Who has four hooves and rides in the dark? Bugsy!

Hello Bugsy-fans!! How are you? I am amazing. I went pony riding with Aunt-E and Mr Ike on Sunday, who is a very grown up good endurance pony home to visit from Utah. He arrived in a pony trailer right at my house cos something needed fixing, and he drank my water! Sneaky pony. I wasn't sure about going in the pony trailer but I did, and we went to somewhere called Jackson State Forest. There are really big trees there. I waited kinda sorta patiently to pony ride while Mr Ike got his saddle on.

C'mon Let's Go

Peekaboo

 We set off and I was feeling quite springy and full of myself. The first bit of ride was normal walking and relaxing and showing how good I am. There are some REALLY big trees there.

Mr Ike, Me, and Me again

Next up was the first challenge (since I aced the 'be-a-tripod-photo-pony task). I had to cross the creek. I didn't want to so Aunt-E took my rope and I followed Mr Ike to get in, then went by myself to go across. Yay! There was another creek later and I went on my rope right away but this time Aunt-E didn't do anything except hold it, I just followed in and even had a drink.

Splish Splash

Getting amazing at trottings

The people had to choose between the scary slippy rock trail or the really tough hill, and they picked the really tough hill. Aunt-E took more pictures on the way of me doing my trottings, I'm getting super good at it. I only needed one break on the really tough hill, which was amazing and I didn't even plod it cos my butt muscles are getting big and powerful. No pictures though cos people were concentrating on making sure we went up really good.



After a bit more further, we decided to do more trottings, and Aunt-E asked if I knew how to do canter. I don't really, but Mr Ike was in front, and he did canter and Cyd did the boomp-boomp with her feet and made my go faster noise and I did so good at canter! We took a break when I got tired (canter is tiring-out for noobs like me). Then we went again and it's so much fun. We found some grasses for snacking on to take a break and the people realised it was getting quite late. See, the sun is already going down, uh-ohs spaghetti-os.

We had to get back to our pony trailer, but we were only half ways done with our adventure. Time for me to practice more canter! This time I went in front, and Aunt-E took our butts-picture of me flying up the hill.

Wheeeee Canter Is Fun

There was a long bit of down, not steep but too much for still-growing legs to practice trottings, and it got a bit dark. Cyd told Aunt-E she wanted to do a night ride this year, but didn't expect it to be so soon, especially with baby pony. We stopped at the creek for drinkies like I said, cos I was thirsty from learning canter. Then we had to go over a bridge. I did great, waggled my ears at the funny noise my feets made, but didn't get scared or act silly. Mr Ike did a spook. Ha! I'm the grown up. But then I did a spook for no reason (Cyd could have almost falled down cos she gets lax in her concentratings with me being so good). It was starting to get really dark, especially on the trail under the trees. Me and Mr Ike could kinda see, but not Cyd and Aunt-E. They were both a bit nervous, especially when I did a little trip cos I didn't see the rut on the trail. Cyd tells me where to put my feet cos I'm not so smart but she couldn't see it. D'oh. We even did trottings in the dark. Me and Cyd went in front cos we're the bravest. The people did singing so the bears knew we were coming and the mountain lions knew that we were not snacks. Sometimes the people hit branches, and sometimes us ponies tripped a little cos under the trees there wasn't any light at all, just black.

It took a while to get back to the trailer but we made it, and Aunt-E drove us all home. Mr Ike stayed where my friends live cos it was still an hour to his temporary house, and he already went on a three hour trailer ride before our pony ride.

I did so many new things today, and every one was super proud of me. Next things for me to learn are riding in groups of ponies and riding with puppies. So exciting! Here's my stats, though we went a bit farther cos Cyd's battery died before we got to the pony trailer (she used it to track her stats on a 9 mile run earlier and forgot to charge). Look how fast I went!

Vroooom!

No pony riding for me today as planned. I was apparently 'not in the right frame of mind'. I totally was, I was ready to play, and was just showing Cyd how ready I was. Instead we did playing and I got a good brushing - she said I was a dirty hairy beast:

Pretty gross, huh?

Still hairy, but shiny now :) Tired out from brushing

My hairs blend like camouflage but there's tons of it!

I did help clean the poop really good..

And this is why we didn't do pony riding... Wheeeeeee!!!!!!

