What if we get shot at?

Can you BELIEVE this?  The lady showed up here with these floppy things and put them on our heads!  She said we were rein dears. This is just plain embarrassing!   And it's not like there are even any reins involved.  (Harley says reins are the straps that the lady holds on to when she sits on his back.)  So there we were waiting for hay and next thing we knew, she was sticking these things on us and laughing. It is not funny.  We are not dears. 
She tried to put them on those horse mares' heads too, but the horse mares said "No way."  She didn't have any carrots so the horse mares were not playing.  So then she put the floppy things on top of the horse mares'  hay feeder. which the horse mares didn't like either.  But they checked them out anyway to see if they could eat them.  (You can't eat them -- I checked.)
  

White stuff

Wow!  There is white stuff everywhere!  Yesterday the ground had hardly any white stuff at all on it, and then after it got dark, the white stuff started to fall from the sky.  Those magic trees work really good to keep the white stuff from sitting on pony backs, but really, you have to stand under the magic trees for it to work -- Harley!  So when it got light again, we could hardly see anything because it was so bright.  The white stuff is as high as our pony knees all over where there used to be nice grass a long time ago.  We were starting to wonder where the lady was with our hay when here she came on the little orange machine and making a racket. The first problem was that she didn't have any hay with her like she does on the green truck.  Knowing how we were starving to death, you'd think she would have been considerate enough to bring us our hay before she went playing around on that orange machine. She was making the orange machine go backwards and it was spraying white stuff out in a big arc alongside it.  It took her forever to get back to our pasture gate, and when she got here, she just left again, but that time she made the machine go frontwards. And then finally, she came back with the little green truck thing and gave us our hay. It has been a trying morning, let me tell you.     

Magic in the hemlocks.

The lady has been futzing around in the woods next to our pasture every day.  She drives the little green truck thing in there and then sometimes she makes buzzing noises but most of the time, we can just hear her tromping around in there, where it is dark and there are too many bushes to see through.  So today, she came walking along where the fence tape was strung along the side of our pasture and next thing we knew, the tape was on the ground and then it just slithered away!  I saw it first, but I didn't want to say anything about it, but then Harley saw it and so he went running over to see what was going on.  And he could run right over where the fence used to be and right into the woods.  So we all went galloping after him and we could run right through all the trees, until there was new fence at the back along where stones were piled up.  So then we turned and ran in the other direction and there were apple trees and a big drop down to the creek.  We looked and looked, but there was no nice new grass. Every other time we went into a new section, there was nice grass, but not this time,  It was just lots of trees and bushes. The trees are green and smell good, not like the trees in other parts of our pasture which don't have any leaves on them.  And the trees make the woods dark.  Since there is no nice grass, we were wondering why the lady even had us go in there. You know, we have been making the trees in our pasture look very fancy by biting at the stems of them and making them light-colored, so we started to wonder if maybe she wanted us to be fancying up these trees too. So we were standing there under the green trees and then we could hear wet stuff falling out of the sky.  You know how you can hear the wet stuff hitting all around and then you can see the other ponies get wet and feel it get all cold on your back and on your ears and face?  Well, we could hear it, but we weren't getting wet!  So that was when I realized that we were in a magic forest. Which just proves my suspicions that I am a magic princess pony.  I'm so excited!           

Cold and Wet

So the weather has not been good and there is no nice grass growing at all.  Yesterday there was cold white stuff falling from the sky and then it just turned into wet stuff that made the dirt slippery and mushy.  It was really wet.  It made you feel like just biting any smaller pony's butt that came by you.  The lady was late with our hay and it took her forever to put it in the nets.  Then she went to give some feed to my dad Bob and his mares and foals in the pasture next to ours.  Those foals are getting big.  There is the one named Cracker Jack that used to be black and now he is roany like me.  The other one is Peaches' little brother.  The lady seems to have run out of names, so she just calls him Peaches' Brother, or PB.   PB was all bent about the lady showing up to feed them late.  The other ponies were nickering and milling around but PB came up to that lady as she came in the gate and swung his butt around and acted all menacing.  She didn't like that.  She whacked his butt and told him to knock it off.  He threw his head all around and was snorting and then trotted around in circles and kept turning his butt toward her.  She gave some feed to my dad Bob (who always eats first) and then went to put some in Taca's dish. But the dish had slushy water in it so after she dumped it out and stood up, PB had backed up toward her and Wham! Wham! -- he kicked her really hard!  Twice!  Personally I think that was a mistake.  You get more feed if you turn your head toward the lady than if you turn your butt toward her.  So then she had mud all over her and she called him some new names, but none of them were PB or even Peanut Butter.  She even threw a little stick at him as he cantered around in circles with his head all up and was bucking and all proud of himself.  So then he didn't get anything good to eat because he eats with his mama Taca, and he wouldn't come back over to her with the lady standing right there.  Today the sun is out so us ponies are in way better moods than when it was wet.  We just hope she gets back here quick with that hay.                 

new hay nets

So I told you about the square frame things that the lady put up in our pasture, right?  Then she came and hung up big fancy black nets on the square frames.  The black nets are pretty and they have green and blue strings wrapped around the part at the top, so we figured that the lady was giving us some sort of holiday decorations. Apparently this is a popular idea among some ladies who hang up different colored stuff on their barns depending on which holiday they decide to celebrate.  So we were surprised when the lady came down with the little green truck thing and put hay inside the nets!  Aha!  It seems like these nets are like vertical boxes.  But way way better.  You may recall we hate the boxes because they don't let us eat hay as fast as we wanted to.  Of course, in order to make this determination, first you have to get hay that is thrown out on the ground so you can eat it fast.  And then, if the hay after THAT hay is put in boxes, it is too hard to eat.  But this time, there was no initial hay for comparison.  So the choices were "no hay" versus "hay in nets".  Let me tell you -- hay in nets is WAY better than no hay at all.  Wow!  We love the hay in nets.  I will post some pics.  Even tho we are muddy in the pics.

