Forest Riding

Sharing is caring!

Hello everybodies, how are you? I am fabulous. Today, I went pony riding with Aunt-T and Hueypony and... you'll never guess... Aunty V and Leopony. They are usually sooo busy but there was a little gap where everybody had free time so off us ponies went in the trailer down to one of our favourite places. I was being a bit bad when Cyd was getting me ready, doing my dancing, and trying to help her put on my go-faster booties. Finally I was ready, and Cyd hopped on. I was so raring to go that I was very distressed at Cyd trying to reach her big red cup of coffee on the hood of the truck to carry down to where my friends live. I started doing jumping in the road and in the end she did a big sigh and walked me down on foot (so we didn't spill the coffee obviously). 

Once I was at my friends' house I did even more dancing, and lots of posing. I posed tied to the pony trailer, I posed trying to get in the pony trailer, I posed once I was inside. When we got to our parking place, I posed on the outside too. Hueypony was kind enough to share his hayfoods with me, thank you Hueypony. 

All the peoples got their helmets, and got super bundled up in their warm clothes, and off we went up the trail. I did a lot of being a leader pony today. I did get stuck at one point and Cyd had to hop off and make me do my things for unsticking. Thanks Aunty V and Aunt-T for patiently letting me figure my stuff out. This is why Cyd should have discussed with me the other day instead of letting me win by letting our friend go in front. It didn't take me long to get smart again though. I even went in the creek first by myself like a good pony, and had a little drink even though it was super cold and I wasn't working hard cos for the ground being slick.

We stopped by the watertankbathtubthing for some drinking and the people to do peeing and photoing. Look at the giant mushrooms we found:

My hoofy for perspective

Cyd had to do peeing so she very securely tied me to a tree. This is why having a good tying pony is good, she can put me just about anywhere and as long as I think I'm tied it's okay. Today's tie-spot? A twiggy branch coming off a fallen branch on the ground, nothing that would actually hold me if I decided to leave. 

It was so cold my breath made smokes!

I was also being polite enough today that I was trusted to be good so that Cyd could hold Hueypony's reins for a minute. I did good, except for wanting to hold Hueypony too, but I didn't chew on his reins so it's okay.

Guide pony in training!

My biggest achievement today though? I went up the rock trail. I have never done this before, and Cyd forgot when we were here last week. She tried to make me go up, with the plan of Waylonpony coming next, except for me not liking it and trying to go backwards and I nearly made me and Cyd fall off the edge and crash into rocks. We did enough of going forwards to make it still a god learning time, but then we turned around and took the roundabout trail like I usually do. Today, Hueypony went in front, Leopony went next, and I went in the back in case I did my backing up again, so just us fell down, not taking anybody with us. I had no problems though. Just like Cyd thought, I just needed some confidence and guidance. Aunty V did videoing with her helmet camera of how awesome I did. We don't know how to put my movie here, but you can see it by clicking here. Thanks for movie-ing me, and taking me pony riding! We had so much fun!

I Feel Gooood!

Sooo relaxed

Hello everybodies, how are you? I am fabulous, particularly today. Today I am super relaxed and sleepy and feeling good in my body. Know why? Aunty D from Horses At Liberty came and did pony sports massage on my little body. I love my massages! Cyd forgot to take my 'before' pictures, but she did take lots of pictures of me chilling out and enjoying myself and doing releasing. I did have some sore spots, so it was really good for me. (Ssh, don't tell anybody how bad I was on the lunge doing my pre-massage warm up...)

Giving Aunty D thank you kisses

I've been doing some pony riding too, with our new friends E and Waylonpony. We went exploring but Cyd couldn't find the route. They are very trusting of Cyd and she took us into the woods on what looked like a trail but totally wasn't! Oopsies. On the way there were some people doing shooting. They were a really really long way away from us so we were totally safe, but it was kinda loud cos for there being no hillside in between the shooting place and I decided it would be safest to stay on High Alert for protection. I also decided that it was an excellent excuse to do misbehavings, and did not really behave appropriately for a while. (Cyd also did not behave appropriately and have a Discussion with me, which we are aware means she will have to work harder our next few rides. She is a lazy Bugsy trainer!) Thanks for taking us riding Aunty E, we love our early morning adventures!

Cyd forgot to take riding pictures, but here's our sunrise!

