls with fans on them.  This morning the other lady who had been riding Fusion came out in our field and got Haylie and took her up to the white hill.  I don't think she likes to ride Fusion any more because all he wants to do is jump over the jump in the arena.  He doesn't even want to trot along the sides or anything, if he gets the least bit of leeway, he will tear off and jump over that jump.  I'll bet today he wouldn't want to jump over the jump and get sweatier.  But she rode Haylie around anyway before it got so hot.    

That's entertainment

Us ponies have just been plain neglected recently, while the lady is spending her time with those big horses, taking them in the white hill and giving them carrots and riding them around in the big field that has huge gigantic rolls of what used to be nice grass.  She has been riding Artie while the other lady rides around on that hunk Fusion almost every day and they go over by the stream and ride around in the woods and across the fallen trees and stuff while the big dogs bark at them from across the creek.  And she brings those bay horse mares in while the other bay horse mares stand by the gate and yell for them and she even takes those young horses Ferris and Mak into the white hill where she makes swooshing and snapping noises.  So when she came out in our pasture with her pockets full of carrots, you can bet that I was the first one right there  in front of her.  She put the halter on me first and I got to go over to the barn where I got my hair brushed and funny smelling stuff sprayed on me.  Then we went to the white hill where it was cool and I got to trot and walk around and the lady would wave a long stick with a string on it.  Sometimes she pointed it at me and sometimes she pointed it up in the air.  Sometimes the string would say SNAP!   She would say stuff like Trot!  and Wok!  and Whoa! and I did it all perfectly.  I got lots of carrots for doing the right things at the right times.  It was so easy I almost got bored with it.  So then she took some other ponies in the white hill and some of them did it right like my sister Gypsy (she did some of this stuff before but it was when she was tied to a long rope).  And some of the ponies like Tux didn't catch on so good. Tux thought it was a stupid game and he just wanted to leave.   He almost didn't even care about the carrots.  So that was yesterday and today the lady is back at the big horses again.  But us ponies have been eating grass on the other side of the creek, so we have hardly even paid any attention at all to the entertainment in the white hill.  We are making our own entertainment out here.    

How many ponies?

You know our neighbor who is always mowing his lawn?  He has really pretty short nice grass and it is really green.  It must be special grass for as much time as he spends mowing it.  So us ponies went over there to check it out and help him with the mowing.  He didn't appreciate that at all.    He called the lady and said that there were 14 horses in his yard.   The sun was just barely up, so maybe he couldn't see us so good.  The lady knows that there are 17 of us ponies in all and we were all checking out the nice short grass except my Mom, Tudi, so I don't know what he was counting.  Anyway, the lady came and told us we had to go home, so we followed Harley and went back in our regular pasture.  That turned out to be a bad idea because there is not sufficient grass in our pasture. We have to look really hard for that grass.  We were  kind of annoyed about it all day and last night.  This morning, the lady came out and so we ran over to her to tell her to let us out by the pond for the nice grass there.  She hardly paid any attention to us at all.  She kept looking at my Mom Tudi.  Last night Tudi laid down and when she got up, there was my new baby sister on the ground.  So the lady was upset about Tudi being out there in the pasture with my baby sister.  She told Tudi that she didn't know Tudi was going to have a baby because she took my dad, Bob away from her last year when her other baby was only 5 days old.  I guess my dad and Tudi are fast operators. So we kept trying to run over to the lady to convince her to open the gates to the nice grass, but she just went out and fixed other fence and it took her forever to get our gate open so we could go out by the pond.  Then she tried to lead my Mom and the new baby by us but we all wanted to run up and see the new baby, so she had to go back and carry the baby across the creek so she could take them up to the barn.  We are having lots of rain to make the grass grow and it is kind of cool, so I don't know why she wanted to take my mom away.  There are no bugs out here at all.  And now we have nice grass so it is perfect!        