     

slow feeder frames

So the weather is finally starting to get nice.  With breezes blowing our fuzzy fuzzy coats around and none of those flying bugs at all!  We have some of those little nasty crawling bugs that come off the bushes and then climb on our faces and necks and then get really fat.  Those bugs are itchy.  The lady comes out in the morning and pulls those bugs off and scratches our itchy necks, which is nice, but it will be nicer when the weather makes even those bugs stop climbing around.  We are excited because we got a new pasture and it had a LOT of nice grass, but that was a bunch of days ago so we ate that grass already.  That lady has been coming to visit and for a while she brought us apples, but now she doesn't so much any  more.  While she was going around where the new pasture is, she was dragging big dead trees around with that orange machine and then she would put sticks in the ground and climb over the trees so she could make hooks so that the white biting rope that goes around our pasture could hang on the sticks.  She doesn't walk as good as a pony does because her feet are really long and soft, not at all like pony feet and I think they get in the way alot.   The one day she was walking by a big tree on the ground and then she started swaying and all of the sudden she just fell down flat.  She said words that made us think she would try to bite or kick us if she was close by, but of course, she doesn't actually bite or kick us because she isn't a pony.  I think she has to say those words because she doesn't have any ears to signal that she is mad.  As you know, our ears are perfect and we can swivel them so the other ponies know if we are paying attention, or sleepy or really pissed off.  I feel sorry for the lady not having any ears.  She has some kind of pink circle things on the sides of her head, but they don't move at all, so I don't know what they are for.  Anyway, after the lady fell down, she didn't sit on our backs or give us carrots for a while.   THEN she came down to by the gate with the big orange machine and made deep holes and put square sticks in the ground.  We went over to help her while she was putting other square sticks across the tops of them.  She had a white bag that had little shiny things in it and we were investigating that when little Pinke started pawing at it with her foot so she could see the shiny metal things better.  Next thing she  knew, that bag was looped right around her foot and wiggling and horrible scary so she tried to run away.   But the bag held on to her foot and went rustling and bouncing right along with her!  There were little shiny metal things flying everywhere in the mud. But the lady didn't even say ear-pinning words, she just laughed and then went and picked up the white bag after it let go of Pinke's foot and put all the shiny metal things back inside.  So then we left.   There is no point in hanging around if you are going to be attacked by dangerous bags and don't get any carrots.  So we will just have to see what will happen with those odd square sticks. At least they aren't boxes that hide and hold on to our hay..  You know we hate the boxes.          

More Training

That lady is finally starting to come around and bring us carrots and apples.  All this week, we have been working on getting her trained and she seems to be doing pretty well!  She shows up with the big pockets full of carrots and a big bucket of apples.  Then we wait for her to put her hand on our sides or our chests and make certain noises, and when we step away or back up or pick up a foot or something, she has to give us a carrot.  It is working out pretty good.  But sometimes she has to go with one of the ponies in the new round pile of logs pen so that the other ponies can't bother us.  She took Billy and Harley and Toby in there and then she took me and little Perl too!  It is way better to be able to teach her stuff in there where Harley and Billy can't bite us.  Harley thinks he is the main teacher boss pony, but he is kind of lazy about it.  He thinks that no matter what she does or says, if he picks up his front foot, he should get a carrot.  So that wasn't working, so then he had to train the lady to do "riding".   She sits on his back and instead of her hand, she puts her leg against his side and if he steps to the side or back, he has her trained to give him a carrot.  He can't just stand there with his foot in the air then.  But he and Billy both think she is getting to be a pretty good student. She doesn't put any big leather things on their backs or those cold shiny metal pieces in their mouths, she just puts the other head strap thing on and then moves her arms or legs and says stuff like "Bak"  and "Ho" and "Wok" and "Step over."  The ponies are even teaching her to just move her weight a little bit and then they do easy stuff and she HAS to give them a carrot.  It is pretty much fun to see her progressing so well.       

Training

Well, you know, since the lady hasn't been coming back to give us carrots as much as she ought to be, us ponies were getting a little worried that her training is slacking off.  Fortunately, Little Krissy is living up by the barn with her daughter Belle and that Peaches, so she has been trying to work with the lady a little bit.  She has taught the lady to give her carrots when she sticks her nose against the lady's face  and when she picks up her hoof and holds it in the air.  The lady is also supposed to give her carrots when she nods her head up and down, but sometimes the lady is really inconsistent in her responses.  Like last week when that other lady was here and they were clipping little pieces off of those ponies' hooves.   Krissy was all done with her feet and the lady and the other lady were trimming that Peach's feet. So Krissy was getting a bit impatient to do some training of the lady and she started nodding her head up and down, but the lady was not catching on and didn't give her any carrots.  You can imagine how frustrating that must have been for poor Krissy.  I mean even a Vermonter has her limits.

So after she tried putting her head on BOTH ladies' shoulders and giving some kisses, she started nodding harder.  She was nodding her head so hard that her front feet came off the ground.  Well, THAT finally got the lady's attention.  And the good news is that Krissy got a carrot for doing that!  So the lady is learning how to properly reward excellent behaviors.  She thought Krissy was so cute when she tucked her little legs up and reared in the air.  So Krissy kept on working with the lady to get her to give more carrots.  Soon Krissy was rearing way up and looking way, way cute.  So now, Krissy just needs to keep working with her to get her to be more consistent.  Unfortunately, the lady seems to be slipping in her training and now she isn't giving carrots to Krissy for rearing.  So Krissy is a bit frustrated AGAIN, since the lady is only giving her carrots for biting a funny hat.  The rearing gets nothing.  But at least Krissy is keeping her busy and hopefully can get her over her erratic behaviors.                 

