falling feeders

So, we were all standing around, feeling sleepy because it was sunny and nice and we had on fuzzy coats. I was even lying down when the lady showed up with her little stand for our feet and bucket of metal tools. She put the halter on Belle and combed out her forelock and then she trimmed her feet so they looked pretty. Then she did the same thing to Krissy and Elfe and Lu and Sienna. Then she did me too, because it is not fair to come out and make them pretty and not do the most glamorous pony. We didn't get any carrots tho. But then it was already getting a little dark, so she came back out with the green truck thing and our hay. Watching her rasp all those feet made us really hungry, so we were all gathering around the boxes that she puts the hay in and trying to grab some before she put the silly nets on top of it. Someone must had bumped that stick that holds up the boards that go on top of the box and WHAM, the boards fell down. The lady looked up and caught the boards right on her face. You know, she has these round metal and clear things in front of her eyes and that was what she used to catch the boards. It did not look like a good idea to me. I think she should have used her front legs that she doesn't use to walk to catch them. The round things slid down her face and the lady said OWWWW! really loud. There was even red blood on her face. So tonight she made us stay way back from the hay boxes when she put the hay in them. She brought a skinny stick with her and shook it at us and wouldn't let us eat any hay until she walked away. She had different round things in front of her eyes and her nose is shiny. She was not much fun at all.

new people

A couple of days ago, a man came walking up and looked at the white hill. He seemed to like it. Then he came walking over to us and we ran to the fence, because we thought maybe he had carrots and would take us into the white hill with him. We all looked as hill-worthy as we could. But he walked off down toward the pond. So we watched him because we were pretty sure he would let us out into the nice grass that was on the other side of the fence by the pond when he got down there. But he didn't do that either. He just walked around the pond and looked at the water. Then the lady who feeds us and another lady who kind of looks like her came over to the fence with that hunk Fusion. Fusion got to eat grass outside the fence while the new lady admired me and told me I was beautiful. Then Fusion did some of his fancy tricks for the man and the new lady and he got carrots. But no one gave me any carrots. I got to see the new lady a couple of times more because she came with our lady to give us hay. She was always carrot-less. Today our lady didn't have anyone with her and she just threw our hay over the fence. So those two shaggy yearlings came over and ate the hay with us. I don't know why Harley let them get away with that. I hope he's not starting to like that Fiesta better than me.

Moves

So there was a lot of excitement around here yesterday. First, those yearling ponies with their shaggy manes moved into our pasture. I know that Fiesta is supposed to be my arch-rival for the glamour position here, but I felt sorry for her, since Harley was being bossy and chasing her around. She can run pretty fast tho! Then the lady walked my mom Tudi and my little brother by our field and put them out in the pasture next to ours. Then she came by again with Haylie and her baby and then she went the other way with two of those bay mares -- the big tall one and the one with the funny face -- and put them in the back field. And then she came by with my dad Bob and put him in the field with the new bay mares. Bob wanted to be happy, but he didn't think the bay mares liked him very much, so he was being cautious. And anyway, he had to check out every inch of that pasture to make sure that there had been no intruders in the months that he has been spending up by the barn. So there was a lot of noise, with Taca and her filly calling their departed friends and the bay mares upset about their buddies leaving them. And of course, Bob just generally makes a racket to let everyone know he's there and that he is a macho guy. So now it is quiet because things have settled down.

Lafleur

Yesterday, the old horse who lives in the pasture next to us wasn't feeling good and didn't want to eat his breakfast when the lady brought it out for him. His breathing sounded funny too. Another lady came in the afternoon and looked at the old horse and gave him some shots. She tried to put a long, clear, wiggly thing in his nose, but he didn't like that. So then she left. After the rest of us ate our hay for dinner, he went and laid down in his pasture. And he didn't get up again. His mares were sad and kept calling him. The lady came out to look at him in the dark and she could see that he wasn't breathing. So then today she went to a hill in his pasture and dug a great big hole with that orange machine and put him in it. So now he can stay with his mares all the time.

maneless

So yesterday, the lady shows up with these pointed shiny things. We all ran over to see if she had good stuff to eat, but she didn't. She walked over to my sister Gyspy and made the things go "scritch, scritch" along Gypsy's neck. And all of Gypsy's hair fell off -- her whole mane, just gone! Then she went to other ponies and made the noises and their manes fell off too! I wasn't sure if I wanted to have her do that to my mane, since I am not sure if the minimalist mane is in fashion this fall, but she came over and next thing I knew, it was off! But my mane is fuzzy and fluffy, so she didn't make it as short as some of the other ponies. And Toby really wanted his mane to fall off, but she didn't do anything to his, maybe because it was short already. Sienna just ran around and said no one was touching her blonde mane. I didn't know Sienna was so vain. Then the lady went out and made the manes fall off those big bay horse mares too. So I guess it is the fashion after all. The lady says now we look like polo ponies and you KNOW how glamorous they are! I am going to include some pics of us ponies eating out of the boxes. You can't see all our manes too good, because most of us have our heads in the boxes.

boxes

So things have not been very exciting for us ponies. We are stuck in our regular pasture without any nice green grass. We do not get to explore any new places. And we have those stupid boxes that the lady puts our hay in so we can't eat it fast like we want to. The boxes have a net thing that lays on top of the hay, so we grab it with our teeth and try to yank it out. That was working pretty good on two of the boxes because then we were able to move the square wooden thing that holds the net thing in. So we could lift it up and eat the hay underneath it. And we have one hanging net thing that we were able to pull down, but it didn't help with getting at the hay any better. The lady nailed that board back up. And it seems like every day she comes back out and makes a lot of noise with little tools and makes changes to the boxes. Of course, we try to help her, but she doesn't appreciate our help. We dump little shiny metal things out on the ground and we walk on the boards. She should stop messing with those boxes and just throw our hay on the ground so we can eat it. Or she should bring us carrots. The least she could do is take me over to the white hill so I could get my fuzzy coat brushed. She has been taking those big horses to the white hill instead of us ponies. Today she took Jewel there and then she got on her back and rode her out the gate. Jewel is always worried about stuff that the rest of us don't see. She wasn't snorting as much today, but right outside of the gate suddenly whoosh!!!--- she was bolting away from the hill like it was going to eat her. But she stopped after about ten ponies lengths. Then she snorted and rolled her eyes at the hill, but I don't know what she was upset at. Maybe it was that little bossy dog in the green truck thing. Or maybe the side of the white hill was flapping. Anyway, she had to walk back into the hill and back out and all around outside there. She was a little mad about it and kept shaking her head. So then the lady put her back out with those other big horses and brought Mari into the white hill too. She didn't ride Mari out of the hill. She just rode her around inside. Mari is not worried about everything like Jewel is. But the other mares that live with Mari yell for her. Us ponies are not like that. If one of us goes to the white hill, the other ponies just watch the lucky one go. I hope next time I get to go the white hill!

Puzzle boxes

Us ponies just love the new puzzle boxes that the lady brought out here for us. I thought it was going to be hard to get the hay out of them, and we would all just be fighting and biting each other (okay, so actually biting other ponies is fun, it is only not fun when other ponies bite me) when she first brought hay out and put it in the boxes. But it turns out, the objective is to remove the net thing that is keeping us from grabbing mouthfuls of hay. See, the box is wooden and then it has this heavy net stretched on a metal frame that goes inside and lays on top of the hay. Last year, we would just grab that stupid net and drag it out of the box and stomp on it. So now there is an extra wooden frame that sits over top of the box. It is tied down to the top or has some kind of metal snaps on it. We discovered we can slide that frame over a little and by grabbing the net with our teeth and pulling it many many times, we can get part of it to stick up and then we can stick our heads under it and eat the hay. It makes a lot of noise banging around. We think it is so much fun, that even after the hay is gone, we pull out that nasty net thing until we can get it on the ground and stomp on it. Last night, the lady brought a different kind of net that she hung on the fence where it is solid boards. It is green on the back and has the net on the front. The hay goes on the inside. Ha! I am pretty sure we can tear that thing up in no time. The lady is definitely finding fun stuff for us to do!