Troubles and Cuddles

I am in Troubles. OheMGee I hate being in Troubles. I didn't really want to go pony riding today, but Cyd did. I started off by being super gross but that didn't work - she just brushed me. D'oh. So I let her saddle me up. I walked pretty politely to my trails, which should have been an indicator, usually I do rushing to get there super fast cos come ON let's GO!!! I was not super good at lining up by the tree for the gettings on, but I did it. Once she was up I did my grumpy march which I usually reserve fo
r when we're on our way home and I'm tired and want to do snacking and get told what to do instead. We went a really short ways and I did stopping. Cyd gave me the boomp boomp with her feet and I still did stopping. She made my go faster noise and I still did stopping. She did the go faster noise and the boomp boomp doubly and at the same time and I *still* did stopping. Grr. She got off, and I still did stopping. We did my things for unsticking. Still stopping. Eventually got going. Then more stopping. So Cyd got back on. I walked a bit more. Then did stopping. Then Cyd decided this was not going to be a fun day. We finally agreed to go forward a bit then she told me to do stopping. Turned me around. Time to go home. I did stopping. What?! Silly pony that I am. Just can't decide. Eventually we got home (but not til after Cyd had to get off and unstick me again). She rode me all the way home on the road. We got home and she didn't tell me to turn to my house. She said "Keep going, Bugsy, you don't get to be the winner". So we went down the road past my house a little ways and she made me do stopping. I had to wait for a truck to come past (it splashed me!) then we got to go home. But still she didn't get off me. There's puddles outside my house where Cyd parks her car, and I had to walk through each single every one! I did it, not very good, but I did. We walked to my gate. She still didn't get off. It's kinda a fiddly gate with the wiggling and the holding up of the garage-door-fence and the wobbly post (much safer and securer than it sounds, no worries). D'oh, Cyd had not shut it properly, just pulled it to behind us cos for me doing snacking to close to the road and she had to come get me and forgot to go back and close it all the way - don't worry my neighbour ponies are safe behind their own gates so they wouldn't have escaped. They probably wouldn't escape anyways, they are good ponies. So anyways, instead of getting off me, she leaned over and pushed the gate from my back. Then we had to walk through, and go catch it on the other side. Then we had to turn abouts, and push it
closed the other way. The  Cyd got off to close it properly with the latch which is not really doable on a even a good grown up gate keeper pony cos she needs both her hands, and a shoulder, and a knee. Trickiness. Once I had my saddle taken off she took me to do rolling, but I didn't want to today. Cyd sat in the wet grass and we just did hanging out for a long time until she got cold. We did 'Bugsy gets scratches' and 'Cyd gets nuzzled' and 'Who can breathe the loudest in the other's face' and 'Who can do the best head bomps' which technically I can totally win but obviously nobody wants to get hurted. So even though it wasn't a great trail adventure like planned, we did some good stuff and got to do hanging out so I'm not in totally Troubles. Here's my mini-stats, don't laugh at them, k?

Piss & Vinegar

Hey everybodies! How are you? Hopefully much drier today :) I hated the rain, and spent most of my time in my house. It's a bit rainy in there too, but not like outside. It stopped yesterday and Cyd came to clean me cos I was gross for not being brushed in like six days. Ew!

Today was pony riding day (maybe my only pony riding day this week cos for more raining coming). Cyd says it's not helpful that I'm not ready for too much yet, cos today I was full of stuff called piss and vinegars. It means I was doing my bouncing all over the place, and super dooper happy to be out. Troubles is, it was super slippery on my trails cos for not being dry yet. I did skidding a lot which is kinda fun but also kinda wobbly and chances of hurting me. There was also a lot of puddles which is not good for me cos I don't like them so Cyd makes me go to them instead of going home.

My nemesis!

We played here for a little while and I had some carrot snacks and learned to be brave, then it was time for Cyd to get on my back again and off we go! I did a little bit of trotting practice where the ground wasn't spiky or too slidey, even though I didn't worry about either of those things. Cyd is such a pansy "No Bugsy, walk here, you'll fall down". "No Bugsy, there are rocks and you'll be complaining about owie feet later" "Easy Bugsy, walk when it's slippery". Always telling me what to do like she's the boss of me. It doesn't look so good in the picture, but this trail was suddenly super green from all the rains.

I also had tons of fun on my twisty trail, although Cyd said it was dark and scary in there today and it's lucky I was there to protect her. It smelled kinda funny today, and everything looked different cos for being wet.

