My Longest Pony Ride Ever!

Hey everybodies, how are you? Sorry it's taken so long to tell you about my Friday pony ride cos for being super tired, and then Cyd being super busy. Guess why I'm so tired? I did... are you ready? Nearly 22 miles! That is nearly as far as a limited distance pony endurance ride. Ohmygoodness, you should have seen me go! Cyd got me ready at my friends' house this time, in between helping get the other ponies ready. I had a bucket of mushy food for breakfast that also had some salt in. There were nine ponies going today, so we piled into two different trailers and headed to Orca ranch (where the cows live). I've been here one time before to do Panorama Trail (story and pictures).

Just about ready!

First we did walking to a grove of Eucalyptus trees so the guest people could have a mini local history lesson and us ponies could get thoroughly warmed up. I was near the back, pony number seven in line, and being a bit obnoxious with my bouncing but not super bad. On the way to our main trail, I caught up to Raven pony and we hung out and mostly kept up with the main group, which helped with my brain. I sorta figured out that prancing was slower than walking like a grown up eventually, but it was all quite exciting. We stopped at Camp David to get a drink at the stream there. I had a bit of a drink, and scoffed up the wet leaves that were floating about.

Deeelicious.

We did a bit of trottings, and had to go across some little creek-y areas, which I did with no troubles, since I'm totally grown up now. The next bit is called Vet Check Hill. It is a long long uphill trail, that the grown up super fit enduring ponies canter nearly all the way up except for some tight turns that they trot around. Initially I went at the back, but Voltaire's person didn't want to do canter, so I went in front of Aunty V and me and Cyd cantered off by ourselves. The fast ponies had already gone, but you know what? I nearly caught up to them. We got them back in sight but by then I was a bit tired and there was more hill to go so we just did trottings. When we were nearly at the top I did walking, and then Aunty V caught up to us and overtook. Not long though, and we came into a big opening where all the people were off their ponies with stethelscoppers listening to their ponies heart rates. Cyd hopped off and found her stethoscope and took my pulse. 88. Quite high, but I'd been working quite hard. She poured some water on my sweaty neck, then led me under a tree for tying me to so she could pee and help the other people do an endurance-styly vet check on their ponies. Troubles is, I smacked my face into the tree, and panicked and made the whole giant tree wobble. Ohmygoodness it didn't feel good. We came back out from under the tree, and Aunty V cleaned up my face, and put cream on my owie. I felt a bit sorry for myself and a bit silly.

Owieee :(

Cyd decided to see how I did and how my swelling was. It wasn't a puncture, and didn't seem to affect my vision, so we kept going. It was time to take our pulses again (maybe ten-ish minutes later? Cyd wasn't watching time cos my poor face distracted her). My pulse was all the way down to 40, even with being little and getting hurt. I'm so awesome! My breathing was still a bit fast. Cyd made me stay in the shade, and put more water on me. I was completely totally fine by the time the peoples got back on to continue our ride. I did great going up the steep trail, and mostly rode with Raven and Aunty M at the back of the main group. We wanted to ride with Aunty V but they were going a bit slow. I did great on the steep sections of up, and we did walking and trotting. We got to a spot I know called Four Corners. Left is Abalobodiah Trail, some people went with Aunty V this way to get to lunch times sooner. Me and Cyd went with the Lady in Red to Spectacular Trail. There is another big long canter stretch here, and I totally nearly kept up with the big ponies. Cyd says we need to work on my pacing, cos I go really fast then take a break then really fast again, but I should just go steady kinda fast. We'll work on that. I was quite hot at the top, but we stopped to do some pictures so I was able to get my breath back, and got more water on me. 

