Totally an Accident!

Hey everybodies! How are you? I am fabulous, but I did something bad to Cyd. I totally didn't mean to. We'll get to that in a bit.

I went on a ten mile pony ride all by myself. I had a bit of a silly moment walking up the road, and Cyd had to make me do my things for unsticking. I got going again, and was doing really good at pony riding. I had a couple of baby moments but didn't do anything bad and only needed boomping with her feet sometimes, not any tap tapping. You know what I did? I did canter, all by myself. I don't usually like to do canter, cos for still getting strong. But we were trotting right along, and I decided to go faster. It's fun to go fast! I started doing canter, and Cyd told me how good I was doing. We were zipping along. I got a bit full of myself, so Cyd said it was time to slow down and take a breather. But the next time we did trotting, she said "K, off you go, time to do canter" and Wheeeee! Off we went again. I was doing so good, that Cyd tried to do a video for number three, but I decided I was done doing canter. They're not very exciting videos, but you get to see some of where I do my pony riding when I don't go with my friends. 

We stopped for snacks for a while cos we were two thirds done and we had made it to my snacking field. After I filled my belly a little bit, it was time to go jump my ditch. Cyd always always gets off to do this. She went across before me, but I didn't want to go today. She kept asking, and telling, but I kept looking at my old crossing spot. Once I got braver at jumping over, we stopped using that crossing cos for there not being much spaces and stuffs in the way. But since I didn't want to go across where we were, Cyd said ok we'll go to that spot. I totally followed, she hopped across, and then turned around to watch and see if I was going to jump on the left side or the right side, so she would be out of my way. Troubles is, I was already jumping!!! Oh no, we both realised too late and I landed and momentum kept me going forward and Cyd was right there totally in my way and I crashed into her and knocked her down and trompled right over the top of her and she went "Yeeeooowwwwwww!" She let go of my rope so as to not pull me back over her again. I stopped really fast and came straight back to her and put my face down to see what damages I did. She was laying in the dirt going "Ow ow ow". She did wiggling of toes and fingers, and careful touching of face to check for bloods. Luckily there was none! She got up and I totally let her lean on me to get back to the trail and we hung out for a minute to make sure she was ok. No double visions or blurry eyes, can stand and can use both arms, just owie. We walked a minute up the trail where a convenient fallen tree makes for a good mounting block for ouchy pony riders. I was so so careful going home, didn't put a hoof wrong! Anybody who heard Cyd would have laughed at her, she was riding along talking out loud to me saying "Hey Bugsy, I need to talk to you cos for needing to hear if I'm doing slurring, cos if my words are all messed up we need to call for help cos for you bumping my head with your feet." She sounded okay, so off we rode, but called Uncle J just in case so he knew where we were and when to expect a 'home safe' message. We were going to just do walking, but it was ouchy and trotting wasn't actually any extra ouchy we did some trotting to get home sooner. I was awesome all the way. I managed to bump one of Cyd's legs with a hoofie, and the other one with two hoofies, and hit her face with a hoofie, but didn't actually step on her face so she doesn't look too gross. There's a scuff mark on her helmet but no real damage, which is lucky. Also lucky she was wearing it cos a scuff mark on her skull would have been troubles! Wear your helmets!! Now Cyd's legs are all pretty colours, and she has some marks around her eye and some swelled face but it's not too bad. 

It was really an accident, and not my fault (listening Uncle J?) Usually I pause, especially when I don't want to jump today, so Cyd thought she had time and was in my way, I had nowhere to go. Now we have learned our lesson, and won't cross there again even if I don't want to go at the safer spot. Also, Cyd can't scratch her nose cos it is too ouchy, and now it's decided to be the itchyest nose in the world. Uncle J gave her a magic little brush that is soft enough to not hurt but really good at getting itchies! Good job Uncle J!

