New Sheds

The noisy man with the little buzzy loud machines has been back here hanging out with us and making a racket.  Sometimes he brings another man and sometimes he just climbs up and down by himself. He brings a blue truck but no carrots or anything that is good for a pony to eat.  He was dragging flat tree parts around by our log circle and when he was done, there was a big box that we could stand inside.  LaPerlita went and stood inside it but us other ponies were suspicious and we kept standing in the trees.  Now he is doing it all over again but a little further from our log circle.  And LaPerlita got sick so the lady took her away.  Sometimes ponies go away  and then they stay at the barn for a while and then they come back. A couple of days ago, the lady brought some other ladies and some girls to visit us.  It was great!  They all hugged us alot and petted us and told us how beautiful we are.  But there were no carrots.  If there had been carrots, me and Gypsy would have had to chase the other ponies away from the girls and the ladies so that we could eat them all. The hugs were nice, but they were not worth chasing anyone around for them.  And there were enough hugs to go around anyway.

            

Riding ponies

A couple of days ago, the lady came back to see us and she put the strappy thing around my head and I walked with her the whole way past my dad Bob's pasture and up the hill by where those big horses live.  We didn't see the big horses but their entire pasture was white.

The lady said the little daisy-like flowers covering it are called camo-meal and they smell really nice.  So we went to the barn she put a real saddle on my back -- not the brown lumpy thing that is so light you can hardly feel it -- but the kind made out of cows. (I don't know if this is a myth, but it is what I heard.  It does not look like a cow.)  Then she put a thing with straps around my  head but no metal part in my mouth and it had straps to where she could hold on after she sat on top of me.  We went out to the big arena and I got to walk around out there where there are white sticks on the ground.  The lady sat on my back and pulled my head this way and that.  Then a different lady showed up and she was really pretty.  She was my size and had on fancy boots.  But she didn't have any carrots, so it is hard to determine how nice she is. I walked around the arena while the ladies talked and then I got to go back to my pasture with both of the ladies escorting me.  I was VERY important. Then the ladies took my mom, Tudi, up to the barn and put the saddle on her too.  Billy was in the barn and when my mom Tudi saw him, Wow, she was blown away with how incredibly handsome he was looking.  I mean, like she didn't want to leave his side. She just stood by his stall, swooning and saying "Take me now!"  The ladies did not appreciate Tudi's adoration of Billy -- they thought she should go outside and pretend to be a riding pony, like she learned to do a long time ago, before she was my mom.  Our regular lady got on Tudi's back and they were walking around in the yard, but every time Billy would call out to her, she would stop.  She was not shy in showing her affection for Billy, which frankly would be a bit embarrassing depending on where you were.  So then the lady said she is going to need more practice at being a riding pony and then she had to stay in the barn for a little while.  We both got some carrots, but all in all, it was not an overly carrot-heavy day.             

hard work

The lady has been showing up back here pretty much and it is almost at the point where it is getting annoying.  Sometimes she brings some other lady or another along with her and then those ladies give us carrots too, but not enough.  The other ladies brush us or hold the rope that attaches to the straps on our heads and one of the ladies pointed a little black box at us while we trotted around in the log circle.  Mostly tho, our personal lady comes back by herself and she gets the brown lumpy thing and puts it on top of some of us and then she sits on top of us.  She does it to Gypsy and my mom Tudi and to me and she puts it on top of Sienna, but she doesn't sit on Sienna.  Then we walk around and if we hear a click, we get a carrot.  We have to wear the metal thing in our mouths so that we are fashionable which I didn't like so much, but the lady puts brown sticky stuff on it and then it tastes pretty good.  Today,  I was turning  my head away because I didn't want to put the metal thing in my mouth and my little sister Elfe came up and she tried to take it in her mouth.  Can you imagine!  Who does she think she is?  She has not even had the lumpy thing on her back!  So I laid back my ears at her and I took the metal thing for myself.  The part where the lady sits on me is getting more annoying tho.  Now she puts her legs against my sides and then the metal thing pulls on  my mouth and when I try to yank it back, it doesn't move AT ALL and then I have to turn my head.  Then she makes funny noises and squeezes on my sides and says TROT so I have to go faster and she jiggles around up there.  So then I want to stop, but she doesn't want me to stop.   And she makes me turn my head when I want to go in other directions.  It is VERY complicated and I don't get nearly enough carrots and grain for all the work I am doing.  Today I started jumping around, but she didn't seem to like that either.  I know Gypsy has the same issues.  And Gypsy even did this stuff back a long time ago when she was a younger pony.  But she doesn't remember, or at least she says she doesn't remember.  Harley says it is really easy and he wants to do it instead of us, but the lady just ignores him.  She says we have to learn this stuff so that little girls can ride us.  I think little girls would just want to pet me and brush me and make me beautiful and give me carrots.  I hope this lady knows what she is talking about.       