Entertainment

There has been a way lot of exciting stuff going on around here.  There has been an extra lady who has her mane pulled who walks around with the regular lady and does stuff.  They led my dad Bob and the white horse mare up to the barn and then  Taca and her baby from this year and the one from last year and then they took the white horse mare and Bob back to the pasture again.  That was really fun to watch, so we ran along the fence and all lined up like it was a parade to see them go by.   Taca didn't like us being so close to her little baby, so she made faces at us and called her baby and told it to stay right there beside her.  Then later our lady came out to us carrying a halter.  We were all standing up on top of the hill by the gate and the lady was really surprised.  "Ponies!" she said. "I am so glad you are up here waiting for me instead of on the other side of the creek."  We looked at her and then we all looked down the hill.  So the lady looked down the hill too and she said "WHO is that pony back there?"   Then she went and got the little green truck thing and her noisy little machines and she and the short-maned lady put the boards back up on the fence in the pasture next to us and put part of our fence back up and went back and caught Taca's baby from last year and took her out of our pasture.  We were glad she was gone.  We didn't need any non-friend ponies running around in our field eating our nice grass.  The short- maned lady has been riding some of the ponies and there is still ANOTHER lady who is coming and riding that hunk Fusion.  Yesterday there were ponies coming and going out of the pasture so much we could hardly keep track of them  Even Toby got to go out to the big  grassy round pasture and the lady sat on his back and he had to NOT run over to try to talk to the other horses.   It was hard for him because he didn't know what that lady wanted him to do and it was all new.  He walked around and watched Haylie trot and run with the short-maned lady on her back.  He didn't think it was so much fun, but he got some carrots, so he didn't think it was terrible. We have lots of nice grass now that we had rain and the sun has been shining, so we don't really need to hang around and wait for the ladies to entertain us.     

Riding pony

FINALLY, the lady figured out that we needed to eat that nice grass by the pond and she opened our gate so we could go out there.  It took us a little while to figure out the gate was open, because we had to eat other nice grass by the white hill, so we were pretty busy.  The lady came out with a new lady and they shooed us back into our pasture, which was pretty annoying let me tell you.  So we were all standing there in our shed and giving them really dirty looks and the lady started to call us and walked off down the hill.  The boys should have followed her, because that is their job, but since they weren't doing anything except standing around feeling sorry for themselves,  I went after the lady and she gave me a carrot!  So THEN the others came over and the lady started running down the hill toward the gate.  We stopped and watched her acting so odd and when she got to the gate, she ran right through it because there was nothing there but a hole.  Wow!  So then we all galloped down there and started to eat the nice grass.
   Yesterday the lady came and got me and took me to the barn.  The barn was cool and a little scary, but she brushed my back and my neck and combed out my beautiful tail.  Of course, I was deserving of all the attention and I was very good and didn't knock stuff off the shelves with my nose like some ponies do.  Then she put a funny bridle on me without any metal part in my  mouth and took me to the white hill.  She stood me next to a big black steppy thing and then she climbed up and lay down on top of my back.  I didn't know what to do, so I just stood there and I got a carrot.  Then she sat on my back.  I sniffed her legs and thought about biting one, but since I was getting carrots, it didn't seem like a good idea to go around upsetting the carrot cart.  Then the lady would say "wok" and make funny clicking noises. I tried just standing there, since that had been working so far, but I didn't get any more carrots for that.  So finally I got bored and decided to go try to look over the wall and see if I could see other ponies. THEN I got carrots.  But the lady would pull on my head and make me look in directions where I wasn't even going.  I never did figure out what was up with that.  But I got pretty many carrots and it was nice and cool in the white hill.  Then I got to go back out with the other ponies.  So it was a pretty fun, if strange, day.  But I hope that lady figures out what she is doing soon.   

swimming

Today, all us ponies were standing by the gate to the pond, waiting for the lady to come and open it so we could eat the nice grass out there.  We thought for sure the lady would have figured out from our escapades a few nights ago that we need to go out there and eat that grass, but she hasn't picked up on it.  While we were waiting, she came back to the pond in the little green truck thing with two of those barky dogs. She parked the truck thing by the pond and that little bossy dog jumped out and started running all around.  You know, now that the cat that had her tongue hanging out isn't around any more, that bossy dog gets to just run all over the place.  At first all that dog did was run around the barn and look for cats, but now she checks out everything.  It is as tho she has never even seen normal stuff before.  So she and the lady walked around the pond and there were a whole bunch of stupid geese along the bank, not just the mama and papa and baby geese, but a bunch of other stupid big geese too.  When the lady and the bossy dog got close to them, the geese started honking and they slid down the bank and went in the water.  The bossy dog was happy that she scared the geese into the water and was all excited and barking at them.  She followed them down the bank and then she walked right into the water.  The geese were not real scared, so they weren't flapping around or anything, they were just honking and floating around not too far from the bossy dog.  So the bossy dog just kept right on going, into the water and started swimming at the geese.  The geese were kind of amazed about that.  They honked more and they swam a little faster but you know, before they had a noisy white dog about half the size of a goose chasing them, and now they just had a silent little-bitty brown dog head skimming along the top of the water at them.  That bossy dog was a good swimmer and she swam as fast as she could to catch up with the geese, but the geese split up so then she didn't know what to do.  She was in the middle of the pond and she swam in a circle and then said "Screw it" and swam back to the shore.  Then she ran further up the shoreline and went back in the water to swim after the geese some more.   Then the lady called her and she gave up on the geese and they went back up to the barns. And the lady did not even open our gate.        