Book Report - Share and Share Alike

Hey everybodies, how are you all? I am fabulous. I went pony riding today and was fabulous and awful all at the same time. I'll tell you about that laters though, k? Firsts I gotta tell you about the book Cyd got done reading:

It's called Share and Share Alike, by Hannah Hooton. It's a romance kind set in England, all about a speedy racing pony called Ta' Qali. He doesn't do the kind of racing I'll be doing; I have to efficiently go a long long way, he has to go super fast and over jumps. He has ten owners... TEN! And his own special person called a Lass to take super special care of him, and like bring him cookies and stuff. They are called a syndicate, and we learn about all of them but the most important for our story is Tessa and her not-quite-shenanigans with the boy owners. I won't give away too much, but you know what happens? Ta' Qali gets hurted on purpose by a mean person, and they totally have to find out who did it. I hope nobody ever wants to do nobbling to me even if I get super good at my endurance racing. Who would hurt a pony on purpose?! Share and Share Alike is super exciting, especially when they go racing. Cyd said that sometimes she would realise she had been holding her breath for a few lines, and was totally cheering along with the owner peoples. Ms Hooton is a good write-ist, we liked her book a lot. I was totally supposed to tell you about it ages ago but I can't help if the computer gets broked. Hey, Ms Hooton, if your book turns into a movie can I play Ta' Qali (even though I'm the wrong kind of pony?) I promise to run super good, and we can just get me a stunt double for the jumpings bit, right? Anyways, this book was part of a series and now we want to read the other stories (you meet some of the characters in Share and Share Alike, but you can totally read out of order like Cyd did!) There are tons of ways to get to read the story:

Ms Hannah Hooton's page where you can see all her books
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
Apple (iTunes)
Lulu (Paperback)
Scribd
Inktera

So you have no excuses, totally go read it, and let me know what you think! Hmm, maybe I should write a book?

Fearless Leader Pony

Hey everybodies! How are you? I am fabulous as usual. I did an awesome pony ride on Sunday, but Cyd had to go to her people job for doubleshifts on both last days so she didn't get to hang out much except for giving me my foodstuffs and no time to do my typing for me. I totally did amazing at nearly everything on Sunday. We went to the place with the cows called Orca which is Cyd's favourite place to go pony riding. Easy to see why, look at me being King of the Mountain:

Pretty fancy, huh?

I went on the pony trailer with barely any troubles (it was my favourite kind of pony trailer which helps). I go in the front with my bestie next to me for safeties. I waited totally patiently while the people got ready when we arrived, and got my fly spray like a grown up. Aunty V offered to hold me still for Cyd to do mounting and she said "No Aunty V we're grown ups we can do it ourselves" and I totally showed her up :( Apparently it's especially not appropriate to do bouncing when  your person isn't completely on your back. But I did better than lots of ponies do, just not my usual fabulous. I was pretty brave riding past the cows except the one that was snacking then picked its head up and looked at me funny. Cyd failed at getting cow pictures for me! I was riding with Aunty V at the front, and really good that Cyd was twisting in my saddle to talk to the peoples, and then I was at the back and was really good there too. I did good at getting a drink at the stream, cos that's what I have to do to be an enduring pony, then it was my turn to be the total leader of everybody, even Aunty V. I was in charge of the whole group (five ponies including me). See:

I kept walking too fast, and Cyd had to make me stop to let everybody catch up. Each time we did pausing I grabbed a snackysnack to munch on the way. This was just a walking pony ride as the peoples were not super experienced and we didn't want them to wobble off. I went over the ditches mostly good, except for the ones that were muddy, Bestie had to help me with those. I jumped one a lot too big and everybody laughed at me. We had to go up and up and up and then it was so amazing all the people went "oooh", even Cyd and Aunty V.

Totes amazing! View's pretty good too...

While everybody was waiting for their turn for pictures, I did nuzzling with Poncho. We are learning to be friends - he likes me, but I get nervous when the big ponies get too close during pony rides.

This is our favourite place to come pony riding, and we can totally get to all our other trails from here too. I got a bit tired by the end from doing power-walk up the big hills, so I moved to the back of the line so I could take a break without holding everybody up. Lucky I don't do freak-outs if I get left behind! Look, here's more pictures:

How not to hug your pony...