Day After Day After Day

Hello everybodies, how are you? I am fabulous, but a bit tired, especially in my brain. I just did three pony rides in three days. That's quite a lot for me, but none of them were really hard. On day number Monday I went on my trails, just me and Cyd. She couldn't find her saw, so we hoped the storm didn't make too many branches do falling. We were going to pick our loopy depending on my brain, but then the woods decided for us. There was a tree down that even if Cyd had her saw we couldn't get through without it taking ages and ages. She hopped off and tried to find a way to lead me around, but there were rotten logs that I could get hurted on, so we turned around. Also we were nervous cos for it being so close to the hornet tree where I got lost in the woods on my own. So we turned back, but that was going to be a super short pony ride.

Lots of people said we should jump it, but I don't have the skills...

Instead of taking my trail home, we took one that we think dead ends. I was excited to explore, so trotted off. It turns out that it might not be a dead end after all. We're going to go out with a friend and explore one day, but it needs clearing a bit. We headed for home, but then instead Cyd made me go past my turn and head down the hill. We've explored this way before, and might be able to get a really big loopy, but it goes super close to someone's house and we don't want to be shooted at. The house is on the other side of the creek though, and so we just went down down the hill, so we could do trottings practice and canter back up. It was lots of fun, then we actually went home.

Early start

The next morning, Cyd came to get me really early. She gave me a little extra breakfasts, and was brushing me really fast. A pony trailer I never saw before pulled up outside. I got my saddle and Cyd's helmet and met a new friend, E and her pony called Waylon. I hopped right in the trailer (I'm really good at this now!) and started making friends. We went to Jackson State Forest to show our new friends the trails there. I was a bit bad at not letting Cyd get on me (did we mention how I STILL keep growing?!) and she was not her most springy, but somehow she ended up in my saddle and we were off.

Me and Waylonpony both did some snorting and lots of looking and the peoples laughed at us. Apparently we should be brave having a friend, but nope, not us! Mostly I was well behaved, having a few sticky moments. I didn't get too grumpy at Waylonpony, but I did bump him sometimes (with my butt, not my hoofies, but still unacceptable and got me growled at). At one time I was so busy making grumpy faces at him I forgot to watch my feeties and tripped over. I also got a bit full of myself when we were zooming up a fun skid trail, and ended up scooting over a big mound on my knees. Don't worry though, I'm totally okay. Thanks for taking us riding, we can't wait for our next adventure!

Me and my bestie

I'm not very good at Hide-n-Seek

This morning, guess who came pony riding? My bestie and Aunt-T. We haven't been pony riding with them much cos for them being so busy doing trail guiding, but now it's slow season they can come play again. We did a few kind of games today, and I'm not really sure I liked them. The first one was "Pass Me, Pass You". I was in the lead, then Hueypony trotted past me. Then I trotted past him. Then he trotted past me. Then I trotted past him. You get the idea. Hueypony was practicing being a good pony, I was practicing being a polite pony. Apparently it is not acceptable to threaten ponies that are trotting by. I learned quite fast, and I didn't do any butt swinging today, but I did make some grumpy faces. The next game was for me and Huey to both practice our being patient skills. Whoever was doing the overtaking kept going all the way around the corner until they were out of sight. The pony being passed had to stay walking politely, not bouncing, or rein snatching, or bucking. This one was a bit harder for both of us, but we both did really good.

My last one that I did, I stayed on a loose rein, and was alert but waited for Cyd to tell me if I could catch up or not. This is very good compared to my first one where I did so much bouncing that Cyd had to make me stand still four times just to be calm enough to walk around the corner. I'm a silly pony, but I'm learning.  I was super god when Cyd had to clear a branch (that she should have cleared weeks ago but is lazy and keeps getting bruised cos for it being so bad!) She didn't tie me up, I just hung out and waited patiently until she was done clearing. Don't worry, I was sandwiched with Cyd in front, and Aunt-T behind, so if I decided to try to leave someone would catch me, but I was happy to wait. The last game was definitely not one I like. Hueypony was involved, but he didn't have to practice like me. You know what he did? He touched me with his nose. Aunt-T let him, and even encouraged him, to keep touching me when we were standing and when we were walking. I had to practice sucking it up and being a grown up pony. Cyd says part of being a grown up is pretending to like people that we don't really. Neither of us are very good at it, but Cyd doesn't try to kick them. Troubles is, I like my friends. I whinny at them when I see their pony trailers, and when we're just hanging out at the trailer or drinking at the creek, I'm totally friendly. You know what else? Aunt-T touched me, and I wasn't allowed to make faces at her either. It was an exhausting game, but it is to make me better at behaving with my new friends so they still want to pony ride with me. Ticopony and Waylonpony are both also going to do enduring practice, so if I'm nice to them I can practice too, instead of us being on our own all the time. Cyd says I'm a pretty cool pony, but not a great conversationalist. Thanks for helping me learn Aunt-T and Hueypony, and good job Hue at getting better at your skills too!