Hey, Hay!

Wow! We had lots of white stuff everywhere and some is still out here. It was cold and windy and there were no bugs at all! But today the sun was out, so most of the snow left. Now we have mud. The gates are closed to our outlying pastures, so we are stuck here inside this regular board fence where there is hardly any grass. The lady showed up yesterday and put frames of wood on top of the boxes that she set in our field back a long time ago when there was a lot of snow. She puts hay in those boxes and it is way hard for us to get it out. We used to just have hay laying on the ground, so we ate it really fast and one winter we had gigantic round bales which were really fun-- we tore them apart and rolled in them and had a grand time! Now we are stuck with these stupid boxes. The lady put some hay in the boxes tonight and we were happy about that, but we couldn't even pull the net thing out that covers the hay because of the new frame things on top. So we have to pull pieces of hay out a little at a time. It takes forever. But at least we have hay. I hope the grass comes back soon.

excitement

So yesterday the lady came and got my mom, Tudi and little brother and took them up to the barn. They had to walk right past our pasture, so we had to all run over and line up along the fence and watch. It was just like a little parade. Usually they are in a pasture where we can see them every day, but there is a corridor between our pastures that is about as wide as if about six ponies were standing nose to tail. Unless the measuring ponies were Krissy, then you would need more ponies, because she is not very big. So it was very exciting to see them walking in the nice grass right next to us. A little while after they went up to the barn, the lady came back down and got Taca and her roany pony filly out of the pasture and led them by us too. So we lined up again to watch them go by. But Taca's filly was all distracted by the nice grass so she didn't walk next to her mom. She stopped and ate grass. So Taca started yelling at her to come along, but the filly just ran all the way back down to the pasture. Wahoo! She had her tail up over her back and she was bouncing all around! So we wanted to get in on the action and we all started galloping back and forth along the fence. Then Taca got more upset and the lady had to take her back to their pasture. But we still ran around and tore up mud. The lady just put Taca and the roany fily back in the pasture and then she got my Mom and little brother and put them back too. So we got to watch them walk by AGAIN! We were all tired from all that excitement.
Today, we were eating nice grass by the pond when the lady showed up with some sticks and branches for us to eat. She doesn't usually bring us stuff to eat when we have grass so we knew they must be special things. Even tho they smelled like the willow trees we have in our fields and we never eat those. They looked just like the branches she planted in the ground a couple of days ago over by the things to jump over and the creek, except they were shorter and some of them had bite marks on them. She brought the sticks over to the pond and we all ran over and started sniffing and biting them. They had those long swooshy little leaves on them. The lady started yelling at us and waving her hands, "No! No! ponies, what do you think you are? Beavers?" she said. She grabbed the sticks and branches and yanked them right out of our mouths. That seemed pretty rude to me. Then she chased us through the gate and into our regular pasture where there isn't any grass at all. I don't know why she brought us those branches if she was going to just take them back away from us. She took the branches over to the pond and planted them in the ground along the water. So now we are stuck here without any grass.

Wind

Hooray -- no bugs! Or hardly any bugs, anyway. I think it is too windy for the bugs to fly around. If they try, they will not be able to go where they want to. It has been cold and dark and rainy too. Us ponies don't care that it is cold, because we are all fuzzy now. We aren't real big on the rain and the wind, but if it keeps the bugs away, it is okay by us. This morning, the lady gave pedicures to Mak and Rita. Alexis helped with Rita's pedicure by holding the lead rope that was attached to Rita. After she was done with the hooves, the lady took Jewel for a walk. None of us ponies wanted to go for a walk because we got to go out by the pond and eat nice grass. It has been a while since we were out there, so the grass is very green and we all waited at the gate this morning and told the lady WE WANTED TO GO OUT THERE, so she opened it. So anyway, we watched her and Jewel walking around. Jewel is always worried about everything and with the wind blowing so much, we figured it was going to be exciting to see what she did. She was not very exciting, tho. They walked around the white hill and went inside even tho it was flapping on the sides, but Jewel just snorted a little. Then they walked over to the creek where all the stuff to jump over is. A big piece of a tree had fallen and was laying partly in the creek. Jewel was a little worried about that, but she was more worried about sinking into the mud. So then they came back and Alexis was very happy because her long lost friend Jewel had returned. The lady put on her high boots that are as long as her legs and went back over to the creek. She walked right into the water like she was a pony and cut the big tree into smaller pieces. Then she dug holes and stuck the pieces into the holes so they were sticking up just like little trees. They had little leaves and long branches that looked like pony tails and were swooshing around in the wind. But some of them had the ends chewed off, probably by that chubby brown animal with the flat tail.
The bossy dog did not take the lady for a walk, I think because it is too cold for that bossy dog. The little quiet dog wanders around and the barky dog jumps around and nips at that hunk Fusion.
If there is no wind tomorrow, I hope I get to go to the white hill. I haven't been there forever. I could use some carrots.

yellow coyote

This morning, the lady came driving the little green truck thing back along our pasture to go to the mares and foals out back. There was a blonde coyote lying right in the dirt in the middle of the hill in our pasture. The coyote was looking up the hill toward the barns and didn't even move when the lady stopped the green truck across from him. "Hey you!" the lady yelled at the coyote. The coyote turned its head and looked at the lady, but didn't get up or anything. So the lady got out and walked over to the fence. "You can't just lay there. I'm a person and coyotes are supposed to run off when we show up." The coyote got up and stretched a little and then trotted a little way down the hill. It was not a very big coyote and looked like a yellow fuzzy dog. It kept turning and looking back at the lady as it sauntered toward the pond along the fence. At the bottom of the hill, it stopped and watched the lady get back in the little green truck and drive along the far side of the pond. Then it walked along the fence until it got to the end and came out and sat down to watch the lady feed the mare ponies. She saw it watching so she walked toward it and finally, it reluctantly turned around and went into the woods where us ponies have been making trails. We figured that would be the last we saw of it. But when the lady was done with those other ponies, sure enough, there was the yellow coyote again, sitting in the middle of our field, watching her. The lady asked it what the deal was and if it wanted to be a pet coyote, but it must have decided against that and it left. I don't know why the coyote thought the lady was so interesting. Unless it thought that little quiet brown and white dog she had with her smelled like breakfast.
After the rain went away, the bugs came out. The bossy dog took the lady for a walk in our woods which are really muddy. Then she brought some of us carrots and took Fusion and Toby over to the white hill so they could get beautiful. Harley was very jealous and bit us because he thought he should get to go with the lady and the carrots.

