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?

Lazy Week For Me

Hey everybodies. How are you? I'm pretty good, just lazing about in my field. No pony riding this week. We were going to go today but Cyd went to a different place not in Fort Bragg to go meet my Aunt-E for snacks cos for her not going to the endurance ride. There have been so many plan changes; at one point even I was going to go, just to hang out and watch the grown up ponies doing their enduring, and maybe ride around some being helpful. While Cyd was there, Aunt-E gave us presents, one for Cyd and one for me. Now we can be twinsies. This is me in my new cooler:

Do I look super cute?

Mmm, tasty too

It also stays on good when silly ponies forget they are grown ups and try to run away before their straps are on:

Thanks Aunt-E, I love it. And Cyd loves for when she wants to ride on a chilly day she doesn't have to choose between her helmet for saving her brain cells in case of boomping her head or being warm in her fuzzy hat. Now she can do both:

We're twinsies!

It's a wooly hat for going over helmets. Aunt-E is so smart at making things. Thanks for our presents :)

And look what Uncle J helped Cyd make for me:

DIYing

It's a collapsible measuring stick to find out how tall I am. Cyd measured me today. She said I have fifteen hands now. I have no idea what she's talking about, since I don't have hands, I have hooves, and there are four of them, and what does that even have to do with me getting tall?

I got into a bit of some mischief yesterday. Cyd and Uncle J had finished their dinners and were watching a movie and Cyd gets a phone call. Some peoples were driving by my house and it was night time and I was running around like a crazy pony. They stopped and said hi to me and I visited with them and did my dragon impression a bit, and they thought I was maybe acting odd cos ponies shouldn't be running around at night. They called Cyd and told her, so she came to check on me cos it's strange for me to be doing my running and playing at night time. She checked my house for bad things, but there was nothing there, and she checked my legs to be sure I didn't hurt myself. I was all sweaty and on high alert still but all good. I'm pretty shiny even in the dark, huh?

I've been getting lots of pony massage this week to make me feel good and for hanging out with Cyd not doing workings. I had some sore back, so we've been making it feel better. I like my massages. I go to sleep, then wake up, and when I wake up, that means Cyd should go to the next spot, and sometimes I pick the spot for her. You know what else I've been doing this week? Just being super cute! :)

Stashing these snacks for laters!

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