These are blurry cos for doing trottings

We went up up up and did some extra trottings when it wasn't wet cos for Cyd thinking I'm too bouncy today and need to burn some energy. I'm getting super fit super fast! When we got to the top it got really really cold, and we were wet from where damp branches drip dripped on us then we were wet and cold. Brr. So we did trottings to get us warm again. Trot trot breathe trot trot breathe was my pattern for going up really good. Then the air turned funny and it got spooooky... I kept stopping for having to look really carefully in case of monsters lurking.

What's down there? Do we have to go?

Lightning Tree

Where'd the oceans go? Can usually see prettyness here

Next up was back down a slippy slidey hill and I decided to be baby bratface cos I've been doing so good lately. I acted up and skidded a bit and Cyd yelled at me about not breaking our necks and I hate being yelled at. Turns out the deer hate it too, cos one was hiding and maybe Cyd scared it cos it jumped out in front of us and I had to do crazyponystyle to protect us from the evil monster and even though I was slipping on the slippy down hill I reared up really good, but then it was too wobbly. *Bomp* I went, butt to floor (not even just my back legs, my whole butt), and my front legs were still up high, and you know what happened? Cyd just can't keep up with me, and she scooted backwards. She tried to go lean forwards and wriggled and failed. She slid out my saddle and slid all the way back down off my butt as I was getting up. She managed to land on her feets and didn't get hurted, and still had my rein loopy in one hand, and caught my tail in her other hand, so I was captured and couldn't run away, not that I tried. I totally saved us but Cyd doesn't agree and says I'm doing the over-reacting thing again. She walked next to me for a bit to make sure I wasn't hurted from falling down, and I wasn't so after we crossed my nemesis puddle again she got back on. I was a bit more careful on the other downwards, but not as much as I probably should have been . Once I got home Cyd checked me again, then took me to do rolling in my sand pit.

 Then I did playing with my green ball but I don't quite get it:

Silly silly me. I went charging up my little hill and did galloping and bucking at the top but Cyd was too slow to video me. Rubbish girl. Only gets my foolish moments! Oh well. Here is my stats for today's ride. I might get to go pony riding on Thursday in the morning if it doesn't do raining, but it probably will.

Byeee :)

Want my autograph?

Hey you guys guess what, I'm totally a movie star! Aunty V took her special camera on her head when we went pony riding last week and she made this awesome video of me! Aunty V even put my theme song in (Cyd 'doo-de-doo's it to me when we're pony riding, especially by ourselves - tuneful she is not). It shows me practicing my trottings, being a brave pony and leading the way, and a bit of my badness which really makes me look like a pansy but I swear I'm super tough. This was my number twenty pony ride ever and clearly I am totally a grown up now and Cyd needs to stop calling me 'baby pony' at least in front of my friends. On our pony ride the day after this I just wore my yellow rope halter on my face and did so great (and super fast cos it started raining half way round so we did a lot of trottings practice). And I got ridden all the way down the whole road. It's gross and raining still outside which Cyd says is a good thing. She even let me have my bucket food in my house cos it was cold and wet and windy. (Sssh.. I even pooped in there which I never do, it was that nasty.) So you stay snug and warm with some hot chocolates and watch me over and over again. Hopefully it dries up a little bit in time for our next pony ride, I have new sneakers coming that I need to try on! Byeeee :)

Reins and Stirrups Not Required

Hello Everybodies! I just wanted to share with you my awesomeness today. I went pony riding with my friends today and we did ten miles! I did some of my bouncing and occasionally other not so good things, but mostly was really good. Aunty V finally got to come with me even though she wasn't really feeling too good; she rode Mr Leo. My Aunty Z came too (and said some very strange things...) and she rode Ms Jazzy. Jazz is a pretty girl but she doesn't like ponies snuggling up to her, or within about 6000' of her really. She is a good riding pony though, and her and Aunty Z are like besties so I was safe.

We did a little bit of some trotting today, and some crossing of puddles, and Cyd even rode me a little bit on the road going home. I was the leader, and the middler, and the tail-ender, and sometimes I rode next to Leo (but not Jazz cos for not wanting to get my face bit off). Aunty V noticed that Aunty Z was not using her reins, and told her that she should have them at least a little bit, and we had to tell her when it was time for trottings cos she didn't have stirrups. Silly Aunty Z. Then Cyd said that actually reins ARE optional, so she let go of mine. I nearly fell on my face. Everyone laughed super hard at me. Turns out I wasn't really concentrating. We all did a little bit of slipping and sliding cos for it being wet from the rain the other day.