back again

I know, it has been forever since I had a chance to write this blog. The lady's computer was broken, so she took it away and had to go pick it back up. I don't have a computer in the field where I live. I am pretty sure the other ponies would break it. They are not very careful with stuff and they like to bite things or stomp on them. So it is better that they don't have access to a computer, or I would never get to use it again. The rain finally stopped a couple of days ago and we were very hot now that we are getting our fuzzy winter hair. I was sweating a lot. The lady put up more fence so we could go into more of the heavenly field, so we have hardly even come up to our regular pasture at all. Even when the bugs were biting us, we stayed out there to eat the nice grass. We thought we would never leave, but then we ate all the grass so now we don't have a lot of reasons to be back there any more. I thought the lady would come back there to bring us carrots, but she came and scratched us in the morning, but then she left without giving us carrots. Then she was riding that hunk Fusion and his friend Artie around. Today she went to the other pony pasture and was putting sticks in a big square noisy thing that sprayed dust and little pieces of something out of it. It looked pretty scary to us ponies and my mom and baby brother didn't go anywhere near it. I hope she is done making all that racket and brings us carrots tomorrow.

bunny

Well hay , no bugs now! A chilly wind is blowing and the bugs are hiding. Yesterday it rained all day. But the day before yesterday it was sunny! It was the only day for a long time that we didn't have rain. The lady came to see us and she had carrots in her pockets. Of course, my brother Harley barged right in and wanted all the carrots. He was making nasty faces at the rest of us and telling us to go away. The lady was standing there, giving him carrots and I was standing behind her. I thought there was something about her that looked kind of familiar. You know, she had her mane roached back when the days were hot, so now the hair on top of her head is short. And it looks like she is changing to a roan like the foals out back, or else it is just her winter hair. So anyway, I realized standing there that her head looks just like a bunny. Not the front part or the ears, just the back part. If her head was lying on the ground, we would all wait for it to start hopping around. Or for a hawk to come and grab it. I didn't get to look at her head that long because she put a net thing over top of it and then she sat on top of Harley and asked him to walk around. It was really muddy, so she probably didn't want to get her feet wet walking in the woods. We walked back into the woods and most of us ponies ate some of the leaves on the bushes. But it is very wet and the water is as high as our fetlocks on the paths, so the lady and Harley didn't stay very long.
I hope the lady isn't turning into a bunny because then she will eat all the carrots herself!

rain and bugs

I have been waiting for something exciting to happen so I could tell you about it, but it just keeps raining and nothing exciting happens. The rain makes a lot of nice grass but it also makes a lot of mean bugs. We ate most of our heavenly grass and then the lady opened another gate on the other side of the creek so we could eat grass there too. There are paths in the woods so we could get from one gate to the other one but we now can't do that because the bugs are too mean and chase us away. So we eat grass outside one gate and then we run up to our shed and then later we go outside the other gate and then we run up to our shed again. There are even bugs in our new white hill, so the lady hasn't been taking anyone in there. The bossy terror took her for a walk yesterday, but it was raining, so they did not walk long. I hope this rain stops soon so we can go get carrots.

Oh happy day!

So we have been a little frustrated over the grass situation, or rather, the lack of nice grass situation. We have to look everywhere in our field for little short grass and the grass by the pond is gone too. We even ate all the grass by the tall weeds so some of the ponies have their manes full of burdocks all over again. So then the lady closed the gate so we couldn't even get to the pond and she was driving the big orange machine around by our other field that is made of shocking fence tape. We saw her back there, so we ran down to the fence to wait for her to open that gate, but she was taking forever. She was pulling up the posts and dragging the tape around. She looked funny because she had a black net over her head and we could hardly tell it was her. But we could tell by the coughing and the bad words she was saying when the tape would get stuck. Finally, she opened the gate and we ran through, but we could only go a little way and then we had to make a detour. The fence tape was blocking our field, which was very annoying. So we followed the tape a little way and then it opened up into the most beautiful nice grass field you could ever want to see. We could hardly stuff our mouths fast enough on the pretty grass. There are some weeds, but they are not mean weeds that bite or scratch our noses and they have pretty flowers on them. We were so excited. One of the ponies asked if we thought this was pony heaven, since it certainly seemed like a perfect day and the grass was wonderful. Some of the ponies thought it was pony heaven, but other ones said that if it was pony heaven then we would have to be dead ponies, and there would have had to be a cataclysmic catastrophe that catapulted us into pony heaven all at the same time. And then the lady showed up on the other side of the creek and there was no rainbow bridge, just mud and deer tracks, so we decided that we must not be dead. Just happy.

tall and short

The lady showed up this afternoon with a halter, a funny brush and a white spray bottle. We did not really want to go up to the white hill, because the weather was good for eating nice grass. Altho when it got warmer, the bugs came out and we had to go to our shed. Some of the ponies had lots of burdocks in their manes and tails. I mean a LOT of them! Krissy and Belle looked like unicorns with their forelocks standing straight out on their heads and my sister DD had so many in her tail that it looked like a club. You had to be careful you didn't get too close to her or you would get clunked with it. So the lady started taking some of the burdocks out. She did that for a little while. Then she put the halter on Toby and led him to some dead trees that are lying next to the pond. She climbed right up on the trees and sat on his back and he walked around. He did this once before in the white hill, so he is already an expert. After she got off Toby, she put the halter on me and led me next to the trees too. She stepped up on the trees and she was tall. Whoa! That was freaky! I didn't like having the tall lady next to me, so I jumped a little sideways and then she was short again. When I stopped, the short lady gave me a carrot and took me back over to stand next to the trees again. Then she got tall and I jumped and we did that a whole bunch of times. Like over and over and over. After a while, I got so bored with the tall/short act that I was almost falling asleep. She did some tall lady variations, like putting her foot in the air and jumping up and down, but that got boring too. So I was standing there with my eyes half closed when I noticed her foot was hanging right off my side next to my shoulder. I turned my head and bumped her knee with my nose. The tall lady was on top of me! She leaned up and her hand appeared in front of her knee and gave me a carrot. That was nice. I walked around a little and then she got off and she was short again. "Now, you're a riding pony." she said.

bugs again still

There are many many mean bugs. They don't ever go away. They are tiny and go in our ears. They used to just come out in the mornings when the sun was coming up and at night just before the sun went away, but now they are out all the time. And they used to go away when it got hot, but now they are still here all the time. I don't know why they are so mean to us. Sometimes we do not even want to come out of our shed. I wonder if the bugs will still be here when the white stuff is on the ground?
The lady came to see us the day before yesterday and her head was round and hard and a little shiny. And it was dark green. She went over to Krissy and put a halter on her and then, next thing we knew, she was on top of Krissy and she had four legs, just like Krissy. Krissy did not look surprised, Krissy just looked annoyed. But the lady would ask her to walk and then she would get a carrot. Harley thought it would be a good idea to get in on that action and we thought we should go with him, so we all went running over to Krissy. The lady had a funny look on her face when she saw us all galloping toward her. So then she went back to being a two-legged lady. So today us smart ponies were in the shed trying to get away from the mean bugs and she came out and got on top of Krissy again. But we did not charge over to them this time. Krissy got a lot of carrots for walking and stopping and turning in the pasture with the lady. Krissy and the lady both looked happy.

