So Very Patient

Hello everybodies, how are you? I am fabulous, and was extra special good today. This day was when the trekking people go on the beach in the morning, then get on the pony trailers for not even ten minutes, then go in the woods in the afternoon. I don't go on the beach, but sometimes Cyd puts me in the pony trailer and we go to collect my friends at their meeting point so I can ride with them in the afternoon. Guess what? I got on the pony trailer with no help from anyone, just walked up, looked in, Cyd told me to hop in after her, so I did! Yay Me! Cyd miscalculated, and I had to wait in the pony trailer for nearly an hour :(

Waiting in the pony trailer

Also, if there are tons of parking spots, and you see a pony trailer, would you park like this? D'oh!

Finally my friends arrived, and loaded up in the pony trailers, and we drove to Simcha, just across the river. We unloaded and Cyd was helping the guest peoples get on their ponies until she realised my new superbud Xingu was being taken away from me for his person to get on and my brain was about to melt. I was better when she held my rope and let me eat snacks to stay calm, then it was time to ride. We divided into long, short, and middle groups. I went with Aunty V's middle group. We took lots of pictures at somewhere called Windy Knoll. Look at us doing posing:

Hey look, no hands!

Ocean-view cuddles

Aunty V and Leo-pony

We got done taking pictures, and set off up the hill to the lunch spot.

Lunch butts, waiting for more friends

Troubles is, I wasn't ready for a break, so to make sure I waited patiently I chewed on my reins, which were Cyd's most favouritist made by Aunt-E which I already broke a bit on Sunday, and now broke some more.

In the afternoon we did a trail called North Boundary, which is super fun and quite a bit steep. I got up it so good, just put my head down and power walked up, not being silly like some ponies can get and bounding up. Then there is a long canter back to Simcha, where I got a bit tired after my steep climb but I tried really hard.

Once we got back down the big hill, it was time to load up on the pony trailer. I went on right away again, cos for me getting so good! I got confused when we got back to my friends' house, cos for me not being in the pony trailer, but seeing Cyd in there.

Watcha doing in there with Indy pony? I'm out here

I had to share Cyd with Rascal pony for bath time, but that's okay. I just made sure that I was in front when we did walking together.

Mash for me first, yeah?

And good news that Cyd gets the weekend off to go to somewhere called Cooley Ranch, where ponies are going to be doing two days of enduring. I might get to go too, and be a volunteer pony, and get an idea of what something called ridecamp is all about. Pretty exciting to be growing up!

I'm A Working Pony!

Hello everybodies! How are you? I am so fabulous, cos for doing a special kind of pony riding on Sunday, and for getting big and strong. Look how beefy I'm getting:

 I did trail guiding, me as the boss pony with me and Cyd in charge of the other pony riders. I did pretty awesome. I was mostly grown up all day. I got on the pony trailer with minimum stopping. I came out politely at the other end, but with a bump on my face somehow. Don't worry, I'm totally okay, and only a few bloods came out.

My owie

I met my new friend Xingu on the pony trailer, and we became great buddies super fast. We stood good with each other waiting for our people to pack their lunches, and he was nice to me and patient when my brain got confused sometimes. I didn't get mad at him at all, even when he bumped into my butt.

Ready for my first day at work

Whilst I was not in the very front a lot, that was actually still a bit hard for me cos for the front pony not always walking slow enough. I could keep up, but my new friend Xingu couldn't, so I kept having to do stopping for him and Cyd was making me do slow walking and us getting left behind a bit. I mostly was okay with this; I did some small bounces, but Cyd said it was important for me to do my best behavings for this pony ride. We started out just great, walking quietly to warm our muscles up, then doing trottings and canterings up the big hill. I didn't have to walk once cos for me getting so strong! We were heading for the Spectacular trail, with all the grasses and the views!

