Naughty Ponies -- ARG!

The last twelve hours or so have been interesting. I’ll break them into two blogs so I don’t bore you.

This morning I went out to do my normal chores. I was still on cloud 9 after riding Maverick last night. I know I’ve been on him at the trainers and I should have gotten on him right away when I got him back but I waited since I’m a chicken. But it was so great to be on him last night.

So this morning I put on my steal toe shoes (since my tinglies have a hole in them and I didn’t want my feet wet). Tromped on out and fed Maverick his hay and headed over to the big herd to let them out. Nothing too exciting there. There’s usually some fuss. Dude hates Sam and I think it’s rubbing off on Bob so Bob doesn’t like Sam right now either. I’m sure Bob is jealous that Rain is hanging out with Sam instead of him.

Next are the ponies. I haltered them up. They are pretty good about letting me halter them. At first they were real pills but they have improved by leaps and bounds. They were a bit ornery this morning to lead them to their lawn pasture.

I moved the hot fence over to a new section but it ended up being fairly small this time around. I knew Skippy was a tad uncomfortable being that close to the electric on Wednesday. I’m guessing the grass wasn’t all that good. But I am tired of tromping through knee high wet grass and figured the ponies could eat it down for me. They’ve done a wonderful job of eating other portions of my lawn with no problems.

I led, with some difficulty, Tommy and Skippy over to the lawn pasture. Skippy started getting really naughty. I unhooked the leadrope from both Tommy and Skippy. Skippy decided to try and make a break for it. I don’t like messing with the electric fence while I’m hanging on to the ponies so I normally unhook them and then tighten up the fence. Well, I didn’t get a chance to tighten up the fence before Skippy decided he wanted out of there.

Luckily I was able to grab Skippy, literally grabbed him around his neck/chest and hung on for dear life. I was able to get ahold of his halter but right then Tommy came flying by. So then I had a loose horse. As many of you know, I’ve got a pretty bad temper and potty mouth. A screamed a few choice words at both the ponies. Oops. I shouldn’t probably admit that.


By this time I realized that my steal toes are not dry from the last time I tromped through the wet grass. So one foot is completely wet, soaked from the bottom up. I hate wet feet. What’s worse is then they are wet AND cold.

I led Skippy over to the dry lot while Tommy raced back and forth. If I wasn’t so worried about catching him, I would have enjoyed the scene unfolding. Tommy really knows how to fly. He had his tail up like an Arabian and his head held high. He really can run pretty quick. He raced across the yard a couple of times while I led Skippy back to the dry lot.

I threw Skippy in the drylot and watched Tommy race back and forth between the hay barn and the red shed and trees. He really enjoyed running back and forth. The minute I put Skippy in the dry lot he took off running and bucking. He did not stop whinnies for Tommy. If I wasn’t so angry at the time, I would have laughed at Skippy. He has such a high pitched whinny it’s funny to listen to.

After about ten minutes of all out running, Tommy settled down to grab a quick bite to eat. Luckily I’d left a grain dish out to coax him in to letting me catch him. I’m not sure if it was the grain dish (most likely not) or the fact he was out of shape and hungry that made him stop. I know if he didn’t want to be caught, I wouldn’t have caught him. He’s really come around to be a good little Shetland. I enjoy him immensely.

By the time I had Tommy back in the pen the other foot was starting to get wet, from the top down. So now my left foot was soaked from the bottom up and my right foot was soaked from the top down. That might sound funny but you know what I mean!

So the chores that should have taken about ten minutes total took closer to 20 minutes. I guess I shouldn’t be too upset. No one got hurt and the ponies are standing in the dry lot. I’m hoping they’ll think about what they did but I doubt it.

I guess it means I’m going to have to find a different place to put the ponies for tomorrow. I’m thinking I may just put them in the front yard and see what happens. Otherwise I need to do some permanent fencing and get the ponies back into the trees. There’s some really tall grass behind the grain bin along the fence line for the mare pasture. I’ve been thinking of putting the ponies and Maverick in the trees. I guess now is as good of a time as any.

So that was my exciting morning chores. I’ll blog more about the hay guy later. And here I was thinking “ponies aren’t so bad. Why do people think they are so naughty all the time?” HA I know why now! Naughty Skippy. Naughty Tommy.