Lyme fallout

The lady has been neglecting us ponies big time.  I mean really.  Sure, we are hanging out here in this big pasture and we have grass and creeks and trees and deer and bunnies and hawks, but some carrots would be nice once in a while too.  The lady comes to see us about 2 times a day, in the morning and in the evening and then she leaves again.  She pets Harley, mostly because he just comes barging right up like he owns the place and he puts his head on her shoulder and then he gives kisses and tries to shake hands because he wants treats.  Of course, we would all like to do that too, but he or Billy will bite us if we try.   Billy only comes over if the lady doesn't have any of that pink stuff in a little jar.  The lady takes the pink stuff and smears it in our ears and on our faces and then we look really glamorous.   She put a bunch of it on a spot on Haylie's neck too, where Haylie had a scruffy spot and the scruffy spot went away.   Billy doesn't like to have stuff smeared in his ears.  He is pretty suspicious of stuff like that.

We have a couple of apple trees in our pasture and one right next to our pasture that is still covered with apples.  If the apples fall in our pasture, we eat them, but we can't get the ones on the other side of the white rope. So then the lady goes over there and throws the apples into our pasture.  What fun!  We all run around and try to grab the apples while avoiding getting bit by other ponies.  You have to be careful or an apple will come flying out and hit your face.  It is better to stand pretty far back from the fence so you can chase the apples, but some ponies stand right by where the lady is throwing and the apples end up zooming right by them.  The lady brought another lady with her to give us pedicures and help throw apples the other day.  It was that lady that I bit her hat.  That was a long time ago, but she is holding a grudge and wouldn't pet me when they were out here.  

I think the lady is spending all her time riding those big horses, because she walks funny when she is here.  She hasn't even used that fancy round log pen that the man put together.  She should just come back here and spend all her time with us.  And bring carrots. .           

Work place

Well, the lady has been neglecting us, as you already know, and probably it is because we are way back here with all this nice grass in these far fields.  The lady has to drive back here to see us with the little green truck thing so we were willing to forgive her as long as she shows up a couple of times during the day and still gives us carrots sometimes and pets us.  So then she shows up with the big orange machine and starts dragging big trees around that the noisy man cut down when he was back here in our woods making good places for us to stand out of the sun.  The lady laid those trees down in one of our fields, right by where we stand in the woods.  Then the next day, here came that noisy man, dragging more trees around and putting them right on top of the trees that were already there. He had even more noisy little machines and made them sound like really big bees while he made smaller pieces fall off the big trees.  We went out to try to figure out what he was doing and walked all around those trees, but we are not sure what it is.  I am going to attach a pic.

  But the lady says our vacation is over and that we are going to have to go to work now.  This better mean carrots....

Interactions

So the lady has just not been as much fun as she ought to be.  I know, the weather was hot and there are a lot of bugs, but you would think she would come back here more and bring us way more carrots.  We only see her a couple of times a day, and she doesn't even try to sit on top of us or even put halters on our heads unless she wants to mess around with our feet with those metal things.  I think it has something to do with that big cranky mare that she put in the big hole.  Ever since then she has been moping around.  That big cranky mare didn't like ponies too much so I didn't even know her except to see her through the fence and she was always nice to the lady even when she was super cranky to all the other horses and ponies.  But then, everyone knows you have to be nice to the lady or she just takes her carrots and goes home. I mean, like if you just lay back your ears a little bit and make a face at the pony on the other side of her, she will up and leave.  But the cranky mare seemed to really like her, regardless of the carrot situation. Now, every time the lady walks by the hill with the dirt on it where the big hole was, she says "Hi Red" and then she acts sad.  Us ponies try to make her happy by going right up to her and we give her kisses and put our heads on her shoulder and then we wait (impatiently) for carrots.  I think it is working a little bit because she brought us more people on a pony safari for a couple of days.  There was a lady who was acting like a post while she was tied to DD and then there was a man who liked to stand up in the green truck thing.  The man seemed distracted by a little shiny box he had in his hand and he didn't have any carrots AT ALL.  Today our regular lady (not the post lady) came out on the big orange machine and drove all around in our field and now the weeds are shorter in part of the field where they used to be higher than our knees.  We are definitely going to have to check that out to see if the grass is better.              

Pony safaris

The lady came driving the little green truck thing right into our pasture and then she came driving it right into our clearing in our woods.  We were pretty surprised because she hardly ever does that.  Usually she comes walking back to see us.  So we walked over to the green truck thing to check it out.  And there was another lady on the seat in the front.  But more importantly, there were two of those black buckets with grain in them sitting in the back of the truck thing.  Our regular lady stuck the buckets together and told the other lady to put them by her feet so that us ponies couldn't eat that grain.  I think it is very rude to show up with a snack and then not even offer it to your hosts.  Our regular lady got tools and a halter out and she put the halter on Sienna and started messing around with her feet.  So Harley went up to the new lady and tried to get her to give him one of those buckets.   He gave her kisses and put his head on her shoulder and was just being really nice to her.  I thought maybe while she was distracted, I could climb in the other side of the truck thing and take some of that grain, but it didn't work. The top bucket didn't even have any grain in it and the lady kept flapping her hands and saying "shoe" or something like that. She said a couple of senseless words like, "Git" so I don't know what she was talking about.   Of course, Toby and Gypsy showed up and wanted to push their noses in too so there were a lot of ponies trying to climb on top of that lady to look in the empty bucket.  So our regular lady got done messing with Sienna's feet and then we got a couple of carrots from her and then they left.  And the next day, here came the lady again with the little green truck thing and drove it into our pasture again.  So we went over to see if there were grain buckets, but there were none.  There was just a man sitting with our regular lady.  So after we checked for buckets and tried to get him to give us some carrots for kisses, we mostly just left.  Except for Harley,  He was sure there were going to be carrots or grain or something to be had from it.  The man kept laughing at Harley.    Harley thinks laughing is okay as long as there are carrots too.  So now it looks like the lady is running some kind of pony safari business.            