Beautifuls

There was more up, but just walking and enjoying the amazing views. Some bits were hard for me still though, and it was toasty. But totally worth it:

Next comes Manchester Loop so we could go down down down and meet our friends for lunch times. But first we had some problems. Three of them:

I was quite glad for the break in the shade cos for Cyd tying me up to go help clear a path so we didn't have to do big jumps. It didn't take too long to clear, cos the middle tree had been cut, just not the branches cleared away. I was a bit grumpy on the next bit of pony riding cos for being tired and didn't always have my happy face on. Soon it was time for going downhill a long stretch, so Cyd hopped off to lead me. I did my happy face for my pictures still :)

This way to lunch?

I had to stop to do peeing, and Cyd was not smart, and had a big worry moment. She looked to check my pee colour, and thought it was brown. PANIC! Then she remembered we were under trees and she still had sunglasses on. Took them off, and it was normal colour. Phew! Don't want me getting sick! But I was fine, just have a foolish rider. We got to the spot where Cyd usually gets back on me, and she asked the Lady in Red which way we were going. We took a trail called Shoreline Chute, so Cyd didn't get back on cos for a lot of steep downhill coming. It was so hard for me that even without Cyd on my back I couldn't keep up with the enduring ponies. Raven pony went even slower than me. At one point I just stopped and looked at Cyd to tell her I wasn't impressed.

Picture does not do the steepness justice!!

Finally we got to the meadow for lunch times. The hay hasn't been cut yet so Cyd let me grab some snacks as we walked through the field. Aunty V had saved me a spot next to my bestie, but it got taken by a different pony. I hung out with Treve at a tree nearer Cyd (with no face-smacking branches on this one). I looked around a bit, then took a nap since there were no nearby snacks. 

After lunch, the people all got back on us via a big redwood stump. I walked to the stump and stood good for Cyd to get on, then spooked at it as we were walking away. Silly me. Cyd had put my bit back in, but had just clipped her reins to the rings on my halter. She thought I would be good enough for no bit, but wanted to be able to change it back super fast in case I was bad. We went back through the meadow, and passed by where the pony trailer is usually parked. Cyd laughed at me for looking around for it, I was sure it was time to go home now.

We went to the stream to get a big drink, and I got in right away. As soon as we got to the good drinking spot I put my face in for two whole minutes and drank and drank. Then I looked a bit before drinking even more. I kept taking more drinks the whole time I was there. We did poses for pictures in the creek, once by myself, and once with Treve and Leo cos for us all being matching bays.

Some bits were deep to Cyd's feet, but the Lady in Red took those pictures on her camera, they will be coming later. We split into fast and slow groups for the next bit, and I went with the slow group. I mostly did trottings here. We had to go back up up up Abalobodiah trail (where Cyd took my whole headstall off and just rode me in my halter), and all the way back along the ridge and down the big long vet check hill. Cyd got off to walk down the hill cos for it being long and me being tired. Going down is better for enjoying the view than going up at speed:

At the bottom, we all did more drinking and Cyd hopped on me for the last little bit. There was a long and short group, and we picked short group cos for me being tired. We ambled our way back to the pony trailer, and did some more pictures.

Nearly back

Me and Cyd and Cows

Me and my poor eye and Cows and Ocean

I was quite tired at the end, and Cyd was super proud of me. Look at my stats, I did my fastest, and my longest, and my most climbing all in this one pony ride. Everyone said really nice things about me! We actually did about seven hours, the time just shows our 'moving time'.

Right when we were getting ready to leave (I'm already in the pony trailer with my friends), we had a visitor.

"Oh hey, watcha doing?"

"Any room on the bus?"

"Uhoh, gotta go, Aunty V says so!"

And the best bit? Aunty V loaned Cyd her old GoPro camera, so we made movies of me riding along. Just gotta edit it and find me some music! Thanks Aunty V!!!

Shenanigans...