Freedom

Wahoo!   We TOLD that lady the grass was greener by the pond and so we finally had to prove it to her and knock down our fence so we could get to it.  It was SO much fun!  The nice grass was green and tall and then the lady showed up and we all ran and ran like we were wild Mustangs!  We wanted to make sure she had a chance to see how much we liked the grass and we certainly didn't want to leave it.  We ran up the hill and through the field and chased  each other all around.  Only little Perl and my mom Tudi were stuck back in the pasture -- the rest of us were FREE!  Then the lady came out with a little bucket with grain in it and Harley ran over to her.  We never get grain to eat, so he was happy that she brought it to him.  She put a halter on him and led him right around the small paddock.  Harley is our fearless leader, so we figured he must be going somewhere really fun, so most of us thundered after him and we were so surprised to discover that we inside the small paddock where Artie and Fusion usually live.  It was awful!  There was no nice grass. We were stuck eating Artie and Fusion's hay that the lady had put in there earlier, while the lady came and got each one of us and put us back our field.  Except for that feisty Fiesta  who said no way was she getting caught.  She didn't come into the small paddock when we ran in there, so she had plenty of grass to eat and she wasn't about to let any stupid halter get stuck on her head. The lady tried leading her friends and her mom Haylie into the barn, but she just watched them go by and laughed.  By the time we were back in our grassless field, the moon was really high.  The lady was fed up with Fiesta and told her she was going to get sick eating all that green grass.  I didn't believe her, but I guess Fiesta did, because she walked over to the gate and the lady opened it and she walked inside.  "Thank you Fiesta," she said.       

pics

The lady came out and took some pics of us.  I stood right in the middle of the pics as often as I could.  She took a pic of my Mom and Haylie and Krissy too. They have not been assimilated into our pony band yet, so they have to stand by themselves.  But today the lady opened the gate and let us all into the back pasture.  Those three mares were the first ones out there.  It created quite a ruckus because my dad, Bob, ran over to his pasture fence and was calling to "his" mares, while Harley and Billy and Toby had to run back to "protect" them and chase them so that Bob couldn't get close to them.  I did not care about any of it because I was eating hay.   It rained a lot last night, so we should be getting some nice grass here soon.

Tudi and goslings

So get this.  My MOM, Tudi, moved back in with us.  The lady told her she was too chubby and had to move out of that pasture with the red mare and the youngster ponies.  She did not care so much about being away from my baby brother, so she didn't run along the fence like Haylie did when she moved in with us.  My Mom came up and said Hi to all of us and then she trotted all the way along the fence on all sides to check it out.  I think she thinks that she is in charge of us now.  But some of the boy ponies who live here didn't think she should be in charge and they chased her and made her stand on the other side of the creek.  But Haylie and Krissy were happy to see her, so they went with her to keep her company.  The three of them are standing down by the pond, but on the wrong side of the fence to get any nice grass.  None of us can get to that nice grass by the pond.   You know, the stupid geese have been taking turns sitting around down at the pond.  One sits and the other one either floats around or stands guard.  But now they are both walking or floating around and they have five little tiny baby geese with them. Just what we need, more stupid geese around our pond.      
   The lady has been taking some of the horses and us ponies into the White Hill, where we get carrots and she sits on our backs and we can walk and trot around.  It is all new stuff to most of us, so it would be really scary, except that we know about the carrots, so everyone wants to be the one who gets to go.  Yesterday it was Billy and that giant mare Jewel and pretty Mari.  It was not very windy, so Jewel didn't have to snort and jump around when the sides of the White Hill made noise. I wanted to go, but she didn't pick me.

Haylie's Comet

Today, the lady brought that big spotted pony Haylie over to our pasture.  She is really pretty and almost a horse, but not quite.  We were all eating hay, but Harley and Toby ran down to see her.  When she came into our pasture, she didn't want to talk to us at all.  She just wanted to run back and forth along the fence and yell for her "baby."  Her "baby" is almost a year old and she didn't even care that her mama left, but Haylie was all upset anyway.  After a while, some of the ponies got mad about all the bad energy she was bringing into our pasture. My sister Gypsy and Harley and a couple of the other ponies ran after her and tried to bite her because she was just so aggravating.  But she would run really fast and get away from them and run back over to the fence.  You know, she came from Vermont with Krissy, so Krissy wanted to hang out with her, but she didn't want anything to do with Krissy either.  The lady came out in the rain with the shiny scraper thing and scratched it on our backs and made our hair fall on the ground, but Haylie didn't want to come over for that either.  All of us were gathered around and I was right in the middle of everyone, so I got scratched the MOST.  You know that Haylie is the mother of my arch-rival Fiesta, but she didn't want to talk to Fiesta or her son Tux either.  She is really focused, that Haylie is. After the lady got done giving us carrots and scratching our hair out, she did the same thing for the young horses in the small paddock next to us and the bay bunch mares.  Everyone thought if felt really good and they liked getting the carrots.  It has been raining every day and I am kind of getting sick of it. When the lady put Haylie in our pasture, she closed off the gates so we can't even go look for nice grass by the woods or in the back field across the creek.  I guess we are stuck here until that Haylie settles down and decides she likes us.  I hope she likes us soon.          