Immigrants

We were standing in the woods this morning and then we heard a big crash and lots of sticks breaking and here came Krissy, strolling right into our clearing and she had Belle and that Peaches running right behind her.  She was acting like she is all that because she has her own little band of ponies now and she said something about busting down a gate and running in the fields and now she was here to join her band with ours.  Well, you know, we have a BIG band of ponies and you can't just come waltzing in here, thinking you are going to be a part of the gang.  We don't even know how she got in here, but then, she is pretty short and has been known to run under the fence, but what about those other two?  Anyway, Harley and Billy went over to tell her that we don't allow any immigrants to just come wondering across our border and expect to   join us, especially since she deserted us a few weeks ago and has been living up there by the barns, in proximity to carrots and lots of attention and even going in the barn when it is hot and muggy out.  Not exactly the brightest move to come running back here, if you know what I mean.  Not that we don't have a lot of nice grass and then there is the spectacular mud. After Harley and Billy chased Krissy and her interlopers away, we all ran after them and chased them out to the log fence, where Krissy took the time to flop down in the mud and roll.  There is no decent mud up in those paddocks by the barn.  They just have grass.  Our mud comes in brown and gray and you know, lots of cows used to live here long before us ponies got here, so the mud smells like cow!   And I am talking really like COW!  Whew!  So Krissy stood up and it was like half of her was white like when she got here and the other half was dark brown and stank like COW!  Wow!  I guess if you wanted to fool a coyote into thinking you were not a pony, that would be the way to go.  So we were still milling around and heading back over to our woods when the lady showed up.  She was carrying halters and had on clean clothes and short pants (At least we think those chubby white sticks between the bottom of her pants and the boots were her legs)  and she was not saying nice words.  She walked up to Krissy and patted her head.  She told Krissy that if she wanted to stay back here with Belle and that Peaches she could.  But that they should not be escaping and running all over the countryside and getting in trouble.  I think she just didn't want to put her clean halter on that little COW-smelling pony.  So now we seem to be stuck with three extra ponies.  We'll see how long that lasts.            

Wet ponies

    Us ponies are so excited about the rain.  It rains every day!  The ground is soft and squishy and we don't even have to go over to the creek to find water to drink, because it is everywhere!  When we lie down, we can cover ourselves in mud in no time at all and then when the mud dries, it rains again so we can start all over.  And the Glorious grass!  We have lots and lots of nice grass.  In one part of our new pasture there are other plants growing that we don't like to eat and we have to look really hard for any grass at all.  The lady says she is going to come down here with the orange machine and make those other plants short so the nice grass can grow, but she doesn't want to drive the orange machine in the water.  But it is okay, because there is still nice grass in other places.  And when it is sunny, we can stand in shady spots in the woods where the noisy man was making trees fall over.   This is a good new pasture.  The lady is still going around sticking wooden posts in the ground in the area where we used to eat grass.  Now that we can't get to our pond any more, she has put up funny fence and I think those four horses that live in our old field are going to be going out there.   They can keep that pond with those stupid geese.  We have a much bigger and better place now!
    The biggest problem is that the we don't get to see the lady very often and we NEVER get to go to the White Hill, so there is a severe carrot deficit in our diets.  Plus she has been taking my rivals for the most glamorous pony spot -- that Peaches and that Fiesta -- into the barn and the White Hill. They are getting MY carrots.  Peaches doesn't have to do hardly anything except put a halter on (and she wasn't even doing that!) and Fiesta just had to walk around by the lady on the end of a rope.  Well, actually she had the brown lumpy thing on her back too, but is pretty easy stuff for any pony to do.  The lady has also been playing with Belle and her Mom, Krissy.  That Krissy thinks she is very clever and tries to do all kinds of tricks.  She puts her knee on the ground to bow, but she is so short, her knee is almost already on the ground anyway. 
   So maybe today the lady will come down here with carrots and let us do fun things too.  If not, I guess we will be stuck eating this nice grass and socializing with the wild deer and their babies.  It is a tough life for a pony. 

swimming

So we are mostly rested up after our exciting escape and all the fun in the dark chasing that Peaches through the fence and eating all the tall grass that the big red machine had cut down and laid out in rows for us. The lady made our pasture even BIGGER, but now we are closer to the pasture where my dad Bob lives with his mares, so we mostly just want to stand at the corner and watch Bob yell at the boy ponies that live here.  The lady thinks we should go eat grass and move away from the corner.   I think she is just upset because Billy and Sienna busted right through that fence this morning because our gang was separated and they wanted to be with the rest of us.  The lady kept coming back and checking on us today.  One time she had that little bossy dog with her and then after they checked us, they went by the pond and the stupid geese started making noises and waddling around.  The bossy dog wanted to chase them and the lady let her go.  Next thing you know, the bossy dog is in the water swimming after the geese.  She did this before and after a while she got tired and came back to the shore.  But not today.  Today she kept swimming and swimming and swimming.  The lady was yelling for her to stop swimming and go over to her, but she was pretty sure that this was her day to catch a stupid goose.  The geese were not even worried and swam pretty slow, so then when she would get close, they would just flap right by her, but she always thought that meant she almost had them.   After a long time, the lady got sick of waiting on her.  She took off her hat and her shoes and she walked right in the pond and started swimming after the bossy dog and the geese.  It was pretty funny.  The geese started swimming faster because the lady was in the water, so the little bossy dog swam faster too.  They were all swimming around in circles,.  Finally the lady grabbed the little bossy dog and took her to the shore.  They were both very wet and had mud on their legs when they got out of the water.  When the lady came back down to see us, she didn't have that bossy dog with her.  She just had some funny logs that she pushed into the ground with the orange machine.  Then she set other logs on top of them so now there is kind of a barrier of logs in front of the fence where we can see my dad Bob.  I think we would have a hard time busting through that part of the fence now.  So we will have to find another place.       