Tiger hat

Today the lady came walking back to us grazing on the nice grass by the pond and I ran right up to her because I definitely wanted to go up to the new hill and eat carrots. I was the first one to greet her so I knew I'd get to go with her. She was wearing a funny orange and black hat that looked like it used to be a tiger. It has a big brim like those hats that people wear when they are making their horses chase cows. She took that hat off her head and put it on my back. What???! I did NOT need that hat on my back! I did not need that hat touching any part of my body! What if it turned back into a tiger? I was so surprised I only took one step and then she took the hat back off my back and gave me a carrot. Well, so that was okay then. But then she put the hat back on me and took it off a whole bunch of times. It is a good thing there were lots of carrots, or I would have been out of there. She even put the hat on my head. I looked pretty glamorous with the tiger hat on. I was just starting to like it when she left and put the hat on Krissy. Then Harley came over and he wanted to wear the hat. Actually, he didn't care about the hat, he just wanted to do whatever resulted in carrots, and if that involved hat wearing, so be it. So he wore the hat. But it looked way better on me. I never did get to go up to the new hill.

hard work

The lady showed up yesterday and drove that big orange machine around and made the weeds shorter in our pasture. There were not a lot of weeds and some of them are already just sticks. There is hardly any grass at all in our pasture. We have to look hard for it. The lady says that is good for us and that maybe we will not be so chubby if we walk around looking for our grass. But it would be way better if it was just nice and tall and green so we didn't have to work so hard for it. We have not seen the lady much, she has not been out to take us to the new white hill and the little bossy terror has not been making her walk around, either. But then, it did rain for just about four days straight. When she came out to us with the halter, she talked funny and was still coughing like she ate a bunch of bad hay. We could hardly hear her when she talked. She put the halter on the first pony who came up to her and that was Toby. Toby is the same age as me, but he is taller and grayer and skinnier. She took Toby into the white hill and then she sat right on his back! Toby was so surprised! No one ever sat on his back before. He said it was hard to balance and walk around with all that extra weight up there. But he said it was fun because he got carrots for just about everything he did. Weird but fun. Then he came back out and Harley got to go up to the white hill. Harley thinks he knows everything already, so he just wants all the carrots up front. He is a bossy big brother and doesn't like to wait for good things. He was a little bored with having the lady sit on him in the white hill, because he likes to jump over things in the arena. But he settled down and worked for the carrots when he found out that was the only way he was going to get them.
Today the sun is shining. I hope I get to go to the white hill and get carrots.

falling leaves?

It is windy and feels like the leaves should be falling off the trees. But the nice grass is still bright green, probably because the ground is wet wet wet. It is a good thing we are starting to get our warm coats on, my brother Harley is already totally black. The lady did not come back to take any of us to the white hill. She is coughing and sneezing like she ate bad hay. Also, when we crossed the creek to get to the nice grass, it was as high as our bellies, so probably she can't get to us. I don't think even the stupid geese would be able to cross that creek. There are like a hundred of them standing around, waiting for another coyote. She did take Artie and Fusion into the white hill for a little while and when they came out, she was riding on their backs and had a halter on them. They looked happy, so I am pretty sure they got carrots.

fancy duds

OOOOOH, I got to go up to the new white hill and I was the only one! I got to use the cone carrot dispenser and then the lady put this wonderful soft cloth on my back and I walked around the barns so everyone could see it. It was bright and colorful and much nicer than that green flappy thing the other ones wore on their backs. We walked by Bob, my Dad, and he yelled at me and told me how cute I looked. I DID look so cute! I'll bet Gypsy and Krissy were really jealous of me. (The day before, they went up to the white hill and the lady sat on their backs, so that was all they talked about. ) I didn't get to stay at the hill for very long because the sky was really dark and there was a lot of thunder rolling around in it. So I went back to the pasture and told everyone about my excitement. The lady closed our gate to the pond and we thought she was going to open the gate to the other pasture but she didn't. So we are hoping she will open that gate soon so we can get nice grass.
That white horse mare is back out in her field with her foal and he is looking very strong and happy now. The old guy horse is happy too. I think he missed her.
And you know how I told you about how that gray and white cat was maybe eaten by a coyote? Well, he came trotting through our field the other day and walked right up to the lady and has been hanging out in the barn ever since. So I guess he didn't get eaten.
Today it is raining again, and our creek is way high. We would not even be able to get to that other gate if the lady opens it. So we will stay in our shed and hope the lady brings carrots. And maybe I will get to wear more fancy things.

carrots

So yesterday, the lady comes walking back to look for me by the pond, but I wasn't there because us smart ponies were in the shed away from the bugs. It was mostly just those hungry younger ponies down by the pond. And Krissy. (No one likes Krissy.) She was carrying a halter so she could take me up to the white hill and had this other thing in her arms that was flapping around and green, It was shaped like the saddle that Fusion wears when someone is riding him, but it was flat and soft. The lady walked up to Sienna and put the flappy thing on her back! Sienna is a three year old pony who looks like my sister LuLu, but not quite as blonde. You should have seen the look on her face, she was so surprised to have a flat flappy thing on her back. She jumped and then trotted around in circles, but the thing stayed there. So she stopped and then the lady gave her a carrot and took the thing off her back. Then the lady did it to the other ponies down there. Most of them were surprised but happy about the carrot ending of the ordeal. Krissy didn't care a lot and Perl, who has actually had the lady ride on her back, didn't even look up. Then the lady saw us standing up here by the shed watching her. So she came walking up to us with the flat flappy thing. She put it on my brother Harley, but he just wanted carrots. He doesn't care what you do to him if there are carrots involved. She put it on Toby and he has never had anything like that done to him before either, but he didn't care. I think it's a boy thing, he said if Harley and Billy could do it, he was going to tolerate it too. My sister Gypsy was skeptical, but she let the lady put it on her back. It has been a long time since the lady rode on her back, so she probably forgot what it was all about. I wanted carrots, but there was no way she was going to put that ugly, dirty thing on MY glamorous back! I just ran away and ran back. If she wants to put something on my back, it better be pretty and hopefully have shiny stuff on it. She didn't even try to put it on my back. Then she put the halter on Harley and took him up to the white hill. I didn't get any carrots at all. That was not fair. A pony should not have to put up with having nasty things on them to get carrots!
Us smart ponies went down to the pond then to join the younger ponies. The big tree is not in the pond any more and is laying on the ground. It is kind of in the way there. It was not lying on top of the grass while it was in the water.
Today I better get some carrots!

post storm

The sun was shining and the lady walked all around our fence and pulled on it and made it higher again. She walked around my Mom's fence too and made it higher and then she finally opened our gates so we could get nice grass. She seemed to be busy all morning and then the bossy dog and the other dogs took her for a walk to look at all the water that is supposed to be in the creek. I got to go up to the white hill -- finally,-- and it was a long walk because we were all busy grazing by the pond when she came and got me. The lower field has a lot of water rushing over it, so we couldn't eat grass there, but we had plenty by the pond anyway. And the good news is that the rain washed away all the mess the stupid geese made. Anyway, I went up to the barn and the other lady there said I was beautiful -- of course. We checked on the new baby horse, who was sleeping. Then I went to the white hill and looked at the clumpy dirt in there. I didn't like that so much. There is hardly any grass at all now. It is better when it is smooth. But I got carrots and the lady sprayed fly spray on me. Then we went back down the hill and the other ponies got carrots too, even tho they didn't even do anything. Harley thought he should get all the carrots and tried to bite everyone else -- even me. Sometimes he is a bossy big brother. The weather is really nice, cool and not as buggy as before. It is fun to be a pony!

rain rain go away

There was wind. There was rain. Then there was more wind and more rain. And more rain. A tree fell over in our pond. The nice grass in our field by the pond is under water. We want to go out there anyway, but the gate is closed. There is not much rain or wind now, but that gate is still shut. My mom and her friends and their pony foals can't go out in their field either.