Excitement

There has been interesting stuff going on around here. Yesterday, a tall man pulled his truck over right by the pen where the old big horse used to eat his breakfast and dinner. There used to be a sign on the pen that said "Le Bistro", but the lady took it down after the old horse died. Now no one eats breakfast in there anymore So the lady brought that white horse mare into the former Bistro and the tall man stood behind her. Then he shook his head. And then the lady went and got my little brother and the colt with the cute white front feet. Each of the colts laid down and went to sleep for a little while right in front of the tall man and then when they got up, they walked funny. Then this morning, the lady brought my dad Bob up to the barn and led the white horse mare back to the pasture where Bob lives with Taca and the new filly. The white mare was not happy and she walked back and forth along the fence and kept yelling. The other horses that she lived with yelled a couple of times when she left, but then they couldn't hear her so they didn't say anything. In a little while, the lady took Bob back out to his pasture. He had his long mane and tail all combed out and it was easy to see where I got my glamorous looks. He was really happy to see that white mare in his pasture.
The lady was out in the pasture today talking to the horses where the white horse mare used to live. Then she looked over at us ponies and she said "What are you ponies doing OUT?" She came running over and looked at where the fence tape was lying on the ground. Us ponies were really excited to be eating nice grass and the ponies that had scattered into the woods came running up to the where the rest of us were eating. The lady moved gates around to block exits, and then she came up behind us and made funny noises so we had to go back into our pasture. But then I guess she felt sorry for us so she moved the fence and left us out into the nice grass again that is growing between the pastures. We couldn't go out there when the old big horse lived there, because he would get really mad at us being so close to his mares, but now we can without making anyone mad. The lady tried to give us carrots, but we were so happy about the nice grass that we didn't even care about the carrots. So she left and rode that spotted pony Haylie. Then she took the lumpy brown thing and put it on the backs of the those bay horse mares. That Alexis, she never saw anything like that before. When the lady put it on her back and made it tight, she was really surprised. She jumped way up in the air and then she spun around and pulled away from the lady and started to run like there was a whole band of coyotes after her. Wow! That was something. When she stopped, the lady took the lumpy thing back off her back and put it on that Jewel mare and rode her around in the pasture. Alexis didn't think much of that idea either. She came up to Jewel and tried to bite the lady's leg. So that was the end of the excitement for today.

geese

So maybe the fur coats are NOT such a good idea in this sun. Wow, it is hot now! But the good news is that it rained a whole bunch last night so that means lots of nice green grass should be coming up soon. We still get hay in our boxes, but it is almost as much work to get that hay out as it is to go look for new grass, so we end up leaving it in there most of the day. The lady takes some of the ponies over to the white hill and gives them carrots, but she hasn't taken me over there forever. She was out setting up the fence tape so that my dad Bob and Aunt Taca and the new filly could go out into that field and find more grass, and all us ponies were sure that she would let us out into our field by the pond with the nice grass. We all ran down to the gate by the pond and watched her and waited. But she didn't let us out there. She didn't do anything about our fence. The only ones out there now are the two stupid geese. The one goose just sits all quiet with its head down and the other goose sits on the far bank and watches for intruders. If anyone shows up the watcher goose flies into the water and makes a racket and tries to scare away whoever shows up. It really hates when the lady drives by in the little green truck. One time it jumped up on the bank and flapped at the green truck, but the truck made a loud noise back at it and scared the goose so it went back in the water and sulked for a while. But it doesn't chase the lady when she is with any of the dogs. Even the little timid dog. When the goose sees the dog, it just puts its head down and pretends it isn't there. Silly goose.