Hay day

This morning, Jewel came walking down the hill to the pond with the lady sitting on her back.  Jewel was pretty worried about being there because 1) there were new sticks stuck in the ground all over the place and 2) Jewel is always worried about everything.   There was another problem in that the ground was hard and dark in some places and other places it was squishy and dark and then in OTHER places, it was lighter in color and kind of soft and bumpy.  That was because the noisy tree-dragging man was carrying dirt around with the big orange machine and dumping it and making the ground flat where it was squishy and had big deep long holes in it.  So the ground was highly suspicious just all the way around.  Jewel had to walk sideways and look at the ground alot.  She was so worried about the dirt that she never even noticed that there was a little pile of tiny deer parts lying by the pond right near where she was walking.  I am pretty sure those baby deer come fully assembled, so it seems to me that someone must have come along and disassembled that one.  I am thinking it was one of those coyotes.  But we haven't even seen the pretty yellow coyote that used to chase the stupid geese.   There used to be baby geese in our pond but now there are just a bunch of short adult-looking stupid geese there.  Anyway, Jewel walked around some of the new sticks and then she trotted off up the hill and then the lady got that Alexis out and rode her in the White Hill. But she had hardly started when a gigantic scary pile of hay came rolling in behind a loud red machine and then another one came too. So the lady put Alexis away and lots of people took the hay to the barn and put it inside.  We didn't want any of that hay because we have nice grass.   But we could use some more grass.  There is never really enough nice grass, is there?         

Visitors and rain

The lady brought another shorter lady with her to visit us the other day and we were very excited to see the new lady.  We all ran over to them and gathered around and everyone wanted to have the shorter lady pet us and give us carrots.  But she didn't have any carrots, so some of the ponies left. Me and Harley and Gypsy were all trying to get as close as possible to the shorter lady, but she kept moving away from us.  Harley was trying to put his head on her shoulder and she started to look around with her eyes all narrow like she thought there was something scary around, so we looked around to see if there were coyotes or wolves or scary pieces of flapping paper or rustling plastic, but there wasn't anything.  Our lady was trimming pieces off Billy's hooves so they were standing right by us and then Harley told me to back off and I pushed against the shorter lady as I stepped back.  Then the shorter lady got upset and said she didn't want to pet us at all and she went and sat in the green truck thing.  So they left and then we didn't see that shorter lady again, but our lady came back later and trimmed more pieces off Billy's hooves.  You know, we have lots of rain so our feet are pretty and clean and easy to cut pieces off of.  We like the rain because it makes a lot of nice grass.  Since we are in the new pastures, we have grass on hills and grass in low parts and water in the ruts.  But it is a long way to get back here for the lady to check on us.  Today she was walking back in the rain and she saw a fish in one of the ruts right in the middle of the field.  I guess the fish thinks that water is here to stay.   But we are never getting the chance to go to the White Hill.  The lady spends all her time riding those horses.  She rides that big goofy Jewel just about every day.  Yesterday she rode Jewel down the hill to the pond. Jewel thinks everything is scary, so she never wants to go anywhere away from her friends.  She was snorting the whole way down the hill like she was walking through a whole herd of coyotes.  And the lady sat on little Belle, but Belle got scared and pitched her on her head.  I blame that fancy Peaches for that.  Peaches started to run around and made Belle think that something was going to get her.  I would never trust that Peaches.               

new pastures

All us ponies moved to new pastures, so we are happy about all the grass, but we don't get much attention or entertainment from the lady.  We watched the lady put some sticks in the ground with the big orange machine and then a man we didn't know used the orange machine to pile up big dead trees and drag them around. We didn't really care tho.  And it was kind of interesting today when the Fuse and those goofy young horses were running around in the yard in the rain and then Fusion jumped over the fence tape so he could get back IN with the others.  That was kind of weird.  But they did have a lot of grass in there, so it wasn't a totally stupid move.    

So now the lady is saying that some of us ponies and horses are going to go live somewhere else.  She says she is going to advertise so that we can find perfect people to take care of us.  I think I should be the first one selected to live with a little girl who takes me to horse shows and gives me lots of carrots.  I like little girls if they understand how smart and important ponies are.  Obviously I would need a lot of brushing and I would carry the little girl around on my back.  I'll bet I could even jump over stuff and wear fancy shiny things.  I know  Harley and Billy think they should go first, because they are older and they already know how to jump over things, but I am littler and cuter, so I think little girls would like me better.  Besides, that Billy is a more of a boy's pony.  And Harley is so bossy, I am not sure that any little girls would like that.  Just because he gives kisses and puts his head on their shoulders and acts all adorable.  I can do that too. Just about ALL of us do that anyway.   Se we will have to see what happens.  Meanwhile we have lots of grass and we are all happy.  Even little Belle, who was always so shy, with her freckles, has moved up to live with Peaches and now she thinks she is the "big sister" of Peaches and is going around with her head and tail all up in the air.  So things are good!