baby news

So today I thought finally I was going to get some attention. All week, the lady has been taking the boys over to the new hill. Tux and Harley and Artie and Fusion. It is unfair. Girls need attention too. So this morning it was hot and muggy. We have nice grass by the pond that we have been able to eat this week, so I was not TOO upset about not getting the attention I deserved, but this morning, we stayed in the shed and did not even want to go out with the bugs. The lady showed up to feed the horses next door in her little green truck thing and of course, we heard them run out to meet her, but then we heard the young filly over there start to yell for her mom. So we went to look over the fence to see what was going on. That white mare that is the filly's mom was standing over a new baby and she couldn't leave it, so she was yelling back to the filly and the filly was running back and forth between the mare and where the lady was standing with the feed. The lady came running to see the new baby and seemed very upset and picked him up, but he didn't want to stand up, he was too sleepy. He finally got up and wobbled around and got a little to eat, but then he wanted to lay down again. So in a little while the lady came out with her friend, the British lady, and they took the mare and baby away. The baby is very cute, he is the same color as I was when I was born, but he has white feet in front. I don't know why he didn't want to run round and play like the other babies I have seen. So anyway, the lady didn't take any of us to the white hill today at all. She stayed by the barn and filled up water troughs. She told us we are not allowed to eat the nice grass by the pond because it is going to be windy and rainy and we have to stay inside the board fence. So the gate is closed by the pond and we are a little mad about that.

coyote news

Well, today was earthshaking! And there were not even any ponies galloping around, so it was pretty weird. But it was over quick and no one fell down, so we didn't care. The weather was good and I was hoping the lady would take me to the new hill and give me more carrots. I waited all morning while she took the dark horse Alexis and then the pretty-faced Mari in there, and then she drove around on the noisy red thing that looks like a giant bug, making the grass and weeds short. Then she took Artie and Fusion in there. This was taking all day. She brought the terrors out and tied the bossy one by the barn, where it was yipping and yipping. Then she finally came out to our field with a halter. But I wasn't paying any attention to her because a big coyote was standing by the pond. At first, I thought it was a deer because it was so big and light brown, just like a deer. It was staring at the pasture where my Mom and the other mares and the foals are. When the lady showed up at the top of the hill, it looked at her and then looked back at the pasture. Then it got skulky and trotted toward the pasture. The ponies were not inside their mesh fence pasture where they go at night, they were just in some of that shocking fence tape so they can get extra nice grass during the day. The ponies hardly even glanced up at the coyote as it came into the field, but the bunch of stupid geese in there started honking and waddling really fast in all sorts of directions. The coyote ran at the geese, but they flew away. Then it was stuck there looking silly. I thought maybe it would decide to chase my little brother or Haylie's two week old filly, since it was bigger than both of them, but it just came back under the fence and looked up the hill toward the lady. That bossy dog was still barking and I thought maybe it decided that terror would be good for dinner instead of goose, but it only went part of the way up the hill before it veered off to go toward the cemetery. I think the lady was worried tho, because she put the terrors in the barn before she came back down to us. You know, there used to be a gray and white Canadian cat that lived in the barn and we have not seen him for quite a while. I wonder if the coyote ate him? When the lady got back out to us, she took my blond sister LuLu and my big brother Harley. That was fine with me because that yapping terror was giving me a headache. So maybe tomorrow I will get some carrots.....

Touch!

The lady took me back to the new hill because I'm so special and then she brushed me and combed my mane and tail. Then she stared making funny noises. I was trying to check around on the ground and see who else had been there and those funny noises were very distracting. So I stopped and looked at her and then she made another funny noise and gave me a carrot! We did that a bunch of times and every time I looked at her, she made that noise and I got another carrot. Then she got this bright orange pointy rubbery thing and held it in front of my nose. "Touch" she said. I stared at her with both eyes but she didn't give me a carrot. "No, " I said, "Cone" and I pushed it with my nose back at her. Of course, I said it in my head like all us normal ponies do, so she didn't hear me. But it made her super happy and she made that funny noise again and gave me a carrot again! "Touch!" she said and held out the cone again. I pushed it back to her again and sure enough, noise and carrot. We did that a bunch of times. Apparently a "Touch" is a cone that dispenses carrots! This is an excellent thing to know!
The Fjord was looking very Bieberish with his mane getting all long and floppy on his head. (A Bieber is a boy that little girls think is cute.) The Fjord had his mane cut off back when there was still snow on the ground, so it has been growing while the grass was growing. But I guess the lady didn't like the Bieber look, because she cut it off pretty short again. So now it is sticking up straight and looks very majestic. It is better than Bieber!
We got lots of rain and lightening and thunder today. There were even cold hard balls in the rain. We did not like that. There is still rumbling noise coming from the sky, so maybe it will rain again. I think we had enough rain now, so I am ready to go out and look for nice grass.

High expectations

So today my sister LuLu got to go with the lady up to the new hill. Figures. You know, everyone just LOVES the blonde LuLu. Of course, I love her too -- she IS my sister and anyway, we look so much alike, with our cute noses and gorgeous legs. So I guess I should be happy for her getting brushed and curried and lots of carrots and her hooves all done. And anyway, she got a shot, which I already had and she needed. Then when she got back, that Krissy got to go up there. Krissy was all beside herself thinking she was going to get to wear the fuzzy pink halter. Last summer, there were some little girls here and they used to ride Krissy, but she didn't like that very much. But they brought a pink fuzzy halter that the one little girl got at the County Fair, and Krissy just thought she was something else when she got to wear that halter. It was all we heard about for weeks, how she looked so special and how soft it was. But we haven't seen the little girls and Krissy has not had a chance to wear that "special" halter since last year. Today, she had to put on a black leather halter. She looked very nice (for a little gray pony) but she was a little disappointed about that. And then I don't know where she got the idea, but she thought she was going to get glitter on her hooves. She has mentioned it several times. I think she heard the ladies at the barn talking about it. Or maybe she remembers the little girls talking about it last year. No one here at the farm has ever worn glitter on their hooves that I have seen, and if anyone does, of course, it ought to be me. But it wasn't Krissy today. So she was doubly disappointed, even with the carrots and the brushing and the pretty foot trimming. I guess those Vermonters have high expectations.
There was a lot of mowing going on in the fields, with that curly-haired British boy zooming around the pastures on the orange machine dragging the noisy box thing and then there was another big red machine that made noise in the fields by our pasture and knocked the grass over. They did it just about all day. It is a good thing I wasn't trying to sleep.
So tomorrow I am hoping I get to go back into the hill and get more carrots. And brushing. And glitter......

Popular hill

The lady came out to me in the pasture and asked me to come with her. I figured she must have something important or some food for me, so I went along. We walked right up to the side of the new white hill and went right through a green door in the wall. And we walked right inside of the hill! It is bright inside but shady and no bugs. On two sides you can see the sky over the wall, but on the other two sides you can't. When the wind blew a little, the white part shook and made a scary sound, so I thought maybe it was going to try to eat me like it did the metal hoops, but it stayed where it was so I was okay with it. I got a tour and was able to walk all around it. Then I got brushed and even had a pedicure! What fun! When I was tired of it, we left and I ran back out into my pasture to tell everyone all about my big adventure. Two of those tall birds with the long legs and beaks thought I was going to run them over and they flew up out of the pond when they saw me galloping. Of course, now that I have been in the hill, EVERYONE wants to go there. My sister Gypsy went and had her feet done and Toby too -- and four of the horses had to go inside too. It is just the most popular place since I was there.

Rain

It's raining. A lot. It started raining the night before last night and then it rained all day yesterday and it rained all night and now it is raining. We like the rain! The rain is as deep as my hooves now. The creek we have to cross to get to the nice grass in the back pasture is almost as high as my belly. I thought little Belle was going to float away when we crossed it yesterday. When the lady came out in the rain, she was yellow and shiny. But lots of things are shiny in the rain. The little bossy dog did not even make the lady walk around the pond in the rain. Maybe that is because there are no stupid geese there now. The stupid geese flew away just before the rain started. So the grass is growing and we are happy.

