For kicks

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

innocent ponies

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

Fall fashion

My new do

burdocks

weeds w/burrs

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