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Jealousy

Well, so last week you know those horses that lived in the paddock next to ours, that handsome gray guy Mak and his buddy Ferris?  So Mak started chasing Ferris around and biting him.  At first we didn't pay that much attention to it because they are always screwing around and biting each other and jumping and playing  But that time, Mak was biting Ferris hard and he wouldn't let go.  Ferris was looking scared and he got tired from Mak chasing him and he had red marks all over him.  So the lady came out and she made Mak and Ferris move to separate pastures.  That made them both really unhappy so they yelled a lot and we could hear them even when they were in the barn.  So then after a couple of days they weren't yelling so much and here came the lady up the hill with that big white mare and her colt and then Taca and her colt and Peaches.  They all went in the barn and it was really fun to watch them go by.  It was like we had our own little parade so we all ran to the fence and  some of the ponies called out to their Mom when they saw Taca.  But Taca didn't want to talk to them, she was only interested in her new baby.  Then the next day a man came to the barns and when Mak came out of the barn, he was walking funny and he had red spots on his legs.  And Taca's colt did too!  So now they are walking fine and the mares and foals are back in their pasture, but little Peaches is still stuck up in the barn. She has my dad Bob for company, but I don't think he is very good company because he mostly just likes grown up mares.  So anyway, Peaches learned to wear a halter and have her hooves trimmed and to walk around with the lady at the end of a rope.  She gets lots of grain and carrots to do the stuff, so she is very lucky.  But I am kind of worried because she is super cute and I am afraid she is going to think she is more glamorous than me and Fiesta.  (Fiesta is still fuzzy, so no real competition there....)  That Peach'es winter coat is just about all shed and since she roaned out she is this shiny golden peachy color.  It almost makes your eyes hurt to look at her, she is so bright.  Even her mane is golden-colored.  I am thinking I might not like that Peaches too much....        

Fun morning!

Finally, some excitement!  All us ponies got to go in the field behind our regular pasture a few days ago so we have had much fun out there eating all the grass.  And I mean ALL the grass.  You know, that field looks really green from a distance, but when you get  your nose down in it, there are lots of places with dirt with cracks in it.  Our other pasture is just brown, so it was good that we at least got to go out and eat some of this nice grass.  But it was not enough.  I mean, sure, the lady says we don't need that much grass and says we will get sick and too chubby, but I prefer to think of it as pleasingly plump.  So anyway, this morning the lady came driving back in the little green truck thing to feed Taca and Mixta and their colts.  She looked for us ponies and we were not to be seen.  She thought  maybe we were in the woods, so she got out of the truck thing and came walking around the bend of the fence tape.  And the fence tape was just lying on the ground and all us ponies were having a grand time in the hay fields and eating LOTS of nice grass.  We were way in the back and  we were walking right next to those big round old bales of hay and the grass was as high as our knees! It was glorious.  We were all so happy!  The lady came running back to see us and she could see how happy we were.  Harley and Billy ran up to her to tell her how great it was.   She gave them some of the grain that she brought for those mares and so Harley and Billy followed her back over to the fence tape and we all ran after them.  I even got some grain too!  We were eating grass and grain and it was really a fun morning.  But then the lady came around behind us and made that clicking noise like she makes when we are supposed to move.  Suddenly, we were funneled in between the mares' fence and the tape that was still up and we had to cross the white line on the ground and run back into our field that has hardly any grass in it at all.  Then the fence tape went back up behind us and we were stuck.  We ran back to where we knew the tape used to be on the ground but it was high again and dangerous.  Little Krissy was more upset than anyone. You know  how short she is and she looked at that tape and she made a run for it and ducked under it.  We thought about following her, but we are not short like Krissy and we didn't want to get shocked.  Then the lady drove up the hill and called us and was throwing hay out by our boxes so we ran back into our regular pasture for the hay.  So now we are really stuck in this dirt pasture, watching Krissy eat grass by our pond.  It is so unfair.        

Glamour shots

You know, my Mom, Tudi moved in with the Red mare and her ponies last year after she had my baby sister.  The lady hasn't even named that filly yet and just calls her Tif, which is short for "Tudi's Filly."  So the filly is chunky and taller now and Tudi was thinking she was pretty hot stuff out there with those young ponies and she got really insufferable.  She was pushing the ponies around and she would bite little Mat when he went to eat his special breakfast, so sometimes he was scared to even come over to the Bistro with Tudi lurking around the corner and ready to lunge out at him.  So the lady got fed up with her and she put my mom back out with us.  Well, you know, for the past year, Tudi has been living a pretty comfy life bossing those ponies around and having the most choice eating spots.  So she had become, shall we say, somewhat complacent about her appearance. She was perhaps a bit rotund, and you know, the rest of us ponies have been out here on the winter-slow-feeder, hated-boxes diet so we didn't appreciate her strolling in here looking all portly and pleased with herself.   So mostly the boys took it upon themselves to encourage her to exercise by chasing her around the field and of course, we put her on a strict "one strand of hay a day" diet.  The lady tried to circumvent her imposed diet program by feeding her in the shed, but we figured that out after a couple of days, so we would watch for her to sneak off into the shed and then we would all run down there really fast and take that hay away from her.  Of course, there is only so much you can do for someone else, so most everyone got really tired of helping her slim down and were mostly just ignoring her.  Except for Krissy.   Man, that Krissy took the whole thing really seriously.  I don't know if it's because she's a Vermonter or what, but she has made it her mission in life to ensure that Tudi gets her exercise and sticks to her diet. So now Tudi is looking really svelte and all us elegant daughters are really proud of our mom.   She is definitely part of our glamorous family. 