I have my sleepy face on today: 

And um... Big Oopsie! My neighbor-ponies, Smoky and Sheri, got a bale sized Freedom Feeder. It is the giant version of the kind of slow feed net I have. Cyd can squish almost 30lbs of hay foods into mine. She had to clip it down by one corner cos for me taking it in adventures all around my field. Uncle P thought the net was a good idea so he got the big kind. Somehow it ended up by the hot wire that separates our houses. I may have totally stolen it to death. Dragged it to my field, eaten (some of) the foods, and taken it on an adventure in MY house. Apparently that is not appropriate. Doh! In other news, I also like to keep spare food by my eyeballs:

First Time Trekking

Hello everybodies, how are you? I am fabulous (always). Today I got to do another really grown up thing. I got to tag along with the afternoon ride for trek, aka Redwood Coast Riding Vacation (RCRV). This is what my friends do for their jobs, take people pony riding on our special trails. Cyd used to be a guide for her people job. The Lady-in-Red is the boss lady, and she said we could join them. They first did pony riding on the beach, and I'm not big enough to do that yet, so they went without me, and Cyd put me in the pony trailer. She did not do good with her timing, and we arrived too soon and had to wait for nearly an hour. I was not impressed:

I did mostly wait patiently though, even though it was quite lonely in such a big trailer all alone:

S'ok though, cos after ages my friends arrived, seven of them. They all piled into the giant pony trailer with me, and all the people squeezed into the truck, and we were ready to go.

We only had a short way to go, just to cross over a bridge that is not super safe for pony riding on. Once we got to the other side, we hopped out on the side of the lane, and got our riders. I was a bit excited, and spooked at the gate closing behind me, and at some of the bushy coyote bush that we barged through on a kinda-trail. I was at the back, behind Aunty V, where I couldn't cause mischiefs. There's not much pictures from the first bit of pony riding cos for me needing some controlling. The pony trailer was driven up the driveway, and we made a pit stop by it to give us ponies a drink at the trough, and make doubly sure the people had the right things. We set off with me at the back again, and we walked then had to stop, cos for one of my friends tripping and his person having to tumble out the way. They were both totally okay and laughing cos for being silly, then it was my turn to be silly. I leaped in the sky like a deer and nearly made Cyd fall down but we got organised and back in line before anybody except Aunty V saw and told us off. I was so excited!!! Then after a little ways, we paused for somebody to go pee in the bushes, and I leaped out my skin when they came stealthing back out from the bushes. I kept pretty calm for the next bit, then we had our first canter up a big hill. Lucky for my sneakers cos it was gravelly, but I did good. I realised it was time to not waste my energies on antics, cos today was not going to be easy pony riding.

We paused at a kinda flat spot to take pictures (though I don't have those yet, the Lady-in-Red took them on her camera, and will be in their own post another day). Then we set off on a trail to go see some 1500 year old redwood trees cos we're lucky like that. There was a bit where we needed to kinda go over a dippy bit and Aunty V had to bring her pony back for me to follow, but I didn't take long. Then it was time to do more canter, but mostly I did trotting cos for it being a big hill and me being hot and sweaty already. Another pony wanted to do trotting too, so it was okay. We did some more trail, and some more winding, and some pictures in daisies, and some more trottings and cantering, and pausing for a drink, then it was lunch time. We had not gone super far, and only two hours, but remember my friends had been riding ages already.

Lunchtimes

Will you play with me, Voltaire?

Why are you ignoring me?

Ooh, feeties

I'm so handsome!

After lunchtimes, it was time to get our riders again. Aunty V took some pictures of me for you, and Cyd got distracted and forgot to restart my GPS cos she's silly. But I'm cute:

