Birds

One lovely morning I was being led back to the barn by my human mom. When we got to the bridge we have to cross, everything was going well when I got the biggest fright of my life - so far!  A huge bird, a turkey buzzard, flew up from under the bridge and right in front of us.  Both me and my mom were scared out of our lives and stopped in our tracks.  It took us a while to recover and for me to walk over the bridge.  I had problems every day after that going any where near that bridge.  It took a lot of encouragement from my mom to go over the bridge again, I can tell you.

After having breakfast my mom would brush me all over, to get me used to being touched everywhere and would pick up my feet to clean them out. She would also hammer on the bottom of my feet to get me used to what the farrier will do to me.

One of my first visitors was the farrier.  He is someone who looks after horses feet.  He trims them with nippers and, if a horse needs shoes put on, he hammers them on with nails.  My farriers name is Ralph.  He is very nice to me and the other horses.  He is very patient when we try to pull our feet away from him and tries hard not to hurt us.  Every time he comes to the barn, even if I dont need my feet trimmed, he picks up all my feet.  He says it is good practise for me.  My mom holds me with a lead rope in the aisle, but one day I will be clipped to the cross ties - when I can stand quietly that is!!

My human mom teaches adult and children to ride, using the other horses at the barn, so I always have visitors to talk to me and stroke me.  I get very impatient if they dont come and visit me and bang the door. Of course I get into trouble when I do that from my mom.  Everyone thinks I am very cute, because I am smaller than the other horses, but not the ponies of course. They will not get any taller, but I will.

Here I am being a little bit naughty with my human mom!