Pony Selfie Time

Hands Free

Hello everybodies, how are you? I am fabulous. I have done two pony rides this week, both my short loopy. On my Wednesday pony ride I did something very foolish. I didn't know we were doing our short loopy, and decided to tell Cyd we were doing short so started doing speed shuffling towards the short trail. Troubles is, my legs got a bit tangled in themselves, and the ground was a bit slippy, and BOOM! down I went on the trail. I crashed my nose into the dirt, and then my knees, and we slid on the ground a bit. I did scrabbling, and Cyd gave me long reins so I could balance good, and she sat really still so as to not mess with me. I made it up to my feet, and was so pleased with myself that I went to bounce around, except I wasn't as straightened out as I thought I was and down I went again. I got up a bit faster this time, and Cyd wanted to jump off and check my poor face and knees, but I fell due to my bad behavings, so now we had to go up the trail I didn't want to go on. I was walking okay so a few more strides for my brain wasn't going to hurt me. I was a bit sulky but I went the way I didn't want to. After I stopped arguing with Cyd, she hopped off to check me. Luckily since it was soft ground I was totally fine, but quite muddy. We brushed the dirt off me, checked for cuts, then she hopped back up and turned me back the way to the trail we wanted to take. The rest of our ride was uneventful.

Today was more of a big deal! Cyd came and woke me up (it wasn't early but I was lazing around) I got my (borrowed) saddle, and Cyd's helmet, and... my liberty ring. Cyd hopped on me in my field, and we walked up the road to my trail. We had a bit of an incident with a dummy driving a box truck for a local business. Cyd is getting pretty mad at them, they don't listen and don't care that I have the right to be there too, and they couldn't wait 20 seconds for us to reach the next drive way to get off the road for safeties. Lucky I don't get too easily scared and just held my breath! 

Once we got to my trail, Cyd clipped my reins to the carabiner that lives on my saddle to hold my tailing rope, and picked up my neck loop. That was for my steering and my brakes, really it's just a slight addition to her seat and legs cues. I did really good, only needing a little bit of guidance. There's a spot on my trail where I try to go left, and today Cyd wants to go right. Sometimes we have quite a discussion about this, I *always* want to go left, sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. Well, we had a little chat about it, and I gave in and we went right. Cyd didn't have to pick up my reins once, it was all with my liberty ring and her seat. We went just a bit further, and Cyd decided to maybe be a little foolish. She reached down to my face, and I thought she was giving me a cookie, but you know what she did? Unclipped my rein! Then she reached the other side and unclipped that one too. I usually do my pony riding on a long rein, but this was total freedom.

You know what I did? Nothing! I was really good, did my walking and a little bit of trottings practice, did my steering, even in the tricky bits around the low branches. Cyd was so pleased with me. We tried to do a little bit of canter but I don't like to do canter in this saddle. I didn't have my reins attached all the way until we got back to the road. Cyd put them on then for safeties, but only picked them up when there were cars around me. See how grown up I'm getting? After some (lots!) more practice, we're going to try doing it with nothing on my head. I only crashed one time, and it was a little crash into a sideways branch that we've crashed into even with my bridle, so we decided it doesn't count! Look we took movies to prove it!

Try Again

Hello everybodies, how are you? I am fabulous, but a little bit full of myself. But first we have some not so fabulous news. My super comfy cloud saddle doesn't fit me so good. We can play with pads, since we know the one I've been wearing isn't very good. We only changed my pad set up recently, and thought we had fixed whatever was making me owie. Now my winter fur is growing in, some white hairs came through too. My hairs are supposed to be brown, so white hairs mean there's troubles. Troubles is, are they growing from my new setup, or my old one? We think my old one cos for them growing pretty fast after changing and only when my winter fur grew. But last week Cyd and I went for a zoomy conditioning ride, nine miles of mostly doing trottings and some canter practice (right side kind as well as my preferred left side kind), and one zoomy gallop cos for me learning to be fast. On the way home I was a bit picky about doing downhills, but mostly I was moving good the whole pony ride, lifted through my back, using my butt, and striding out well. Once we took off my saddle though... uhoh. My hairs were all scuffed up, there was a big dry spot, and while I wasn't ouchy then, I wasn't delighted to have Cyd poke me the next day.