Attention

Well, I have NOT been getting any of the attention I deserve. Yesterday morning two guys came driving the little green truck thing (it's called a Mule, but it doesn't look anything like a real mule because it doesn't even have any ears) down the hill toward us and we thought they were going to bring us something nice to eat, but instead they turned around at the bottom of the hill and went away again. There were about a million stupid geese at the bottom of the hill, but they did not run over any of them. Going up the hill, there was smoke coming out the back of the little truck thing and it made funny noises. After a while they came back down and went up again, and after they did that a couple of times, there was no more smoke. Then they came out with the lady and a boy to see us and pet us. The boy said he liked the black ponies. I walked right into the middle of them and they hardly paid any attention to me at all. Then my sister Gypsy came up and the lady kept petting her neck and saying "Gypsy! What happened to your mane?" It is pretty obvious what happened to her mane, -- she stuck her head through the fence to eat grass outside in the part where the fence isn't stinging and she rubbed it all off. It's an ugly mess! I am quite upset, Gypsy cares more about her stomach than her looks and the lady gives her all that attention? Where are their priorities? The lady spent the afternoon making a lot of banging noises and then she fed everyone early and went to a polo match with her lady friends. I have not seen polo, but I have heard about it. The people use horses to chase balls and hit them with sticks. I guess they don't like the balls. The horses wish they were ponies, so they call themselves ponies. But they are not little and cute like us ponies. (Altho the lady said there was a polo pony that had white legs and spots that was really cute, but she is not sure if it is a real pony or not.)
Today there was more banging inside the new white hill and then it stopped. Then later, the British lady came to look at ponies with a pretty girl, but she didn't have a hat to bite and didn't even come to see me! They went to see the foals. Everyone loves the foals.
Now it is finally raining a little bit. We need it to rain a lot. Otherwise our creek will dry up and we will not get any nice grass.

white stuff

So now the lady is putting fences at the ends of the new white hill. I don't know why she is bothering to do that, as there doesn't look to be any grass on that hill at all. The hill is white and when things are white, they are cold and there is no grass. Except when ponies are white, they are not cold. My dad is white and so is little Perl. Actually, we should probably call her chubby Perl, since she is not exactly little. Her real name is La Perlita, so I guess we could call her "dear Perl."
Yesterday, the happy man stopped by and looked at the new white hill and pushed on some shiny things on the sides of it. Then he stopped to talk to the lady and asked about the new foals. He said he saw a gray-colored animal that was bigger than a coyote coming across the field toward the back pasture when he was driving by a few days ago. The lady said she saw an animal a few years back that she thought was a wolf watching the ponies. It is good that those ponies have wire mesh fence to protect them, altho my mom and the other grown-up ponies would fight with anything that wanted to mess with their babies. But they would rather eat grass than fight with a wolf. We don't have wire mesh fence, we have boards (that we like to bust down) that have gaps in between them. But there is skinny orange wire in the gaps, so if you try to put your head through there, it will sting you. We would laugh if a wolf put his head through there and got stung by the wire!
We were expecting rain all week, but we got hardly any. Yesterday the sky got dark and there was wind and it rained for about a minute. That was it. All of us looked like appaloosas because we had dark rain spots on us. We are not going to get any more nice grass at this rate.

wild horses and wind

Today a little girl came to visit the Fjord. She really likes Fjords so she obviously has good taste. But she doesn't normally hang around Fjords, she usually shows horses in ranch classes, so I don't know why she got a thing for the Norse Horse. Fusion was on his best behavior for her and did his fancy stuff and then she rode him around. Then she came to look at the rest of the ponies and she said that I was her favorite. Of course I was! She really does have good taste. She said she liked my sister LuLu second best. I don't know what it is with that blonde mane of hers -- people really like it.
So after the little girl left, we went out back to see if any new grass came up. It got really windy while we were back there, but it didn't rain much, just a little bit, like enough to make your ears wet. The trees were bending over and the leaves were shaking all around and it was noisy like wooshing and then we heard this sound like thunder. We were standing there talking about how my new little brother is turning gray at both ends, so probably he is going to be gray in the middle too, and we look up to see Artie and Fusion galloping like they were being chased by coyotes, (but there were no coyotes.) They looked just like wild mustangs except they had on halters with lead ropes hanging off them. They came barreling down the hill and ran by the pond and then they had to stop because they got to the pasture with my mom and Aunt Taca and Haylie and the foals. Artie looked all worried and kept his tail up in the air, but Fusion just started eating grass. Then we saw the lady come walking down the hill. She said some things to Artie and Fusion that implied that she did not think much of their intellect and that their mothers were apparently dogs. I do not believe that part about their mothers being dogs. But that other part might be true. The lady picked up the lead ropes and made them walk far apart from each other as they left to walk back up the hill. Artie was still all stirred up and tried to pull away a couple of times, but the lady held on to the lead rope, so he stayed with her. Horses are so funny! It was just wind.
I think the lady is done digging holes, so she should put the flat loud thing behind her orange machine and knock down these weeds. Some of them have pretty flowers, but most of them are just in the way of the nice grass. I am hoping that tomorrow I get to go into the barn to see the blue shiny stuff that is on the ground. The lady had a lot of square red rocks on her truck and she was putting them on the ground on the middle of the barn and now there is shiny blue stuff on top of them. I'll bet I wouldn't even be scared of the blue stuff. Much.

Goose and terror excitement

So today it was hot and we were not in a very good mood because those stupid geese were back. They almost all left a few days ago and there were only two of them by the pond, but today there were a ton of them again. And here came that little bossy dog with the funny bark, taking the lady for a walk. She had her on a lead line and was walking back toward the pond. There are actually three dogs and the lady calls them terrors. There is a taller one that is almost all white with a brown head and he is very noisy. He was not on the walk because he was too busy barking at us ponies. He jumps around and sometimes tries to bite our heels. He is really annoying. The bossy dog usually has the lady on a lead. Sometimes she comes out by herself, but then she doesn't pay attention to anything except the pretty cat. She runs into the barn really fast and tries to catch the cat and kill it. Us ponies don't really have strong feelings about the cat one way or the other, but it is always a friendly cat and makes nice purring sounds, so we don't think the terror should kill it. But today the terror had the lady on the lead line, so it was busy making her walk back to the pond. There is a third dog that is short and spotty, like a brown and white pinto. He seems kind of dumb. He looks confused most of the time and wanders around dazed. The first time we saw him, he came trotting into our pasture and didn't even seem to notice that there were these giant legs that could crush him into oblivion. We don't often get to stomp on a terror, so we ran up to him and he just stopped and looked at all us ponies standing around him. Then my sister Gypsy stuck her foot out and he yelped and started running, but he didn't even know how to get away from us. I think Gypsy did kick him then and then he ran under the fence. So now he is smarter about staying out of our pasture, but he still looks clueless. Anyway, he was bringing up the rear of the walk, and acting like he wasn't sure if he should go along or stay behind. He would walk a little bit on his stubby little legs, then he would sit down and then he would jump up and run after them as fast as he could go. When they got down to the pond, the stupid geese were all honking around and some were waddling and they went into parts of the pond and floated around. The bossy dog took the lady around the far side of the pond and kept looking in the water at the swimming geese. There was a goose that was sitting on the ground and it had it's beak resting in the dirt, so the lady walked over to it. She pawed it with her foot and the goose fell over and had it's feet sticking up in the air. She asked the short pinto dog why there was a dead goose by the pond and he looked even more confused. I think he was worried that she thought he killed the goose or maybe that he was supposed to have killed the goose and didn't. He was a little worried about it either way. That other bossy terror never even saw the dead goose and made the lady keep walking the rest of the way around the pond. She was thinking she would like to kill geese, but couldn't figure out how to get through all that water to get at them.
After the goose and terror excitement, it finally started to rain. It has smelled like rain for days, and it got here this afternoon. We need more nice grass. And the bugs are afraid of the rain, so they are all hiding which is good for us!