Bugsy the leader

We got our picture taken too

One of my new skills is riding up next to my friend, Cyd getting their camera, telling them where to pose, and then being a good tripod-pony so Cyd could take good pictures. Not all ponies are good at this, but I did pretty well! We had to take a detour to get to lunch time cos for a tree blocking our path, but we got there finally. Us ponies got tied to our usual tree while the peoples went to eat their food. At one point Cyd looked over and thought she couldn't see my butt, just Xingu's butt. Another person said they promised they could see me, so Cyd stayed eating her snacks. Guess what happened when they done and coming to get us? I was totally not where I'd been left, I snapped my reins and took myself off for a snack. The field we were in was huge tall grasses waiting to turn into hay, and I was gorging myself to be fueled for our next bit of riding! Lucky Cyd had some tape so she was able to fix them up good enough to keep riding. (Hey Aunt-E, can Cyd order some new reins please? I broke the yellow bit and now they're quite short!) We went to the creek for a drink, and I was so thirsty and drank and drank and drank, and did some snorkeling of course. Our afternoon ride was a nice walk on a shorter loopy. There were so many pretty flowers, we had to take some pictures.

My new friend Xingu and rider K

Forget-me-nots everywhere

We had so much fun on this pony ride that I forgot that I don't like to get in the pony trailer, and just hopped right in after Cyd. She says eventually I will be so brave that I will go in all by myself. Once we got home we had to be given our showers and eat our mash food. It was a bit chilly to be standing around all wet while I ate my snacks, and Cyd had forgotten to bring my warm fuzzy yellow cooler, so Aunty V found me a snuggly blanky to keep me warm. Cyd failed at figuring it out so Aunty V had to wrap me up. Thanks Aunty V! I think...

Snugsy as a Bugsy

Mash face

Hang on tight!

Hello everybodies, how are you? I am fabulous, but Cyd says I was not my bestest yesterday on our pony ride. Know why? It was super windy, like a smart Cyd would have left me safe in field, not taken me to the woods where the trees might fall... To make things harder on herself she decided she was too lazy to walk up the road, so hopped on me right away. Well we made it about quarter of a mile before my brains started leaking out my ears. THERE WERE FLAGS! BLOWING AT ME! RUN AWAAAY! Apparently it's okay for me to look at stuff that makes me nervous cos then I can see it's not scary, but I 'must control my reactions so that I am appropriately behaving'. Pffft I don't think so. But don't you think flags are scary, especially super windy flags?

Well, these weren't the flags I was scared of. Cyd might not have been frustrated with me if that was on my road. But apparently these little guys were not going to eat me, and I was being a foolish pony.

She got off, and we spent forever (like ten minutes) getting me past it, but then I was ready to go. We borrowed someone's slopey driveway as a mounting block and up she went. For a whole not even quarter of the same mile. There's a baby pony who lives near my trail, and he spotted me and went dancing and singing around his paddock, and I wanted to stay and watch. So Cyd got off again and led me to the trail, and through the Swamp of Sadness, which I didn't even hesitate at today, cos for already using up my stopping behavior quota. Cyd gets back on, and now I'm really ready to ride. I was feeling a bit lazy, so instead of going up the hill to do my loopy, we went exploring on the dead end trail. The map says it doesn't go anywhere, but we decided to check for ourselves just in cases. It was totally super overgrown, but Cyd lay on my neck, and I squintied my eyes tight, and we barged on through. Sometimes we got a bit tangled, but we figured it out and got ourselves free. It looks like it goes further than we went, but after a bit Cyd said we should turn around, cos it was getting too thick for even the bravest adventure pony. It was harder going back the way we came cos for now it being uphill and us not quite fitting like we did on the way down. 

 

Once we got to the end of the adventure trail, Cyd asked me which way I wanted to go. I picked right up the hill to go on my loopy instead of left to home. I was feeling pretty proud of myself, and had a bounce in my step. We started going down the bumpy trail and I kept asking to do trotting. I always ask, and Cyd always says no, so I should probably know by know, but I'll keep asking. We got to the little clearing, and I suddenly did stopping. There were some deers watching me. We had a staring contest, and then I must have won cos they ran away, or maybe they won cos I ran away too. We were facing down the trail, with Cyd's butt in my saddle, and a leg on each side, as is the appropriate way to do pony riding. Then I zoomed in a teeny circle with no warning and charged back up the trail. "Stop stop Bugsy, waah please stop". I take a peek at Cyd, and am surprised to see her looking up at me, not down. She was hanging off my side with her hands all wrapped up in my mane and only one rein left, and her one leg was dangling and the other was over my back. She was all topsy turvy like I didn't see before. I stood still, and she did wiggling and wiggling and scooting and finally made it back into my saddle. Phew! With how messed up my brain was I might not have waited around for her if she hadn't stayed attached to me, then I would be lost in the woods and be a bear snack. Also, Uncle J would be super mad at me, cos for my job in his eyes being to not hurt Cyd! 