One trick pony gone

    The lady comes back to see us with weird stuff just about every day.  She has that lumpy brown thing and stuff she spritzes at us -- on our bellies and chests and ears.  She puts the strap thing on our heads and then she makes us go back and forth or sideways.  Fortunately, there are lots of carrots involved, so almost everyone wants to get in on the fun.  She had to fix the gate that Siena knocked down so that we can go in the circle of logs by ourselves and not be bothered by Harley.  He is the one who mostly barges in on everyone else's carrot time. She has been sitting on top of us too, either with the lumpy thing or without, and then she brought out a strap thing with metal parts and she put it in some of the ponies' mouths!  Gypsy had to take it in her mouth a couple of times and then when she didn't care any more, the lady sat on her back and Gypsy walked around.  Today she put the metal thing in my mouth too.  It was really weird and I didn't like it at all.  But then the lady told me that if I want to be fashionable, I have to wear it in my mouth.  She said the little girls who ride ponies usually want ponies who have metal things in their mouths.  I can hardly believe that, but what can I say?  I am a slave to fashion and if the metal thing makes me glamorous, I certainly can't let any of those other ponies go around being more entrancing than me. It is hard to eat carrots with it in my mouth tho, so I am not sure that I like that part at all.  It is tough to be a diva.
     The lady says that she is going to need a new trick pony now that the hunk Fusion left with the lady with the pretty hair.   I do not think I am going to get that trick pony job. Just about all of us ponies know  how to give kisses and a few other tricks, but Harley and Krissy know the most tricks.  They are the pushiest ponies and they work the hardest at doing them.  Krissy is really short, so her options  are limited as far as riding goes, she would have to give rides to little bitty kids and Krissy isn't really receptive to that idea. So her other jobs could be pulling a pony cart or the trick gig.  She has already mastered a fun Lipizzaner levade trick that almost makes her look tall.  The lady is probably afraid to teach Harley that trick since he almost took her knee off after he learned the "shake hands" trick and kept offering his hoof every time he saw her.  It would be intimidating to see his hooves at eye level every time she turned around.
   So we will see what fun and carrots tomorrow brings.            

exciting day

Well, the lady has been coming back to visit us a whole lot more than she did when there was white stuff on the ground, and quite frankly, if it wasn't for the carrots, I think it would be annoying. Fortunately, there are a bunch of us ponies and since she generally only plays with one at a time, some ponies can avoid being messed with altogether.  So yesterday she sat on my back and we walked around in the circle of logs.  It was fine but I am not sure she knows what she is doing.  I was trying to go in one direction or stop and look at stuff on the ground, and she would turn my head or squeeze my side with her legs and then at arbitrary times, for no reason at all, she'd make a funny noise and give me a carrot.  I hope I can get her trained soon.  She did that stuff with Gypsy and Billy too.  So then today, she came back with a long wiggly black stick and took a couple of us ponies in the circle of logs and shook the stick sometimes and made sounds.  She took Gypsy in first and then Gypsy didn't want to come out, so I got to go in with Gypsy, but we mostly just ignored Gypsy and I got lots more carrots than Gypsy did.  So after we walked and trotted and whoa-d then she got Sienna and she made us get out.  Sienna has never done any of that stuff before. She didn't like the circle of logs right from the git-go and kept walking back over to the gate.  The lady gave her carrots but Sienna was just bent about the whole "stuck inside the logs" situation. So she went a little way along the circle and then she pivoted and trotted over to the gate and jumped over it.  The gate is made of pieces of big logs that are flat on both sides and it is as high as a pony's chin so it was a pretty big leap.  She knocked half of the gate over and pulled it down.So then she was really happy and came galloping to us, so we all ran way off into the pasture to celebrate her freedom.  What fun!   Sienna still has the straps on her head, but the lady looked at the gate and then she left.  I hope she comes back to give us more carrots and make more excitement!                    