Filly

Aunt Taca had a baby! It is a cute filly with a big white blaze on her face. The lady walked Taca and the foal right by our fence to take them up to the barn and we all ran over to the fence to watch. Some of Taca's older pony kids were calling out to her as they walked by, but Aunt Taca didn't want to talk to them or to have them close to her baby. She made nasty faces and scooted around to make sure the baby was right next to her and didn't go wandering off. They got to spend part of the day in the small paddock up there, while men put noisy hay bales in the top of the barn, and then she got to go back into the barn and the lady gave her lots of hay. She is very lucky to have all that hay and to get to eat the grass in the paddock. Even Ferris and Mak got to run around in the grassy big arena and eat grass there while the men had the hay truck in their paddock. Us ponies got to eat some of the new hay but we didn't get any new grass. The lady came out to see us with that little bossy dog and gave us some carrots, but we had to work for them and give her kisses and stuff. Now the bugs are starting to come out. Those mean nasty little black flies go in our ears and bite them. I hate those flies.

hairy weather

It has been windy here almost every day. I think some of those littler ponies were almost going to blow away, but they haven't yet. With the wind, it is not hot like it was for a while there and the grass is green but really short. We walk around and look for longer grass to eat, but everywhere we go, it is short. Even in the far pasture where the ground is still wet, it is short. Last evening, there were almost as many deer in my dad Bob's pasture as there are us ponies, which is a lot. The lady doesn't let Bob and his mares go out in that pasture yet, so they were staring at the deer and were pretty mad at them, eating their grass. The lady has been coming out to visit us almost every day with carrots and sometimes we get to go into the white hill and try to train that lady into giving us the carrots. She is starting to catch on. She also brings out a long metal scratchy thing that she scrapes across our backs and necks and butts. It feels wonderful and our hair flies around every which way in the wind. The lady keeps going Pfft Pfft and spitting out hairs. You should see the Fusion when she does it to him. He looks like he is inside a fuzzy yellow tornado! That big red mare that lives with my Mom Tudi and my little brother is still really hairy and fat. Every day, the lady goes out and looks under her belly. That mare is grumpy too, so I don't think I'd be sticking my head under her belly.
Yesterday the lady who talks funny came to see us and she went to some of the boy ponies and started yanking on their manes. When she was done, there were pieces of mane on the ground and their manes were almost as short as mine. But of course, mine is way more glamorous because I had mine cut off to look like a polo pony back when it was colder and now it is growing back. That lady didn't have a hat on, so I couldn't try to bite it. She didn't have any carrots, so I hardly talked to her at all. If you want attention from me, it is best to carry treats.

Hot hot hot

So here we are in our gorgeous, glamorous fur coats, and the sun is so hot that we are getting them all sweaty. This is not good. Some of the ponies are actually losing their hair, like little Perlita, but my hair isn't coming out. Maybe it is going to get cold again. Then I will need my fur coat. Today the lady came and got Harley and when she brought him back, he was all wet. He felt better for a little while, and he liked being able to roll in the dirt with his hair all wet. You know, that big fat Red horse mare looks like one of those Curly Bashkir horses, she was way too hot today, so the lady made her all wet too. The good news is that even though it is really hot, there are hardly any bugs out. Usually when it is so hot, there are lots of bugs. There are no bugs in our ears or flying around our eyes.
A couple of days ago, the lady fixed the temporary fence that makes our pasture real big and opened the gate so we could go out there to look for nice grass. When we saw her opening that gate, we ran like crazy so we could eat all that green grass, but when we got there, the grass was way shorter than we expected. It looked really green from the other side of the gate, but up close, there was not so much of it. We even ran to other parts of the field that looked greener, but they weren't any different. I wish she would open the gate to the nice grass by our pond. We can see that grass is way better than the stuff on our side of the fence. (Editor's note: No, it's not.)
The lady has been taking some of the ponies out and putting the brown lumpy thing on their backs. Then she rides them and gives them carrots. Yesterday she was riding that Artie (who lives with Fusion) by the pond and some ducks flew up off the pond and scared Artie. He took off and I thought that lady was going to end up right on the ground behind him. But she didn't fall off, she just pulled on the reins that were attached to a metal thing in his mouth so he stopped. I think he felt a little silly after he looked around and saw that there was nothing to be scared of.

Lookin' good!

The lady came out in our field and put a halter on Toby. Then she took a gray thing out of her jacket pocket and put it up by Toby's head. The gray thing was shiny at the top and was about as long as my leg from my knee down to my ankle. When she put it by Toby's head, it started buzzing like it was full of bees! Toby rolled his eyes, but he didn't move because he knew the lady also had carrots in her pockets. Then she moved it along the bottom of Toby's head and Toby shook his head a couple of times because the bees were tickling him. But after she did that, Toby's head looked smaller and all the shaggy hair along the bottom was gone! It was magic! Then she put the halter on Gypsy and the magic bees made her head all glamorous too. Wow! I marched right up to her and told her to let the magic bees make me glamorous too. I didn't even need a halter and I didn't care how much those bees tickled. But you know, that Sienna didn't like the tickling magic bees. She doesn't care about looking glamorous. So the lady had to use the shiny pointy things and go snickety snickety under her head. But all the other ponies let the magic bees tickle them and make the shaggy hair go away. Even little Fiesta, who had a really shaggy face. When those ladies were here with the bat flying over top of them, the one lady kept saying Fiesta looked like a goat. I thought that was kind of funny, because you know, that Fiesta is pretty impressed with herself, but the lady didn't think it was very funny. She doesn't have much of a sense of humor when you compare us ponies to capras. So anyway, now we ALL look gorgeous. Of course.

