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!