Grass at last

FINALLY we are starting to get some nice green grass growing.  We have been waiting forever for it. The lady still brings us hay and we eat some of it, but there is nice grass growing in the fields too.  We are hoping no more of that white stuff falls from the sky and covers over the nice grass.  Some of the ponies still have their white fuzzy winter coats, so they are ready if the white stuff comes back.  Most of my fuzzy hair fell out.  The lady comes back and scratches our backs with a shiny metal thing and that makes our hair fall out.  She brought another lady with her too and the other lady had carrots in her pockets, so we liked her a lot.  She held on to a rope that was attached to the straps that the lady puts on our heads and then she gave us carrots while our regular lady cut pieces off our feet.

   Today, our regular lady came back with hard white square things that taste good and put them on the ground.  We had those before, but they went away, so we were excited to get new ones that we bit and licked.  Then the lady put the big lumpy thing on some of our backs.  She had the thing on my back and took me into the log circle pen and she sat on my back.  I got lots of carrots and I hardly had to do anything at all.  Then she sat on Haylie and gave her carrots, but she didn't have the brown lumpy thing or any straps on her. Then the sky got really dark and it sounded like a whole herd of ponies was running at us from the sky.  So the lady left and then we got wet.  But it was fun for a while and we still have the white square things, so it was a very exciting day.  And we have GRASS!    
  

Yearling Weaning

We are still hanging out here in fetlock deep wet ground and water, waiting for the grass to grow.  It is dark and windy.  The lady came back to my dad Bob's pasture and took him up to the barn.  Then she came back and took that big gray mare Mixta and Cracker Jack (CJ) up to the barn too. Taca and her baby from last year, Peaches' Brother, (PB) were not happy that the others left them, so they were happy to go with the lady when she took them up to the barn as well.  CJ and PB were very excited to go on a big excursion and walk up the hill by those big horses.  They had their tails all up and were prancing and full of themselves.  In the barn, they went in stalls that had hay inside, but when Taca and PB got to their stall, they went in and the lady brought Taca right back out and took her back to the pasture. So PB was left in the stall with CJ and his mom next door and Bob across the aisle. But then she took Mixta and then Bob back out to the pasture too.  So now CJ and PB are stuck in the stalls with the hay.  They are kind of upset about it,  but you know, my dad Bob was getting annoyed with those boys back in his pasture anyway. He would chase them and bite them and they hardly even did anything except the typical rambunctious boy pony stuff.  But Bob has his hooves full, with us ponies in the field behind him to keep an eye on and then there are some new stupid geese who have decided to move into his pasture because of the new pond that is there.  The new geese were chased out of the big pond by the old nesting geese, so they have come barging into Bob's field.  Of course, there won't be any pond in there if this rain ever stops.  But until then, Bob has to keep chasing the flapping geese around.  At any rate, the two yearlings are yelling a little bit and so it is a little noisy because other horses and ponies have to answer them.  Taca isn't yelling about her yearling being gone, Taca is pretty philosophical about it, and just figures it is time to move on. Taca is pretty chubby, so she is probably going to have another baby and would just as soon not have last year's kid hanging around. (If Taca has a filly, I think the lady is going to have to name her Peaches' Brother's Sister or PBS.)  Mixta isn't going to have a baby tho, so she is sad that her baby is gone.  Now the yearlings are going to learn manners and wear halters on their heads and be grown up ponies.