Thanks Aunty V, I totally stole some of your photos, hope that's okay!

Not A Good Runner

Being a good pony

Hey everybodies! How are you? I am fabulous. Today I did awful then fabulous then awful then fabulous then awful then fabulous then awful at pony riding. It wasn't even a super long ride, just my normal loop that is a bit more than two hours depending on snacking time and my behaviors. Remember how last time, I did balancing on my back legs, then running backwards? I got made to do some round penning after that, and practice my walking on my rope like I was a baby again. Today Cyd decided to walk me up the road and on the squirrelly trail to my baby-riding mounting spot. I did a few bad things on the way up, like my dragon impression, and my stopping, and my bouncing, and my trying to chew on Cyd's hair when I think she's not paying attentions enough to me. She got on finally, and we did great for like five minutes, with some really good trottings practice. Then I did stopping. Cyd did boomp boomp and I said no. From here on Cyd had to take lots of deep breaths ready to do persevering and not do getting sad. So she did tap tap and I did something called 'popping a wheelie' cos for thinking I'm cool and in charge of this pony riding malarkey. We set off again and I lasted like two minutes and did stopping and some more wheelies. This got me in Troubles, which I hate, so I did balancing on my back legs again. Cyd hopped off and made a really big Grr noise at me in her angry voice and I was in Big Troubles! She stayed on the ground and did practicing stuff with me, like march forwards and backwards and sidewards and I had to walk perfectly. She even said if I was scared of something it wouldn't be so bad but I was just being something called 'brat'. When I started doing good she got back on, and I was good for two more minutes then tried to do more wheelies cos they're like super fun, but I got Grr'd at and a big boomp so off I trotted. Then we started having a super fun ride. I didn't do anything really bad (just usual baby pony stuff like a bit of mini bouncing when I thought it was snack time when it wasn't). Cyd got off at the top of the rocky road to walk me down, and let me have snacks while we were there.

Choosing my flower snacks, daisies are best kind!

Napping while snacking

When we were on the flat bit that's not too rocky, Cyd decided to try a new skill with me. She does running, which means I have to do trottings to keep up. Troubles is, I'm not very good at it. We demonstrated attempt two on video for you:

Cyd says we need to do better at this, especially if we decide I should do the LD laters this year. She says if I can't do politely trotting next to her in my box then I can't go, cos I don't want to carry her the whole ways. Apparently she used to let my friend Fuega just stay next to her and not hold her rope (when other ponies weren't around), but that took a lot of practice, and she says I am clearly not to be trusted. So now we need to do practicing of trotting in my box. She got on at the convenient mounting block tree stump to ride the next bit and I was a bit fired up from my running/trotting escapades. I wanted to trot everywhere! I didn't even argue about only snacking for a minute in my break-time-field, look how happy I am:

I jumped over my ditch really good, but Cyd says she needs to teach me some proper technique cos I kinda leap like a deer still. Silly me! We had fun going back up the bumpy trail, even though I did slamming on the brakes skidding stop cos I heard creatures that Cyd didn't. We knew they were deer even though we couldn't see them cos we could hear them sproinging away. I also didn't get scared when Cyd's phone rang from Aunty B to find out where I was. And I don't know about falling trees making noise when nobody's there to hear it, but it definitely does when baby Arabs are around, but I didn't freak out cos I'm awesome (it was not really close to us luckily). I was a bit excited going home today, and tried to do trottings, especially when Cyd had to do ducking under low branches. She rode me back down the road, and when we got to nearly home, there were some small people having a party and they wanted to talk to me cos I'm famous in my neighbourhood. One of them is going to have her big people call Cyd to maybe teach her pony riding. Not on me though, obviously. As we were leaving, they started running around and I got a bit scared. Since we were on the road Cyd decided to get off and walk me home. Lucky she did, cos they started throwing a giant ball around and I lost my pony brain. I did really bad dragon impressions all the way home, even jumping into the sky like Cyd was flying a kite. She had to make the car that was coming stop still cos I couldn't be trusted (and had to point out to the people walking behind me that they should either come past or move back cos they were not being spacially smart). We got home without incident and I got a nice sponge bath cos for making myself sweaty with last minute antics. I'm so silly sometimes, but Cyd says our ride today counts as a good one, since she won my balking battle and we had a fun ride mostly.