Two puppies came with us for the next bit of pony riding. They are Rhodesian Ridgebacks, and called Asante and Puccini. I have never done pony riding with dogs running around before, and was a bit disconcerted, especially at the beginning. This time I was more in the middle, with my Aunty V and another pony behind me. Mostly the dogs stayed at the very back, but sometimes they came scooting past, so Aunty V warned Cyd which side they were coming on so we could be ready. Soon I just did looking instead of jumping or spooking, Cyd was so proud of me. She thought we were going to do a trail I have done before, but instead we did one that she thought might be too hard for me. It's one of her favourites, but not really for baby ponies cos it gets really super steep, and one bit we have to jump up cos for it being so steep. We left a gap between us and the next in front pony so we didn't get stuck behind them, and Aunty V left a big gap behind me in case I ran out of puff. It's a skinny trail, so you can't just scoot around a needing-a-breather pony and steep for just standing on. I totally proved them wrong and sailed up the trail, only one time needing a tiny boomp. Cyd cheered for me, and petted me for doing so good, and I even did the little kinda-jumping bit super good. Next time I'm going to go behind Aunty V so we can video me and you can see it. After then we just did ambling down the hill back to the pony trailer. We did take more pictures though, and I was good enough to let Puccini go right behind me without getting upset. This is her, isn't she pretty?

This was the view we had for lots of today:

We did pictures with me in them too:

We are very lucky!!!

So many ponies today!

Once we were half way down the big hill, Cyd hopped off to lead me down the driveway. 1) Cos for downhill being hard for ponies but especially for baby ponies 2) Cos for stretching her legs 3) Cos for training me to go away from my friends, we went down the roady bit and they went away from us down a trail. I had a minor meltdown, but settled down fairly quickly, especially when Cyd said that if I didn't knock it off she would get back on me and ride me back up the hill so we could practice our grown-up-ness.

I was very happy to get a good drink at the bottom of the hill, and eat a lot of grass snacks before getting in the pony trailer.

Green juice is good for you!

My sneakers performed flawlessly, doing walking and trotting and cantering and baby pony tantrums and jumping in the air. We like them a lot! Cyd didn't have to mess with them once.

Once we had a snack and a drink and the people had a drink, we all clambered back in the pony trailer to go home for showers. My butt is the one right at the front, cos I get to go in the pony trailer first with my best friend next to me. Only seven of us had to go home, cos for one of the ponies living where we were.

I had my shower, and waited in the sunshine while Cyd helped give my friends their showers. I didn't get at all stuck on the way home, but got really super excited when we got there that we had to have a brain lesson before we could go in my gate. As soon as my halter was off I did bucking, then galloping, then bucking, then galloped a lap of my whole field before doing a skidding stop where Cyd usually gives me my mushy bucket food. I didn't know it wasn't ready yet, so she snuck it from her truck to my water trough to put in water and let it soak while she filled up my big haynet. Before she was finished I sussed out what she was doing and came flying back around my field and stole my food. I was so so hungry! I'm going trekking on Friday too, when they go to the cattle ranch, and do a mock vet check like at endurance rides so the guest people can learn, and go on Spectacular trail. It's Cyd's favourite day on RCRV's, though I might have to take shortcuts in case I'm too tired to keep up with my friends. They are super fit enduring ponies and I am only just getting first-time-fit. So I'll tell you all about Friday adventures (with even more ponies) and watch out for photos from the Lady-in-Red!

Waiting at my friends' house after my shower :)

New Shoes For Me!

Hello everybodies, how are you? I am fabulous. I went pony riding today to test out my new sneakers. They are very bright orange (they don't do yellow kind for me yet) and are called Vipers. They are so cool. See:

My sneakers

They are super easy to put on, and comfy on my toes. I've actually had them a little while, but not been able to test them except for one time when I was a bad baby pony so we didn't really test them cos I got stuck. Today I got ready for pony riding, and Cyd said it would be a good testing day.