Taca's new colt

Peaches

Well, you know, the lady was asking those chubby mares when they were going to foal and they were just not being very forthcoming at all.   Aunt Taca is not exactly a ray of sunshine under the best of circumstances, so you can imagine, being very pregnant and dealing with the mud and snow didn't have her in the best humor.  Even tho my dad Bob thinks she is like, super gorgeous, regardless of her girth, and goes prancing up to her telling her so at the drop of a piece of hay, she was just not feeling the love and mostly walked around with her ears back and kind of snarling at everyone. Her filly from last year, Peaches, is kind of goofy and outgoing, but Taca didn't want anything to do with her and her frivolity.  So anyway, the morning before yesterday, the lady showed up to feed and there was a new baby with Taca.  Two hours earlier when she checked, Taca said nothing about having a baby and here he was, up and running all around.  As soon as he saw the lady he ran over to her and asked if she was his mother, so of course, that pissed Taca off, since she had done a great deal of work to get him out and she didn't need that lady showing up and taking the credit.  But the lady just walked over to Taca so the colt followed and then he got something to drink.  He looks just like Peaches, the foal Taca had last year when she was a baby, except of course, he is a boy.

Taca's new colt

So I am posting a pic of what Peaches looks like now and one of the new colt.     Now my dad Bob had to move up to the barn.  He likes foals and is good with them, but he likes mares even more and the lady says she is not coming out in the snow next year to be checking on foaling mares. 
   

Grass?

So every morning, us ponies go down to the gate at the end of our pasture and wait there for the lady to come and open that gate.  The lady goes by us all the time, either with that bossy dog leading her on a lead rope or else in the little green truck thing.  She goes to look at those fat grumpy mares that live with my dad Bob.  Sometimes she goes when it is dark out and she has a shiny light on top of her head.  She looks at the fat mares and asks when they are going to have babies.  Then she looks under their bellies.   The mares don't say anything.  At any rate, she doesn't stop and open the gate for us.  It is obvious we want to have her open the gate so we can go out into that field and eat nice grass.  Every time she opened that gate in the past, there has been nice green grass in that field, so we are sure there would be nice grass now too.  We don't see any nice grass over there, but that doesn't mean it won't be green when we get there.  So we don't know why the lady is being mean to us and not opening the gate. Yesterday she brought us carrots and had the shiny thing that sounds like a bee.  She tickled us under our heads with the shiny thing and then our faces looked skinnier.  We are all very fuzzy and have wonderful thick coats that are good for when the white cold stuff falls on our backs.  After she did that, she went over to those younger ponies that live with the big red mare. They wanted the carrots but they did not like to have the buzzy thing under their faces.  So they still have long hairs on their heads.  We are much more glamorous ponies than they are with our skinnier faces.        

Bob amok

We had some excitement this morning!  After we got our hay, the lady drove the little green truck thing back to my dad Bob and his mares. She put some grain in for them and then while she was getting their hay, Bob opened the gate and strolled out.  He was pretty happy about being out of his pasture and paid no attention at all to the lady who tried to get him to come over to her to eat grain out of a little bucket.  He started to trot around and then he took off galloping and came to see us up here by our hay boxes.   The lady tried to run a little bit, but she is terrible at it because there is really deep mud.  So she got back in the little green truck thing and went sliding and bouncing through the mud after Bob.  We all ran down the hill to talk to him over the pasture fence and then we all galloped back up the hill. Bob was making those loud squealing noises and lunging at the boy ponies over the fence.  The lady caught up to him, but Bob turned and ran off toward the big mares.  I think he is fed up with living with those two fat grumpy mares in his pasture and he was looking for mares who might like him better. He ran to the field with that big Red mare in it and all those ponies.  Little Mat was in his pen where he eats breakfast and Bob jumped at him and knocked the gate off its hinges.  Then he ran over to talk to my Mom Tudi who lives in that pasture.  The Red mare tried to bite him, so then he ran to the bay bunch of big mares that live in the front pasture.  Those mares thought Bob was the cutest thing they had ever seen in their lives.  They all huddled by the fence and some of them were making advances toward him and telling him that he was handsome.  Bob was beside himself and never even noticed when the lady walked up to him and put a rope over his head. So then she took him to the small paddock in front of the barn and gave him hay.  He doesn't even have fat grumpy mares for company now.    So I am not sure that worked out how he had planned.  The lady was saying that she was going to move Bob out of the pasture as soon as one of his fat mares had her baby anyway.  She said she doesn't want anyone having foals in the middle of winter next year like they are this year.  But it is almost not winter here -- kind of.  There is only a little bit of white stuff lying around and if you squint your eyes, you can almost see the nice grass turning green.  Almost.        

Sad news

    So after the lady put Rita and the colt in the barn, there were a lot of ladies coming to the barn all the time.  Then a man and a different lady came in the middle of the night and they didn't leave until the sun was almost up.  Our lady was in the barn so much that we got our breakfast late, even tho she had other ladies helping her with our nice hay.  She spent almost all night in the barn that next night too.  But then tonight, she brought Rita out of the barn and put her out with her friends and Mom.  Rita was happy to be back with her friends and they all gathered around her to ask her where she had been.  Rita said the colt stopped moving and talking to her and got cold.  So it didn't need her any more.
    Now we have white stuff all over the ground that is higher than our knees.   It filled up the boxes and is everywhere except in our shed.   There is probably even white stuff inside the White Hill.  We are ready for green grass out here in our pony pasture.   

colt

I know, I haven't blogged for a long time.  I was waiting for something exciting to happen.  But all we have is weather and everyone has weather, so I didn't know if you wanted to read about our weather or not.  Our weather is cold and wet and sometimes the ground is hard and white and sometimes it is soft and mucky.  It is kind of hard to walk on either way.  The stupid geese are back on our pond and honking.  So then yesterday that horse mare Rita had a baby.  Rita was a little fat, but not real fat like Taca or that white horse mare that both live with Bob.  It was like a year since she had seen Bob so the lady used to think she was going to have a baby, but after a while she figured Rita was just a little chubby and not pregnant.  But obviously she was wrong about that.  So you know, foals have a lot of trouble walking at first and they fall down.  This new foal was not even able to get up because his back feet were curled up.  So the lady called another lady to help her move him.  That lady has really pretty hair that is almost as glamorous as my tail.   And then they called another lady, but it turns out that this other lady was a man, which apparently you can tell by the hair on its face. So the man picked up the colt and carried him across the frozen bumpy ground and they put Rita and the colt in the barn.  The ladies helped the colt stand up so that he could eat breakfast and then he would fall back down again.  But by the end of the day, he was getting up by himself and his feet weren't so curled any  more.  He is almost exactly the same color as I was when I was foaled, but he has long horse-like legs, probably because his mother is a horse.  So finally something interesting happened around here. Now we are all hoping the lady will be taking us to the White Hill and giving us carrots.  She says she will do that when the carrots thaw out.          