pink-tongued cat

So you know that little black and white cat that lives in the barn? Last week, every time we saw that cat, it had its tongue sticking out. That was pretty odd, but you know, us ponies don't exactly think that cat is the brightest bulb in the barn aisle, if you get my drift, so walking around with it's tongue sticking out wasn't exactly totally out of character. That cat is ALWAYS happy, and rubbing up against the wimpy dog and following the lady and making rumbling noises. It walks right out into the middle of us ponies and its whole body is smaller than one of our pony heads, so we could bite it or stomp it into the mud. Definitely no sense of self-preservation. But come to find out, something made a big gash in the little cat's jaw and pretty much almost tore the bottom of it's face off. It wasn't that bossy dog that did it, altho I am sure she would like to tear that little cat's head off. And it definitely wasn't one of us ponies, because as goofy as that cat is, we don't ever try to hurt her. Maybe it was some wild thing, or that nasty all black cat that comes around here and steals the barn cats' food. The little cat didn't even act like it was in pain, it still seemed happy, even with its face all torn up. But it is healing now, altho it looks like it might not be able to fit that tongue back into it's mouth. What a funny little cat!

snow

The ground is covered in cold white stuff and more is falling from the sky. We are never going to find any nice grass at this rate. Last night the lady came out to put hay in our boxes and we were kind of in a bad mood because of all the white stuff everywhere. The boxes had white stuff in them and it was getting in our noses and some of the ponies had it on their backs. The lady put the hay in one of our boxes and I was grabbing some and then Sienna showed up, all bossy and acted like she was going to bite me. She is younger than me and not nearly as pretty, so it was just stupid of her to think she could scare me off, but maybe she didn't realize who she was talking to, because I had my head in the box. Anyway, I jumped back and swung my head around with my mouth open and chomped the lady right in her arm. Uh oh! I REALLY didn't mean to bite the lady! So then I had to back up and stand far away from the lady (AND the hay) while the lady rubbed her arm and all the other ponies got to eat MY hay. It was a terrible scene. This white stuff better go away soon, or I am going to starve to death.

Hay news

There has not been a lot of exciting things happening for me to tell you about. The other day my sister Gypsy pushed right by the lady as she was bringing our hay in and then she ran around outside of the pasture. The lady didn't chase her or anything, so Gypsy started to feel stupid after a while, prancing around all proud of herself, because we all had nice hay to eat and she was stuck in the field pretending that she was finding grass to eat. So she gave up and the lady put a halter on her and brought her back into our pasture. The good thing that came out of that is that the lady throws the hay bales over the fence now and then comes in and puts them in our hay boxes. So we have more time to grab mouthfuls of the hay before those nets go over top of it.
Yesterday, the lady came out and put a halter on Toby and took him to the White Hill. Toby is at least a hoof-height taller than me and he is a dull gray color, kind of like the white stuff on the ground, so I don't know why she would take him to the White Hill, but it is probably because he is always in the middle of everything and was standing right in front of the gate when she came in. She put the lumpy thing on his back and let him trot around. That lumpy thing kind of looks like a saddle, but it doesn't smell like it is made of dead cows and it is not shiny. And it hardly weighs anything at all. Then she put a shiny metal thing in his MOUTH and he had to walk around with that strapped to his head. He didn't like it at first, but then he got used to it. And then she climbed right on top of him and sat on the lumpy thing. Her feet were hanging by his sides and sometimes she squeezed him with her legs. He had a hard time figuring out what to make of it, but it wasn't scary or anything, so he just went along with it. And anyway, he got a carrot every time he did something that she liked, so he was okay with the whole deal. So then she took the stuff off him and put him away. And then FINALLY she brought us our hay.

Action at the park with the square rocks

The lady opened the big gate by the road in the morning before she gave us hay and pretty soon, trucks started coming in the gate. They drove right by us and went to the park with the square rocks sticking up. Then men got out of the trucks and started making lots of noise. They made trees fall down and pulled big piles of dead brush out of the park and put it in the field. The lady drove up there with the big orange machine and took some of the brush and tree parts down to a big pile by our pond. After the men left, the lady went back up with the big orange machine and turned some of the tree parts into little wood pieces that she put in the White Hill. She was very busy. Now it is cold and windy, so I don't think she wants to do that. When she tells us to get back from the hay boxes before she puts the hay in, her words are squeaky and she is coughing like she got into bad hay. This hay doesn't make us cough, so I don't know what hay she is eating.