Inappropriate scuffings

Hmmm. Back to the drawing board we go. Aunt-E and Cyd both wanted to try a new kind of saddle, so they went halfsies on one that will be here soon, so they can both do pony riding in it. If one of them wants to keep it, then they can pay the other one halfsies again. Good deal. Though it's red, gross. Uncle J can fix that if Cyd is the one to keep it though. We'll take red if it fits me good!

Big dry spot

In the meantime, we still want to do pony riding. Aunt-E is sending down a saddle called Free'N'Easy for me to borrow. Cyd doesn't like this kind very much, they make her sore, but you can adjust them to fit different ponies, and it's just for temporaries. In the meantime meantime, we still want to do pony riding, so Aunty D lent us her old pony's endurance saddle. Look at me all dressed up kinda like a western pony:

Cyd's hips do not love the wider twist, so it would not be good long term, and it's not perfect on me for if I was going 50 miles, but it doesn't hurt me either so we can do some practicing on our training rides. Thanks Aunty D and Aunt-E, we are grateful to do borrowing!

On Sunday we did pony riding with Aunty-D and Ticopony, and new friends A and Mesapony, and C and Rickypony. We went in Tico's pony trailer to A's house to get our saddles on, and started our ride there. Cyd has done some people running there, but not done pony riding there except for one time years ago when my Fuega friend was still a foolish baby pony learning how to do trails properly. I played in the puddles, but needed some encouragement to get started. I didn't even one time lift my leg at Sighdog even when she was behind me or did scooting past on the single track or jumped out the bushes, but I still made faces at her. I also didn't like when I was the lead pony but she was still overall leader. Cyd told me to suck it up. We started with Ticopony being the leader, cos for me thinking the rocks might eat me, but then I went in the lead. We went on some really narrow twisty turny trail, that our new friends had to check with Cyd to see if I was grown up enough. Cyd told them if I wasn't smart enough then it was time for me to learn how to be. I did super awesome, bending off Cyd's leg so we don't bump her knees into the trees, not being all spookylookey, and wanting to do trotting even though it was a walking pony ride due to some rider delicacy post-Halloween. I only politely asked though, and didn't get grumpy when Cyd said no. That doesn't mean I didn't have some tantrums. I had no interest in being friends with Rickypony, who loves everyone, or Mesapony. Any time anyone got in my (giant) personal space bubble I had a little strop, and Cyd told me off and everybody laughed at me for being a brat. I also wanted to be leaderpony all the time (Cyd is both happy and sad by this...)

Singletrack Leaderpony

I wasn't doing bad behavings if I wasn't the leader pony, but I did grumpy ear waggling, and if there was space like on the logging road, I totally walked fast and snuck past everyone when they weren't paying attentions. At one point Ticopony was being a little bit naughty, so I thought I could be a little bit naughty, so instead of walking down the trail I did bouncing. More laughing at Bugsy. Then when we were nearly home, Sighdog ran off to go play with a new friend who was also out walking, so we all stopped while Aunty D trotted away to fetch her and I decided that was my cue to GO! I sproinged into the sky and bounced some more when Cyd made me not chase after them, so we had to do circles around the other ponies while we waited until I could walk on a loose rein again. The rest of our ride I was really good, right up until I got my saddle off and Tico and I were going to practice doing trotting out cos for us both learning to do enduring. Big fail for Bugsy! I got all excited, and spun in circles so fast Cyd didn't have time to stop me, and I got the ponies in the paddocks excited, and my brain fell out my head. I was doing super slow suspended trotting in teeny tiny circles around Cyd, and not being smart. We wanted to do our groundwork exercises but for it being really wet and slippy. Now we know that just cos I'm doing good at trotting out at home, I'm still bad in new places. More practicing to happen!

Our pony ride yesterday got cancelled (just me and Cyd) cos for only having the forest to ride in, and the wind was blowing really hard that the trees might be falling, especially with them being all wet from the day before raining. Cyd thought it might be a bad idea, and Uncle J totally agreed that he didn't want us out there. We'll go tomorrow though, and we're going to practice stopping mid pony ride to do trotting out too, for something different. I'm really getting a bit too big for my boots, all this fancy showing off to impress my friends. Luckily everyone just laughs and goes "Silly baby horse, [insert their pony's name] used to be like that too" so we are still welcome to ride with them, and lucky I really don't do anything too bad, just bounces. I'm think I'm bad though! Thanks for putting up with my antics everyone, we appreciate it!