Even when I got home, I wasn't super tired, and Cyd brushed me super good then I went trotting around my field. This is me when Cyd was leaving after putting me away:

Wide awake for more playing!

Stats!

NommyNommy In My Tummy

Hey there everybodies! A while ago I mentioned my new foodstuffs, and I talk about my hay ration net. It's time to learn what Bugsy-ponies like to eat! Basically everything. No really. Cyd called my Aunty V all worried one day cos she put the cap to my anti-worm medicine down on the fence post, gave me my medicine (yummy!) then looked away. Came back and it was gone. In my belly. Whoops. Lucky it's pretty small and everything was okay. I have also got in troubles with Uncle J, cos for eating the deck off his boat. To be fair to me, it is in my field, and he knows I like to chew stuff. Now Cyd has to make a new mini fence to stop me getting at it. I don't chew on my wooden fence unless me or Cyd spilled my mash there, then I end up nibbling some fence rail trying to not waste my snacks. Then we have confusion when Cyd is cleaning my poop away to put in the pile, and finds this:

Yep, I put this in my belly

Cyd thinks someone dropped it and it blew in my field (she spends a lot of time making sure rubbish near my field is picked up, but can't be there all the time). Maybe there was some chocolate left in the wrapper? I put it in my belly and nobody knew until it came out again - lucky it didn't get me sick!!! I tried to hide the evidence of my party last night, but missed some and Cyd says I have bad taste:

Obviously this did not go in my belly

This was right outside my fence, and sometimes soda cans are inside my fence. I don't eat these but Cyd gets kinda nervous in case I try to and checks for them regularly.

So, to real food stuffs. I have a magic net called 'Freedom Feeder' that is not very free at all. Firstly, Cyd had to pay monies for the net; secondly, it does not freely feed me. It makes it a bit hard for me to eat actually. The holes are super small, and the net is huge! It can hold 25-30lbs depending on Cyd's stuffing skills. It could fit all of her inside it!

My 'Freedom Feeder'

So much food, but how to eat it?

While it gets filled, I help myself to the barn all-you-can-eat (until Cyd spots you) buffet:

First, it was just put in my stall. Troubles is, I took it on adventures to places so I had snacks wherever I go.

Evidence of adventures - hay foods everywhere!

So Cyd clipped it in with a shiny purple caribiner. Troubles is, that doesn't stop me adventuring:

Ha, like that stopped me. Lasted one night

No worries, we got a bigger clip and now it stays put in my house, but I can still toss it all around inside my house and play with it, cos that's what Bugsy-ponies like to do. Cyd tops it up every evening (it never gets empty totally). This way I have food 24 hours a day, and no more meal times. So if we want to pony ride early, we can without breakfast cos I ate through the night (when I do my most snacking). Cyd measured it for a while, and I typically eat around 18lbs a day, more if it's cold. Hay foods is no biggie to me now, and even if I get my net open so I can eat freely instead of the little holes, I eat the same amount. Since I know there will always be food there I have no need to pig out.

So little foods

The best bit of Bugsy foods? My noms. My hay foods is my mostly diet, but I get a little bucket of snacks in the evening time. This was a big bucket when I got a bit skinny, then a normal size bucket, then big buckets again cos Cyd was sad for my friend Fuega getting super hurted. Then she realised that my big comfort food buckets were making me too fat so she trimmed me back down to appropriate fatness. My buckets used to be beet pulp (nyah, s'ok) and rice bran (not my fave but food so I'll eat it) and sometimes a type of chopped up hay type stuff that I liked. Now my bucket is something called Stable Mix. It can be used as a complete replacement for hay (like for old ponies with no teeth) and has all kinds of minerals and stuff for ponies. It's cheaper than my old food stuffs and my last bag took me over a month to eat.
It can be dry or mushed (I eat it mushed - sometimes like soup - I'll eat it however it gets given to me). I only get a very small bit (not even a half of a scoop) and it soaks up really puffy so I think like I have a lot of food.

Next comes my special minerals called California Trace. 2oz of those go on top of my mush, and some salt mixed in, and it's a real Bugsy Belly Delight!

Best Snacks Ever