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.