 

We carried on down the trail, and I was on high alert in case those deers came back to finish me off. Cyd did singing at me, cos for me liking when I can hear voices and getting calm, but I am not a great conversationalist. Not sure if I calmed down cos for her singing, or calmed down to make her stop singing! She also leaned over to my face and adjusted my reins from halter level to strong pony level cos for me being ready to go as fast as I can. I finally calmed down and did walking (still at speed though) and we got to where I usually get to do trottings and sometimes canter practice, but Cyd said I was too spooky lukey, and we weren't chancing her nearly falling down again from my antics. I finished my ride with no problems, although some of the trees were making both of us nervous in the wind. We tried to do selfies but it wasn't so good.

Now I have to rest up for my big adventure this weekend. I have to be on my best behaviors for Cyd, and prove just how grown up I can be. I hope I do good!

Bear? What bear?

Hello everybodies, how are you? I am fabulous. I'm having a couple days off right now so Cyd can go drink beer in a field at something called BeerFest with Uncle J. Uncle J works at the place in town where they make the beer, so it would be rude to not go show it off, and try all the kinds. We're hopefully doing pony riding on Sunday, I have to not be too wobbly, to wiggle her right off the side. 

Having a chat with my bestie about being grown ups

On Wednesday I did pony riding with my bestie and Aunt-T. We had a lot of fun, doing walking and trottings and cantering. We went for ten miles and a bit extra. Sometimes I did some silly things, but mostly was pretty good. Remember how I hate to do puddle swimming? Look at me here:

 On the first half of our pony ride, Cyd and Aunt-T were talking about bears. Apparently bears are scary cos for having big teeth and claws, but not very scary cos for them being scared of us too, so no biggie. They get spotted sometimes, and sometimes we can smell that they were there just before us, but they hide when they hear us coming. This is the kind we have near my house:

Doesn't look too scary

Cyd was saying how I didn't meet any bears yet, and she wondered how I would react, cos for being kind of a city boy and not seeing anything more exotic than a cow for my whole lifetime. Aunt-T said we would probably be in a group, or all on our lonesome. Cyd said probably the two of us riding like we are now. Well, big surprise, on our way with being nearly done with our pony ride, walking down the hill, Aunt-T goes "Look Cyd, a bear". Cyd didn't see it, but it had popped up on it's back feet like I do sometimes to check us out, then crouched down in hiding again. We did stopping, and it went scooting across to the other side of the trail so it could go back into the forest and hide from us. It wasn't very close, and just wanted to get out of our way for safeties. So there's my first bear encounter. The only troubles is... I didn't actually see it. We had just tried to do side by side cantering, and overtaking each other, and I got a bit carried away. At bear spotting time I was still feeling a bit exuberant, and was so busy looking up at the clouds I didn't actually see the bear. D'oh, silly me! At least we had a super fun pony ride.

Don't ask me to pose amongst such tall snacks!

My booties needed a good polish afterwards

Go-Faster Booties For Bugsy!

Hello everybodies, how are you? I am extra fabulous today! Wanna know why? Cos for me now having a full set of go-faster booties called Vipers made by the nice Renegade people. They are super bright orange to help them channel something called KTM, it makes Aunty V's person go super fast on the trails, so now I can go super fast too, right? Look how bright they are:

The smaller dirty ones used to go on my front feets, but then my feets got too big that they don't fit in there any more. Luckily, my back feets are smaller than my front ones, and the little boots fit on the back, and the new big ones go on the front. It took a minute to try and get them all situated on my feeties, but look how snazzy:

I only wore my new front booties today, and Cyd didn't quite get them right, but our ordering lady (who can be found here) looked at the pictures and told Cyd how we make it fit me better, and will check our fixings tomorrow. Thank you!! Even though Cyd didn't get it quite right, they still didn't fall off my feeties. We went through the Swamp of Sadness two times, and both booties stayed on my feeties and didn't need any adjustings. Also, I am an exaggerator, but I look at this pit like it might be the Swamp of Sadness. Cyd tells me to think happy thoughts when we go through, just in cases.