Popular ponies

This morning, there was a really smart man here. He wanted to take my picture because he heard about my blog and how wonderful and glamorous I am. Every pony he saw, he'd say "Is that Tinkerbelle?" When he saw my dad, he said "Is this Tinkerbelle?" Now, my dad is bright and shiny and maybe even a little sparkly, but he does not appreciate being referred to as a fairy. "No, the lady said, "That's Bob. Tink's dad." When they came out to take the picture, the lady told him I was me and he turned to Krissy and said "Hold still Tinkerbelle, I want to take your picture!" Then he thought DD was me. And he said he REALLY liked LuLu, my blonde little sister. I was starting to get annoyed with him. I know we are a lot of ponies, but I am far more glamorous than the rest of them. I finally gave up posing for the picture and just left. So he went to take some pics of my little brother. He said something about baby ponies being popular for pictures. Popular my pony butt...

new hill

So the happy man showed up in the morning and then more men came too. Then the lady came by in the little green truck thing and they gave her some gloves and they all went over to the metal hoops and grabbed ropes that were hanging off the sides. They started pulling on the ropes and the white stuff that was laying on the ground on the other side of the hoops started climbing up the wall! It climbed right over the little fence and up the hoops. Then some of it stopped and was all bunched up, but one of the men got a board and poked it and then it behaved and started climbing back up again. It climbed right up to the top and then slid right down toward us! It wasn't noisy or jumping around or anything, so we were very brave and stood and watched it. Next thing we knew, the metal hoops were gone and there was a giant white hill there that, obviously, ate the hoops. All the men were happy and they left the main happy man to stick straps in metal things with handles that he pulled up and down. Then the happy man left too. And now we have a new white hill next to our pasture.

weeds away

So now the "green house" has these metal ropes or vines hanging down in it, like the happy man is going to start swinging from them or something. The lady asked him if he was making a set for Spiderman, which he thought was funny. Then he laid out some white stuff, like a tarp next to the posts. He told us that it is going to be exciting for us to see if the wind is blowing when he comes back with his friends.
The lady was mowing weeds in the bay bunch's field with the orange machine. She always wears a hat now that she got her mane roached. She used to pull her hair back and called it a pony tail, but it was on her head, not her butt. Now it is too short to do that. I don't know how that hat stayed on, because all our forelocks were blowing in our eyes and all over the place.
The air smelled like rain, but it didn't rain. Our pasture is dusty. We would like some rain so the grass starts growing again. The only thing growing now is weeds and we don't like weeds.

Shocking!

Our gate is shocking! The big metal gate into our pasture stings like a bee when you touch it. The lady opened the gate for Billy yesterday and she kept saying bad words and then she even stung Billy when she touched him. She was looking all over the gate and the posts to see where the mean electricity was coming from. I don't think she figured it out. She went over to the barn and made the box there quiet, but I am not sure what that means.
Billy got to go out and jump over stuff in the big arena. When he came back, he told us that there was another lady there making a movie of him. Billy is handsome, but of course, if there are movies to be made, I should be starring in them. I hope I get to be in the next movie. Maybe she was just practicing on Billy. She had Fusion the Fjord jumping stuff too. He likes to jump stuff, but I saw him try to eat the fancy flowers that were on the one jump.
The big hoop things are still out there. We are hoping the happy man comes back to climb around on them today. I don't know what he is doing, but he is more interesting to watch than those stupid geese.

green houses

The happy man was back doing even more weird stuff with the new little fences. He has these gigantic metal hoops on the ground and he hoisted one way up in the air and stuck it on top of the little fences. Then he put more of them up there. I asked the other ponies what they thought it was and no one has a clue, except that Krissy. You know, the rest of us were born here on the farm, but Krissy, she's from Vermont. She says that when she was in Vermont, she saw a thing made out of hoops like that and they called it a green house. Well, that is just stupid. Everyone knows that grass is green and this thing doesn't look anything like grass. It is shiny and metal. And what kind of house could it be anyway? We have a bluebird house on a post near our field and bluebirds made a nest in it. This metal thing is way too big to make a nest in. We tried to tell Krissy that she doesn't know what she is talking about, but you know those Vermonters -- really stubborn. At any rate, we are excited to see what happens next.

Fiesta time

So all us ponies came over to watch the happy man dig the holes, but there were no more holes. Instead of holes, there were big posts sticking up out of the ground, that he cut off with a loud machine. Then he made them flat all along the top with boards, instead of the normal way of making fence so that we could go out there and eat grass. We don't have any idea what he is doing. So while we were watching, who comes along but that so-called fancy "Fiesta" filly, who is only a year old and lives next door in the rustic paddock. I think she is trying to take my place as the most glamorous pony. She was strutting around over there with her little Elf friend, all "Look at me!" and trotting back and forth and acting like her spots make her better than everyone else. Well, let me tell you, no one cares about big white spots on ponies. They are just hard to keep clean. And anyway, her mane is all in her eyes and flying everywhere. So there. Just because she is young and silly isn't going to make her glamorous. Right?

holes and hopping

So yesterday this man showed up and was digging holes where the lady had been digging them. He seemed a lot happier with the hole digging than she was when she started them. He put posts in the holes and stuck other boards to the sides of them. I heard the lady tell him that she needed a place to work with the ponies. Isn't that the silliest thing you have ever heard? First of all ponies don't work. Ponies are here to bring joy to the world. We eat nice grass, chase each other, jump over ditches and creeks and get people to scratch us. Or we scratch each other. But we don't work. And even if we did decide to work, why would we want the lady doing it with us? I guess she could bring us food if we got hungry. She seems to have an inflated sense of self-importance. Anyway, she was riding Artie and he was having fun! She ran him at obstacles in the arena and he had to hop over them so he didn't knock them down. You could see that he thought she was nuts or blind when she started it, but then he was sailing over them just like they were creeks! They both were having fun. In the afternoon, the lady came out to stick a needle in some of us. That hurts! I walked right up to her because I'm not afraid to needles, but she didn't want to stick one in me. She gave me a carrot. She wanted to catch my little sister LuLu, but LuLu wasn't sure what she was up to and kept walking away. She never did get stuck with that needle, so I guess that was pretty smart, especially since Lu is a blonde, with a flaxen mane. Today it is cool and there are hardly any bugs. Now if we could just get those stupid geese to go away too!

Banner day for ponies!

