Trail Clearing? No Problem

Hello everybodies, how are you? I am very good. I had a most excellent pony ride this morning. I did do some bad stuff, but it was far outweighed by all the good stuff I did. We had a bit of discussion about going over a tiny fallen tree that I have had to go over the last few pony rides, so Cyd said it was just rude of me to stop now. I wouldn't go over it coming home on our pony ride with Aunt-T on Friday either, she had to come back to fetch me. I hesitated a lot on today's homewards log-crossing, but I did it without Cyd getting off.

It was like swimming, up past my shoulder

Our first adventure was to go exploring on a new trail that Cyd spotted on our last pony rides. Except we only went a really short ways up into the woods and Cyd spotted a tent, and maybe a person. Uncle J has been asking her about it, but she didn't look too closely. It's probably just some weirdo who picked a silly camping place even though they shouldn't be there at all, but sometimes not-good people are also in the woods. Cyd said it was time for us to leave, so we snuck off before anybody spotted us just in case they were the not-good kind.

When we pony rode with Aunt-T on Friday, we did a bit of something called trail clearing. There were a couple of branches that were annoying to duck under so Aunt-T chopped them down, and I tried my hoof at it. It's not easy, I have to stand in just the right spot for Cyd's t-rex arms to reach but also not where our faces will get scratched, and stand still, and not be scared, and and and so many things. Aunt-T helped me a bit. We didn't have much time and there was tons to do so since we can get through we left most of it. Today Cyd brought her nippers and her saw and we did loads more and I got so awesome at it, you guys should have seen me. I carried Cyd to just the right spots, then distracted myself by snacking (sometimes on the tree she was trying to cut which is apparently a good way for me to get my ear-tips nipped off). She would nipper away all the little ones, and saw at the big ones. She kept dropping branches all over us, some quite big. I just stood there until she said go whether they landed on my butt or my neck. One got snagged in my halter and I still didn't freak out, cos I'm that awesome. Sometimes Cyd had to get off to cut cos they were little trees that had flopped down and I was too tall, so she unclipped one rein so I couldn't get tangled and just told me to stay close, so I did. We trimmed for ages, and nearly finished but it was taking so much time that we decided to just ride the rest of the way unless something tricky came up. We went down the trail and across my ditch and took a quick snack break with grasses for me and a banana for Cyd. She gave me some banana too, it was quite tasty. I was moving pretty speedy so Cyd decided we would do my long loop (which is soon to become my medium loop, she says I'm nearly ready to go further once in a while as long as we stay slow and stop for snacks).

We did some trotting practice up the hill, pretty slow since I figured this was not our usual way home and while we hadn't gone far we had already been gone quite a long time. There is a bit on this loop where we have to be super careful cos for going over a cattle grid that is mostly filled in with packed dirt but a little bit on one far side is not and ponies who don't listen to their people could get stuck if they go on that spot. There is really a lot of room, we have done some much scarier stuff (breathe Aunty V - s'ok!). I was pretty sure something terrifying was on the other side so flipped up my tail, put my head in the sky, and snorted as loud as I could. This is my dragon pose. Then instead of walking, I gave Cyd two options - stopping, or prancing on the spot. I looked very fancy, but this was not productive pony riding. Cyd made me calm down and gave me some nice pats, then turned me away so we could go get a little snack and a breather. After a few minutes I calmed down, and we tried again. I still did my dragon pose, but walked calmly over the grid, then jumped out my little pony skin at... a dead log that has been there Every Single Time I've ever been through here. Cyd did a big sigh at me, and I did a big sigh at me, then off we went for more trottings practice. The rest of my loop was mostly uneventful, trotting practice on the uphill bits that weren't too bad for my feet, practicing at trotting carefully around obstacles and twisty turny bits. I got a bit spooked by a deer but no biggie, just meant that my ears look great in my picture:

"Cyd, it was right there!"

I came across a quad bike today too, lucky it was right near where a clearing in the trail so lots of room. The two teenagers riding it were really polite and stopped way back away from me, and were patient while I sussed things out and walked by them, and told Cyd how great I did at passing. They waited until I was around the corner and down the trail a ways before starting it back up again so I didn't get spooked. Thanks, guys! 'Preciate it :)

The hills in the distance are where I pony ride with my friends