Not a swamp, but a booting concern

It doesn't look much in the picture, but it's quite deep and sucky and splashy and neither of us like it. Cyd is going to try to reroute the trail, cos it isn't going to get better if I keep charging through like I do. There were some other puddly and muddy spots, but once they stuck through here Cyd was pretty confident that the other crossings we had today wouldn't be a problem.

Next test, doing trottings practice. No issues here, nopey dope. Just trotted right along. Until the next test - big spooks! I'm not usually too spooky-lukey, but we were trottings along minding our own business when WHOOOSH went the turkey that we didn't see in front of us. Lucky I didn't give Cyd whiplash with my 'trottings forward-speed reversing-launch for cover' maneuver (patent pending). Since it was a day for new things she would have been safe even if she did falling down with her shiny new helmet.

The old one didn't do falling, but it had some dings, and Cyd needs to do what she can to hang on to the brain cells she has, or the two of us together will be a lost cause! With the spook test safely out the way, we got to the rocky road that I hate. Often Cyd will get off and lead me down, but she wanted to feel my different walking. My feeties felt good enough to give her some troubles. Well, if the rocks don't hurt me now WHY can't we do trottings? Spoiling all my funzies! Once we got on the flat we did trottings though, and I did big strides even though the ground was still a bit gravelly. There was a nice long hill to do some canter practice, but I didn't really want to. Then I didn't want to trot, or to walk. Cyd looked and checked my booties were intact cos maybe that was bothering me but it wasn't. We got me moving pretty quickly, but I was hesitant and super snorty that whole trail, so maybe something had been there before me to make me nervous. Once we got past I was happy to do more trottings, but now we were going down hill again, so walkwalkwalk booooring.

We finally got to the bit where I can do trottings and canter practice, but I just wanted to trot, and got a bit stroppy when Cyd told me to do canter. I did some short canters, and had no booties issues, then stopped at one of the big puddles to get a drink cos for me being hot and sweaty. My booties got all wet and some muds on them, but right away we were off again. Now I had a drink I was ready for canter, and we went flying along the trail, so fast we nearly missed our turn. I had fun cantering up the hill and dodging the big piles of pampass grass, and even trying to grab a bite on the fly. I did mostly trotting and some canter until we got to the squiggly bit through the trees. We did some trotting, and even a little jump, but it's quite skinny and Cyd's attached to her knees and goes "Owiieee Bugseee watch my knees" when I crash into things. I'm learning to do something called 'move off her leg' to bend around stuff, but I still forget how sometimes unless we're walking. Then Cyd dropped her crop and had to hop off to fetch it, so I took advantage of her not balancing on me for a good itch and she did a boot check.

Resting in the shade

Once we were out of there and across the tricky ground bit, I was off again, sailing up the hill. I had to pause sometimes, for breathing, or for Cyd to fit under low branches, but I got up the fastest ever, even though it's another gravelly trail. And once we got to the road at the top? I zoomed some more! I love my booties! I had to do more walking on the boring downhill, and I had a couple of strops when we didn't do what I wanted, but no biggie, I barely did anything bad. I did super good all the way home, and still no bootie adjusting. It's super lucky they fit me, cos for them getting pretty muddy on my adventure hehe.

We have some adjusting to do tomorrow, but I think I love them. I was ready for a nap in the sunshine when I got home, cos for warmness and trotting and cantering and hills.

Cyd failed at my snacks and didn't bring me stuff to make me a tasty post ride mash. There was some grain hay that I don't usually eat in the barn, so I got that for my snack. I scoffed it pretty quick cos I only got one real snack break on my pony ride, so after my shower I got some more. Nomnom!

I did the same ride that I did with my bestie the other day, but so much faster. We took three hours that day, and only two and a half hours today. I'm so zoomy now!