Well, TODAY was exciting! First there were the stupid geese. The stupid geese were everywhere. They are noisy and poop on our grass. There were about a million of them, but then most of them left, so there were only about 20. That is still too many geese. And we got to go into a new pasture that didn't have any geese in it, which was much fun! The weather was cool, so the ear bugs were not as mean as usually, so we stayed out in the grass all day! From the new pasture, we could see my mom and baby brother and then Haylie, one of Mom's friends, came out and had a new baby running next to her! The lady came out and took pictures of the new baby and of my brother and then she came over to take pictures of us too. I knew she would want to get "glamour shots" of me, so I was posing, but she kept trying to take pics of my big brother Harley. Harley didn't want his picture taken, so he would go into the clumps of ponies and hide. The other ponies knew that I was the one who should have her picture taken, so they helped me out by standing in front of Harley or butting in in the middle of the photo. It was grand! I think she got some good pictures of me!

barn visit

Today was very exciting. Toby and I were specially picked out to go up to the barn! This is because we are both incredibly beautiful and was NOT because we were standing closest to the gate. At the barn, everyone there commented on how pretty my coat is and what a lovely pony I am. I got curried and brushed and had my mane and tail combed out and got the long hairs on my legs and under my chin trimmed. I would have had a pedicure too, if I hadn't just gotten one two weeks ago. There was a lot of splashing noise from buckets being washed but I was hardly scared at all. I don't know what Toby did, because he went up to the barn after I got back. All the other ponies were really jealous of me. And I got carrots too! It was a great day!

boring

Okay, so today was so boring we could hardly stand it. And you know, it is not like us ponies don't think a lot of stuff is interesting. Like yesterday, after the Fjord went by and we were still all excited about him, then we had a fox run through our pasture. THAT was fun! He stopped, he looked at us and then he trotted and then he stopped again! Wow! We even thought maybe one of us should go out of the shed to follow him, but he ran off before we could decide who was going to have to go out. But today, there was no fox. No Fjord. No nothing. Even the bugs were bored. We were so bored we were watching what the lady was doing. She did not take any of us out to get brushed or put a saddle on us or climb on top of us. She got on the big orange machine and made it back up and then she drilled holes in the ground. I don' t think she liked the holes because she didn't look happy. In the morning, she seemed like she was waiting for something, you know how when you are hungry and you know someone is going to show up with some hay or to open a gate to let you out to eat grass? That was how she looked. She opened the driveway gate and then she stayed in the yard near the gate, cutting branches off trees. And she kept checking the gate, like she thought it was scary or going to have a carrot. After a while, she closed the gate and started to dig the holes. They look like pretty big holes. I don't think there are any groundhogs living in them tho. So that was it. Nothing but holes today. Boring.....

hunk Fjord

So I spent almost ALL DAY in the shed. It was muggy and buggy all day. First it rained and was muggy, then it was cloudy and muggy and then it was sunny and muggy. Good thing the bugs don't come in the shed too. I don't know why, there is certainly plenty of room for them to get in, you know, like whole horses fit in through the opening in the front, but the gnats don't come in. We ponies don't think about why too much, we are just happy that the bugs are not in there with us. So it was pretty boring, let me tell you, standing around watching the bugs, and then here came the NORSE Horse! He didn't come in the shed, of course, because he was being ridden so he was outside the pasture and he had on a fancy fly mask and smelled like bug spray. He is SO gorgeous, all of us girls, we just started jostling around and wanted to run over to the fence and yell to him, except that there were all those bugs out there. He has this mohawk mane with a black stripe down the middle and it stands straight up like four inches and he is blond all over -- and built -- man, -- he has muscles everywhere. He is one hunk of pony. Last year, when he first got to the farm, he came to live with us in the pasture. He is size-wise a pony -- 14 hands, but we call him the Norse Horse anyway, which makes him all proud. Anyway, he chased and bit the boy ponies and made them stay far away from us girls and we were all gathered around him while he strutted and acted all macho. But then the lady came to get him to ride him and he made nasty faces at her and turned his butt toward her and cocked a hind leg at her. You should have seen her -- she got really mad at him. Then he wouldn't go with her when she tried to lead him away from us, which made her even more mad. So after that he had to move out of our pasture and now he lives with a horse gelding named Artie. He and Artie get along fine and Artie is his boss. But us girls wish he could behave himself and move back in with us. That mane is so you know, just wow.

Bugs

Bugs! bugs! bugs everywhere! Every time we try to go out, the bugs are in our ears and pinging off our noses. Gnats -- or rather Adirondack black flies -- I think we must have so many because of the stream that runs through our pasture. I heard that they like running water. We get stuff in our ears to keep them away, but it only works for a little while and then the bugs come back. I hate the bugs! It has been wet all spring and it is really humid now, so I think that contributes to them too. This evening, the horse youngsters were going into the barn and right after they had their fly masks removed, Mak was nosing around a little rake and it fell over in the aisle and scared the daylights out of him. (I told you about horses, didn't I?) So he and Ferris went careening out of the barn and galloped all around. By the time the lady caught up with them, they had so many bugs around their heads, you could hardly see their faces. They were really upset about it. It is never good to get hot and sweaty and run around when the bugs are out. It just makes them worse.
Did I tell you about my baby brother? He was foaled last week. He is cute, but my mom, Tudi says never to tell anyone about a new baby. I said Why? and she said Coyotes. I have seen some coyotes around but they have not bothered us. Probably because we are bigger than them and there are a lot of us. Billy and Harley and Toby would be mad if a coyote came in and tried to bite us. And I think a coyote would have to be nuts to want to mess with MY mom and Aunt Taca and Haylie. And usually my dad is out with them too and he hates canines, but he is up at the barn. He is good at watching out for his mares and babies -- everyone knows that stallions are in charge of security.
Well, I am going back to our luxurious shed and waiting for these nasty bugs to go to sleep. I hate these bugs!

Ponies!!!!

Okay, so the ponies. I need to tell you about the ponies. First, I should say that there are ponies and horses both here at the farm. In case you don't know the difference between horses and ponies, ponies are smart and gorgeous and cute and hardy and handy and friendly, while horses are big doofuses. Well, no, that's not fair. Some horses are not all that big. And actually, some of my pasture-mates (and even my brother) are part horse. So I guess horses can't be all that bad. Anyway, I live with 12 other ponies. I am related to most of the ponies, because we have the same dad. His name is Bob. But my brother Harley's dad is a big horse named Lafleur. He is an old horse and lives in the pasture next to us. He is always keeping an eye on us, and if he hears any commotion, he comes trotting over to the fence with his tail all up and pawing and acting like a hot shot, wanting to know what the deal is. He feels he has to keep his mares and baby safe. Of course, there is not usually much commotion in our pasture, because we all get along pretty well. Billy thinks he is in charge of the bunch. Billy's mom is "Aunt" Taca, who lives with my dad Bob and my mom. Billy looks just like a horse, even tho he is a pony. His dad is Tustin's Bandoleer, who was the Grand Champion at Devon some years back. But Billy doesn't brag about it or anything. He is bossy tho, and sometimes he tries to tell the rest of us what to do. He is BFF with my brother Harley, cause they were just born a couple of days apart and they grew up together.
Well, it looks like hay is arriving, so I have to go. More later....

Welcome!!!!

You can probably already tell just by looking at my pic why I m getting to do this blog. I am the most glamorous pony here on the farm. I mean Really, am I star quality or what? And I am in the know when it comes to stuff going on around here. Not that I get out all that much, but I hear things and you know, the others like to confide in me because of the "glamor" factor. So there, now you know why I am in charge of this. So let me introduce myself. I'm a gorgeous roany pony, I started out bay like my Mom, her name is Toodle Lou, but the lady calls her Tudi. Tudi is reputed to be of British descent, with her ancestors hailing from the moors of Devon, (the one in England, not the one in Pennsylvania that has horse shows) but no one knows that for sure. My Dad is Welsh, so also a Britainer. Me, I'm an American pony. One time there was a British lady here, talking funny and I bit her hat. She was really surprised! Anyway, I used to live with my Mom and Dad and Aunt Taca and her foal, but then I moved up to live with the other ponies. We are a real gang and we don't need any adult supervision. We have a big pasture and a big shed and a creek. And some trees, but the only time we like that one tree is when it gets some apples on it. There are 13 of us ponies in the gang so I'll be telling you more about the others soon. For now, I have to see if this rain made any nice grass grow.