Ready to pony ride

Cyd thought about getting on me right away and riding up the road to see how grown up I might be, but decided not to so I could get used to how my booties feel and sound, and cos for her needing to stretch her tired legs cos for running a people race called marathon last week. Lucky she chose to do walking. We got up my street  halfway to my trails, and then I heard it.
          VrinnnVrinnVrinnnnnn
I stopped and did staring, and Cyd told me it was okay so I started walking again but vrinnvrinnvrinnn. Ears up, high alert, STOP! In the field where my girlfriend lives, there were people with vests that match my booties and helmets on. Three of them had big machines called chainsaws in their hands, one was up a tree, and the branches were falling and there was two trucks and a big machine on the ground eating the trees! It. Was. Terrifying. But I did awesome at not being scared. At least not until then a big giant truck that had a giant tube on it with gases in came up behind me. Lucky the driver saw that I was nervous, so he didn't come too super close to make me more scared. Cyd managed to make me move to at least a big space where the big truck could come past, and I had some dancing room. Then luckily one of the chainsaw people saw that I was scared too, and gave Cyd thumbs-up sign, and she gave thumbs-down sign, and he made all the people stop their work and make the machines quiet. I took a second to breathe, then marched right on by, and we said big thanks to the nice people for stopping for me. I stayed on high alert for a while though. I spooked at some deers in the field. Cyd waited to get on at our usual mounting spot after the squirrelly trail. Then it was time to GO! I wanted to go so fast today. We had to start practicing something called half halt to slow me down, and practice something called leg yield to make me do some thinking. I just wanted to practice trotting. It made my pictures blurry:

Zooooom

There were lots of pretty daisies; I like to snack on them, and Cyd likes to decorate me. She was going to put more in my hair but I ate the only other ones she could reach from my back cos I'm sneaky like that.

I walked much better going down the rocky road in my sneakers. Cyd kept leaning over to check they were still there, and not getting twisty on my toes. We stopped for our usual field snacks and pee break before going to jump my ditch.

I did so awesome at ditch jumping today, Cyd did slow-motion video of me:

Still no issues with my booties. While she was checking they weren't rubbing my skin and giving me an owie, I managed to find snacks. Cyd says I'd be a good survival pony, cos for always being able to find some kind of snack.

There are snacks Everywhere!

Are we going that way today?

Once she got back on and we were out of the woodsy bit, I decided I wanted to practice canter. Cyd said we had to wait until she said to do canter, she's so bossy to me. But we eventually did canter, and still no problems with the sneakers. We did some trotting and cantering up the last big hill, and a little jump, and maybe a baby pony bounce or two cos for being all excited today.
Then suddenly I put up my head and did skidding stop, then immediately into dragon pose. We couldn't find anything, but there was lots of deer around today so probably they jumped in the bushes and Cyd couldn't tell. We walked past just in case it wasn't deer, and off we went again. No more adventures until we were nearly home. Cyd was riding me down the road cos for me being grown up, then we heard the vrinnvrinnn again. They weren't done even though we were gone nearly two hours! Cyd was busy contemplating options. She decided to see how I would do if she didn't get off me. I was nervous, but listened good to the boomp boomp from her feet and talking nicely to me. I was getting quite nervous, even a bit shaky, but I was doing okay. The people saw us and gave us thumbs-up-thumbs-down to see how I was. Cyd gave thumbs up and told me to keep going and be brave. I was super nervous but I had to be grown up cos Cyd was still on my back and I had to take care of us. And I did it! I was super good and got lots of pats for being grown up and the people gave me thumbs-up for not making them stop their work again. We kept going all the way to my house, and I jumped at some noisy leaves. I must have used up all my grown-up-ness already. Oops. But the wind did turn my hair into a mohawk though it stopped for my picture of course:

This is the back of my house, my gate is right past the fence

Before I got my saddle off, Cyd took pictures of my booties again:

They didn't budge except for the rubber rings not on the strap anymore

Snug happy toes

I got my saddle off, and Cyd checked my back cos for it being sore last time. I got a mash and a shower, then we checked my back again. All good there. She checked again again at my dinner time after going to her people job and I was still okay. Phew!

Showered and snacking

Cyd hung out with me some more, and cleaned out my field, then had to go and have snacks before her people job. I was sad to see her go.

Leaving so soon?