Deer parts

The lady came out to our pasture and had her pockets full of carrots, so we all crowded around and wanted her to give them to us. But she put a halter on Tux and took him out of the gate. Tux is just a three year old and he hardly ever gets to go anywhere, so he was surprised. But he thought getting the carrots was worth the weirdness, so he followed along and they went into the barn and stood on the kind of bouncy ground with the lines on it. The lady got a funny looking nubby comb and scratched it on Tux and tried to get the dirt off him, but he was really dirty, so it didn't work real good. I think it is because he is a boy. Boys are always dirtier than us pretty girls. Then she took the metal stick and put it next to him to see how tall he is. I don't know why she did that. It is pretty easy to see that he is the same size as my brother Harley. Tux didn't want to have the stick next to him, but he put up with it even tho he was a little nervous. Then they got to go into the white hill and he trotted around a little bit and checked it out. He was pretty pleased with his little adventure when he got back out to see us. So no sooner did she let him go and there was Toby barging up and wanting some attention. Toby always wants to be in the middle of everything. So she put the halter on Toby and took him to the barn and put the metal stick next to him too. He didn't care, he was only interested in the lumpy brown thing that I was wearing the day before. So she strapped that lumpy brown thing on his back too and they went to the white hill. Toby thought he was pretty great carrying that lumpy thing around and he had his head all up and was trotting and acting like he owned that place. You know, the footing in there is little pieces of wood that are all chopped up and it is kind of soft and in some parts it is deeper than others. Toby was trotting along the sides of the walls mostly and the lady was cutting across some of the deeper stuff that was almost like a little pile and she tripped and almost fell down. Toby even stopped to see what was going on. The lady turned around and pawed at the wood stuff and a long skinny thing came out of it with a black pointy hoof on the end of it. So the lady pawed at it some more and it was a whole leg of a deer. Not just the part by the foot, but the whole way up to the slanty part. It was almost as long as Toby's leg. "Do you think the cat drug this in?" the lady asked Toby. Toby didn't know what to think. It seemed way too big and heavy for a cat to drag anywhere, but Toby really doesn't know much about cats. So the lady took the lumpy thing off his back and put him out with us. We all thought the deer leg story was the most interesting story we heard all day.

A good day

Well, even tho the weather has been not very cold and there has only been a bit of white stuff on the ground in the mornings, we have been totally neglected ponies and have hardly got any carrots at all forever. Oh sure, the lady brings us nice hay and puts it in the boxes and our big hay net, and she files our hooves so they look pretty and sometimes she pets us, but really, doesn't she realize how much we need carrots just to be appreciated? Of course, it has been a little windy and that big metal thing that she dragged out of the woods some time back is all noisy and trying to escape from where she tied it, but I still think she could pay more attention to us. Yesterday she rode around by our field on Artie and that hunk of a pony Fusion. We ran over to the fence and watched them go by. Today she was messing around with that white mare and then she drove back and filed the hooves on the mares that live with my dad and FINALLY, she came and got me and took me to the white hill. There were carrots already there waiting for me, but there was also a big brown lumpy thing that she picked up off the fence and put on top of me. It was gigantic, but it hardly weighed anything at all. And it had some shiny metal parts that were jingly. After she tightened a strap around my belly and gave me carrots, she let the metal things fall down by my sides and they were even more jingly, which I didn't like too much. So I trotted around and looked at them a couple of times, and then I just stopped and got carrots. So that actually worked out pretty well. The lady would say Trot and point which way she wanted me to go, so I would trot a little bit and then when she said Whoa, I stopped and got carrots. It was a really simple game and quite rewarding. So then I got to go back out with my friends, (but without the big lumpy thing on my back) and got to eat hay. It was finally a good day. We need more of those.

rain bat

Now the ground is hard and shiny and us ponies are sliding around on top of it. A little bit, not a whole lot. Yesterday it was raining and the lady came to see us with some other ladies. The other ladies were scary because they had a giant bat over top of their heads. It was black and just flapping a little bit, so I am not sure how it was staying up there. Mak and Ferris didn't like that bat at all and trotted around looking pretty. Us ponies, we just stayed back and snorted a little bit so the bat would know to not come over here. The ladies said we were cute and they took their bat and left. Then last night, the wind was blowing and making a lot of noise, so we had to stay in our sheds. But there was still hay in our nets, so we tore one off the fence and put big holes in both of them so we could eat that hay faster. The lady took string from the hay bales this morning and made the holes go away. After she walked all over the field looking for the board and hay net that we pulled down. It is too bad she messes up all our good work. But it was good that she went down to the creek the other day with a big hammer and made holes for us there. That water was too hard to drink! We were even walking on top of the hard water. So now the white hill is making lots of flapping noises and it would probably be too scary to go in there. I could maybe do it for enough carrots tho.