I'm Back!!! Catch Up

Hey everybodies! Sorry for not doing my writing to you since for ages ago, Cyd was having computer troubles but Uncle J worked super hard and totally got it fixed. So what did you miss while I was gone?

I did some awesome things, and some not awesome things, and some ok things, and some Really Bad Things. Bad things first to get them out the way:

Cyd tried to take me pony riding. I chose to not go pony riding. Cyd said go. So I said Up We Go! Balancing on my two back legs is super fun but Cyd got totally mad at me and said I was a Monster Pony. So I did it again even taller, and went shooting backwards really fast. So Cyd said 'Nuhuh, we are not playing that game' and got off me. She made me quick march down to where my friends live, staying absolutely in my box, not talking to the new neighbour ponies, or looking at stuff. We went into the round pen, and I didn't even have to be sent round, I was like a crazy pony in there! I even kinda fell down my back legs cos for not being great footing and going too fast. We did round penning for a while, then we practiced walking up and down the road like a grown up. I did fabulous, but now there was no time for pony riding :( The next morning I was so sleepy and was a bit sore cos for being silly.

I didn't want to get up cos I didn't know I was just getting my pedicure. Usually I get up before Cyd reaches me, but this time I let her sit with me, and even when my halter was on I stayed laying down.

"Don't Wanna!"

Okay, next Really Bad Thing!

You know how I love to play with stuff? And sometimes I get in Troubles cos for doing mischiefs? Like chewing on Uncle J's boat? I was totally just playing around with the hose pipe, and totally by mistake pulled it just a bit too far, and the pipe just broke. But it broke before where the tap is, so the water sprayed EVERYWHERE! Ohmygoodness I made so much flood. Luckily I didn't completely drain the well, but I am in so much troubles :( Apparently there is something called drought, and we are all supposed to be conserving our waters, not making giant floods with uncontrolled broken pipes! I'm super sorries though!

But I did good things too. Like going pony riding without my saddle and my bridle, just my halter. Also, I met my first turkeys, and didn't make Cyd fall down when I got scared of them a little bit. She's really not good at pony riding without a saddle, made my shenanigans much more entertaining.

I also went on a pony ride with my new friends. Cyd took me pony riding and kept saying stuff like, "C'mon Bugsy, no time for snacking, we'll be late". Um, late for what? I hopped my ditch, didn't get to stop in my field, and headed for the cattle grid. We were nearly there when suddenly some puppies appeared called Remy and Zoe. Then Aunty R showed up on her pony. How exciting for me. Then after some more minutes Aunty M and another person came too with another dog. Now four ponies and three dogs, and we all set off together. I was a bit nervous, cos sometimes the dogs would go running off into the bushes and then chasing back again, but by later I was doing super good. After a bit, we split up with me and Aunty R and two dogs going one way, and everyone else going the other way. I did some trotting and cantering. We were headed towards my house, but Cyd totally missed the trail. I didn't complain much, just followed Aunty R's pony. We then turned away from the other home trail cos for having to escort Aunty R to the woods trail so she didn't get lost going home, then I got to turn around and finally go home. It was a big day for me, and I was mostly fabulous!

Cyd still didn't ask for the other photos from my big pony ride. She said maybe if I keep doing good I might do something called 'slow LD' at somewhere called Chamberlain Creek in a few months. We don't know for sure, as it will depend on many things. Also, she finished reading Ms Hannah Hooton's book called Share and Share Alike, I'm going to tell you all about it really soon. It was very good!

I thinks that's all my news that you missed. I hope you weren't too super sad that I wasn't here :)