blizzard

So you know, there is a lot of that cold white stuff and the wind is blowing it all around.  There was a little bit of it falling from the skies yesterday and then last night, a whole lot of it started to fall down.  The lady took little Mat and Tux and put them in the pony barn and then she brought us our hay, but she just threw it in the boxes and didn't put the nets on top of it.  This was good because we wanted to eat that hay quick and then go back to our nice shed so we were not standing in the wind.  When she was done feeding everyone else, she took some halters out to Artie and Fusion and put one on Artie's head.  When she put the other one on "the Fuse", the halter got stuck on his forelock and only went over one ear.  He had too much white stuff on his head and his fancy black and white mane was all sticking up and in the way.  He doesn't like too much to have his one ear messed with anyway, so he didn't want the lady to put the halter all the way on his head.  So she just told him to come along and opened the gate so that she and Artie and the Fuse could go in the barn. They don't have a nice shed in their paddock like we do.  So the lady turned around to close the gate and the Fuse put his head down and shook it and the halter fell right off his head!   He was a little surprised and he jumped  in the air and then he spun around and bucked and ran off  so that the lady and Artie could not see him with all the white stuff blowing all around.  Artie was worried that he would never see his friend again so he started yelling as they walked around the barn to go in the front door.  When they got to the door, here came the Fuse, charging out of the white stuff and casually strolling into the barn with his buddy Artie.  So then he and Artie got some hay and everyone was happy that they were not out in the storm.    

winter blues

    So us ponies have been terribly neglected lately so there really has not been much to blog about.  The lady put some kind of shiny strip things on the round feet of the little green truck, so she isn't even providing us with dinner entertainment on the hill by our pasture.  And she spends all her time with little Mat and our buddy Tux, who are both in the pony barn and getting pampered.  That Tux came strolling out of the barn the other morning all by himself and let me tell you, he is looking chubby.  He was all impressed with himself for walking around without the lady attached to him, so he went exploring to see the other horses.  The lady walked after him and caught up with him and made him go in the small paddock then with Mat.  Mat has a big puffy blanket on, so you can hardly even see him. 
   You know, we don't have any grass because the ground is hard and has white stuff on it, so we are stuck eating hay out of boxes.  The lady had been bringing  us hay that is square and tied with green string and it was good and hearty and we liked it alot.  So then a couple of days ago, when she threw the hay over the fence before she came in to put it in the boxes, we could see that the hay was different.  It was softer and had a yellow string on it.  The squares were smaller and so there were more of them.  Of course , as usual, we ran to the hay and started eating it and it was wonderful! It was the best hay we ever ate in our lives.  We never knew there was such great hay  in the world.  It was almost like nice grass.  So we ate all that hay and when the lady brought us hay the next day, it had green strings tying it together.  We ran over to grab that hay and Ugh, it was the worst tasting hay in the world.  If we were not starving to death, we would not have eaten it, much less gone to all the work of having to pull it, bit by bit, out of the boxes.  It was such bad tasting hay that we did not even eat it all out of the boxes.  We left some in there so she could see what we thought about it. And then when she came to bring us more hay, some of us just stood on the creek and looked at her.  We were doing that so she could see that the water was hard. We did go eat the hay then and it was not as bad as it was before. The lady went to the creek with a funny stick and hit the hard water a lot of times until we could see the normal water that was under the hard water.  So that is about it for the excitement around here.  I would like to go in the white hill, but it is okay here hanging out with my friends and laying in the sun.            

That's entertainment!

So you know, there was a lot of that white stuff falling out of the sky and there was already a lot of the stuff on the ground, so that it was up to our knees.  The lady brought us our nice hay and put it in our boxes and then she drove that little green truck thing back to Bob and his mares and gave them hay too.  So then here she came back up the hill in the little green truck thing, right outside our fence where she always drives it.  But halfway up the hill, the green truck thing started going sideways and then it slid around and then it rolled right back down the hill backwards.  So then it did it again, but it was sliding all different ways and skidding in the white stuff and just about spinning around.  That was pretty interesting -- dinner AND a show!  So we watched it while we ate our hay, but the lady just left the green thing at the bottom of the hill and walked back up the hill.  It was down there by the pond  all night and it turned all white.  Then the next morning, she walked back down the hill and started it up and did that skidding, sliding stuff some more.  But she didn't give us our hay, so it was not as much fun.  Then she walked back up the hill and got a red can that smelled funny and poured stuff into the side of the truck thing.  There really is no point in having a show if you don't have anything to eat while you watch, so we tried to show the  lady the error of her planning and we all went over and started biting the fence.  Just so she would understand that we needed hay to appreciate her maneuvers.  The lady looked at us kind of like that coyote used to look at the stupid geese when he was stalking them.  So anyway, she walked back up the hill and got one of the orange machines and carried our hay bales in the front of it and gave us some hay right in front of our shed.  No boxes!  It was grand, so obviously we were very smart to bite the fence that way.  When we got back over to the boxes, there was a big path as wide as a pony is long running the whole length of our pasture down to the pond.  And the green truck thing was back at the top of the hill and there was hay in our boxes.  What a day!