visitors

The lady was so late with our breakfast -- I mean really really late and we were starting to think maybe we were never going to ever get breakfast again. We played a fun trick on her by biting a big hole in the bottom of one of our hay nets the day before, so when she put the hay in the net, it all fell right back out of the bottom! It was grand and we all ran in to grab as much as we could stuff in our mouths before she could take it away from us. So we were thinking maybe she was mad about that hole in the net and wasn't going to bring us any hay at all. And then she showed up with this whole bunch of other ladies, well actually, they were like ladies, but more like fillies, you know, not all grown up, but they were obviously smart because they wanted to know which of us was me and then they wanted to pet me. We all gathered around them and looked for our hay or carrots or SOMETHING, but all we got was petted. It was nice, but not breakfast. The filly ladies said we were beautiful. They did not give me a chance to bite any of their hats. They were talking about how fun and clever Fusion is because he did his tricks for them and they said he was entertaining. Then they left and finally we got our hay. The lady has not been spending much time with us because she has been messing with those big horse mares. She takes Jewel into the white hill and she gives all of them carrots. Today, that white stuff got all over the ground, so it is easier to walk around now, but we got wet. Sometimes there was rain and sometimes it was hard and stung our noses when it hit them. We mostly stayed in our shed except when there was hay to eat.

Misplaced priorities

Yesterday, the lady came walking right by our pasture with that big horse Jewel. Like always when we see her, Jewel was worried, so she was turning her head to look at the young horses on the other side of her and then sidestepping and turning to look at us and trying to look back over her shoulders. We should have known she was coming because that dark cute mare Alexis was yelling like crazy from her pasture. I guess Alexis might be sad because first her dad died in the field next to hers and then her mom moved out and lives way in the back, and I know that Jewel is her big sister, but I don't think Jewel even likes her. And really, when one of us ponies leaves with the lady, the rest of us don't get all upset and run along the fence looking for her or yelling, but then we know the lady is probably going to give that pony carrots. So if anything we are jealous about that pony getting to leave. Maybe Alexis doesn't know about the carrots because she hardly ever gets to go to the white hill or get any carrots. So anyway, Jewel was additionally worried about Alexis being all by herself in the field (with the two other horses,) on top of the fact that Jewel is worried about everything all the time. But she was being nice about it anyway. She followed the lady over the wood posts laying on top of the blue thing on the ground and walked right over top of them and she agreed to walk almost all the way over to the side of the white hill even tho it was making a funny flappy noise and moving in and out. I know that lady had carrots in her pockets because I could smell them so I stood right next to the gate in hopes that she would decide I was a whole lot less trouble than that big horse and give some of those carrots to me. But she didn't. She took Jewel into the white hill and I could hear Jewel's feet clicking around in there and sometimes her head would stick out at the end and she would make blowing nose noises in the direction of that yelling Alexis. After a while they came out and the lady had hardly any carrots in her pockets at all. That was disappointing. And Jewel looked fuzzier, so probably that lady was brushing her in there too. They went in the barn so then I couldn't see them. I wanted some carrots, but I still had hay to eat in the big hay nets, so I went back to eating it. Then I think that Alexis wasn't yelling so much and the lady walked back to their pasture with Jewel and put her inside. The other horses were all excited to see Jewel because she had been gone for such a long time. But you know, those horses actually have grass out in their field yet, because there is no white stuff covering it up, so they should have been eating that grass instead of standing by the gate all worried. Horses certainly have misplaced priorities.

hats

The lady is neglecting us horribly and just not coming through with the carrots like she ought to. Oh sure, she shows up every morning and night and throws hay in our boxes and in the big nets, but she has only taken me to the white hill twice since the last time I blogged. It is not even that cold out, there is no white stuff on the ground and the mud is so deep that we sink in to our fetlocks, so I don't know why we are being neglected. It is so warm we are almost sweating out here. Even so, the lady wears these big fuzzy hats that are just asking to be bit and I have to really restrain myself so that I don't actually take a piece out of them. She can tell that I am eying her hats and she waves her glove at me and tells me to back away, but you know, they really are enticing fuzzy hats. One has hair like a bunny and one is red and looks like a coyote died and pieces got stuck together for the hat. Yesterday she got that hunk Fusion out and rode him all around in the mud. They walked right by our pasture, but he didn't stop to talk to us, even tho Harley and Billy and Toby went over to the fence and said things to him try to make him mad. They went down to the pond and walked around there and then went over to where the garden for dead people is with the stones sticking out of the ground. Fusion was trotting and looking very handsome. The lady didn't have on a fuzzy hat while she rode Fusion, she had on a shiny dark green hat. Maybe she thought Fusion would bite those fuzzy hats.