So Much Pony Riding

Hello everybodies, how are you? I am fabulous, and getting really fit and strong. Cyd has been home from her trip for eight days, and we've done pony riding on five of those days! Mostly just short rides, not even five miles, sometimes just walking, sometimes with trotting practice and sometimes some canter practice. I was being so good the other day that I got to do trotting practice with one handed rein holding while Cyd's other hand did videoing. I had some sorta silly moments, but look how good I did:

Today, I got to have some company on my pony ride. Aunt-T and her favouritist pony who is also my bestie came to play. I was a bit rude going up the road, so Cyd ended up getting off and leading me cos I got a bit stuck. She got back on at our usual spot, and I was mostly good through the squirrelly trail. I was feeling quite full of myself, and the first half of our pony ride I did bad things, like bouncing and mini rears if my bestie got in front, or just cos I felt like it. Eventually I settled down, and even got good enough that my bestie crashed into my butt and I made faces but didn't get mad, and one time he even did trotting to catch up to me and I didn't care and get excited. When I was a baby pony he was super helpful in teaching me to be a good trail pony, and was very patient at waiting for me when I got tired on the hills, or not knowing how to do trottings. Today, I had to do patiently waiting for him. He's had some time off you see, and got a bit squidgy in the middle and not super fit anymore, and also needed some tack adjusting that we didn't know about until we got home. He's coming to play with me again tomorrow, cos apparently I need to practice not showing off to my friends, especially if I go to an endurance pony ride, I will have to do my best behavings. I might maybe go to one soon just to see what everything's all about, and do something called ribbon pulling, but we're still figuring out how to make that happen. I need to get a pony trailer to easier facilitate my travelings for adventures! 

Butter wouldn't melt

Must. Run. Everywhere.

Hello everybodies! How are you? I am fabulous, and also really fast now (Cyd says I'm not actually that fast, but much faster than I was at least). It's been pretty quiet in my world lately. I had to take some time off cos for me getting hurted, then some time off cos Cyd was about to go away and we wouldn't be able to monitor if I was re-hurted, then some time off cos Cyd went away. That made for three whole weeks of no pony riding for me. Don't worry about my owie, we think it was just a sore bruise, cos for it being swelled, but not hot, and I didn't like it being poked at, but it didn't make me lame. I had to wear something called ice boot, which is really boring. The boot goes on your leg, then you just stand there and don't do stuff. I tried taking off my boot, but that got me in troubles. So then I figured out how to take the icicles out of the boot without taking it off, but that got me in troubles too. So boring.

I got my owie by crashing into a tree. Cyd says I'm not always so smart, since there was a perfectly appropriate tree free area but I didn't want to listen to her. Then when she was parking me next to a fallen down tree to get back on (I'm getting pretty big and it's better for my back), I waited until she was safely in my saddle, turned to face the tree, and put my front feet up on it like I was doing tricks. Cyd laughed and said she needs to pay better attentions to me. I hopped my front legs down on the other side, then hopped my back legs up on the tree. D'oh! Of course I do these silly things when nobody is there to see me and take my picture. We're lucky it was a sturdy tree so I didn't fall in! Even though my owie got better before Cyd went on her trip, I didn't get to do pony riding just in case something happened to make my owie worse. I got my pictures taken and sent to Cyd regularly to prove I was okay, and I was even grown up enough to get my hoovies trimmed without anybody being there!

Cyd got back on Tuesday night and came to see me Wednesday. I was so excited to see her I ran all over my field. We brushed me up all good, and put my things on to go pony riding. I had some few difficulties in my usual spots, but we got me through it super fast. Then it was time to GO! So you know what? Cyd let me. We went so fast (except not really). I'm getting good at my canter, and I love doing trottings everywhere. I was super bouncy, and we didn't get any pictures of me cos for Cyd needing to hang onto my reins to steer and stop me. Not really appropriate behaving, but we had fun, and since it was a short ride, I didn't get annoying. Zooooooom!

My "knock it off"d face

Yesterday, it was sunny when Cyd got all done with her people job, so we went for another quick pony ride. And you know what? I had to walk the WHOLE way. Sometimes I did bouncing, and we had to stop and be good again. Apparently while we sometimes have speedy fun rides, we have to remind me to be something called responsible citizen. It's not as much fun, but very entertaining for Cyd dealing with all my shenanigans. I do bouncing, and sproinging, and spooking at nothing at all, and I don't do any of it very convincingly, and to make me stop she just goes "Hmph, knock it off pony", and I put my sad face on and walk for a bit. I was able to have pictures taken at least. We have lots of pony riding planned this week!