School days

Going for walks is great but there's always a rope running from my headcollar all the way to Lisa's hand.  I don't need it at all but that just seems to be the way it always is.  But there's another place we go where - sometimes - I'm allowed to run free.   It's called "The School" and the ground in there is made of rubber.  You can't eat it like grass but you can really bounce around on it.  You should see me go.

One of my favourite..no, actually my very favourite game is to gallop flat out around the school and finish by boinging my chest into Mum, like a runaway train crashing into the buffers at a railway station.  She doesn't mind me doing it all.

But it's not all freedom and laughter; sometimes I have to behave as well.  The rope gets attached again and I have to do stuff like pretend to be tied up or walk along sensibly without going up on two legs.

But I only have to do this for short times and, if I manage to contain myself and not be too much of a freak show, then I'm allowed to be free again.  I love doing laps around the school at top speed but I'm also pretty happy just chilling out with Mum.

Out and about

I freely admit that the vast majority of my time is spent either: (a) eating; (b) walking about in the field, or; (c) standing and staring.  So when Harry and Lisa come over and put the headcollars on Mum and me, well, I do tend to find it quite exciting and sometimes can't even contain myself.  Anything can happen.  We go for walks up the road one way, down the road the other way or even down the bridleway to the ruined house with trees growing out of the walls. 

The Others

Since my leg's been better enough for me to be allowed out, my Mum and I have had a lovely big meadow field to wander about in and explore (and eat before the snow came).  Down one side there's a fence made of electricity (shocking, but true) and on the other side of this are The Others.  There are four of them I can count.  There may be more but since my ancestors chose to go down the evolutionary route of having just one finger to run on at the end of each limb, counting beyond four has been tricky.  Maybe they should have thought about that before they put all their effort into making us better at running away.  Anyway, I'll show you a picture of them and you can make up your own mind. 

These others seem to spend a long time looking over the fence at us.  I could even go so far as to say they sometimes look a bit cross that they can't come into our part of the field.  I wonder if they used to be able to but now they can't?  In the picture, the nearest one is called Bryn and he seems quite friendly.  The next one is Hannah and she looks a bit fat to me.  The tiny one sticking out behind Hannah's backside is Choccy - I know, his name is a joke and I think he's a bit of a joke.  He's not young like me.  He's fully grown and still only that size.  The one at the back is the most beautiful and she's called Sealeah Myranda.  If I was old enough I'd probably want to marry her. 

As you can see, there isn't just a fence between us - there are two.  And a big gap as well.  It's called nohorse's land.  The only person I've ever seen going in the gap is the dog, Meg.  She spends nearly all her time waiting just behind me and watching my back legs.  Don't ask me why - she's just nuts.  If I stand still, she lies down still.  If I move, she moves.  If I run around, she runs around.  It's actually abit of a laugh sometimes.  Just for fun, I've tried to kick her head off but she's too quick and always moves it out of the way just in time. 

I think this Bryn is quite a funny one.  He's always fooling around with Choccy, who's about 15 sizes smaller than he is.  He even tries to take Choccy's coat off, which is silly because anyone can see it's still cold.

White

It wasn't long after the world had gone cold that it then completely changed colour as well.  One day it was all green and brown and grey like normal, then white stuff fell from the sky one night and by the morning everything was covered in it.  Everything except the inside of my stable, which somehow escaped.

I'd only just begun to enjoy eating grass and now look at the place: not a blade in site!  I've had to spend a lot more time than usual just looking around at everything.

Brrrr!

After waiting nearly my whole life, my bad leg became better enough for me to finally be allowed out.  And as soon as I was, winter came along for real.  I thought it was a bit...brrrr....chilly way back in October when that steam came out of my nose.  But that was nothing compared to this.  I heard Harry saying it was minus 18 one night and I could tell just from the way he said it that that's exceptionally cold.  Even the stream that runs through our meadow was a bit crunchy round the edges.  Something else I'd like to point out is the top of the fence - it was so cold that some miniature trees grew on it overnight made out of ice.  It's one of the most beautiful things I've seen, so far.

Good grief!

Pah! No sooner had I tasted the sweet delights of fresh air and green grass than I felt my bad leg hurting again.  After all those weeks of recovery, my foolish five minutes of galloping round the round-pen must've set it back again.  Again pah!  Now I'm back inside, in a field shelter kind of a place but with gates all along the front to stop me and Mum getting out.  I know it's what my leg needs to make it better but jeepers creepers it's hard.  Stuck in here when outside the sun's shining and I could be wandering about all over that field, exploring the place.  I think some other horses have been in here because I can smell them.

Brrrr!  There was more than one nip in the air last night.  It was so cold I could see smoke coming out of my nostrils.  Mum and me have spotted some horses in another field.  They keep hanging their heads over the gate and staring at us - and we stare back. It's almost as though they really want to come into this field and see us and say hello. 

Now when I go outside I have to be on the end of a rope,just in case I go beserk again and mess up my bad leg.  I can do short bits of bouncing and dancing but I have to keep a lid on it or Lisa tells me off.   It's funny though because she actually seems to be laughing at the same time as trying to be strict.

Out!

Hallelujah!  I'm out of jail. My bad leg was so-o-o-o much better this week, I was allowed out into a thing called a round-pen at the Vets.  I was incredibly well behaved at first but then me and Mum heard some other horses go past and we freaked.  Talk about speed!  We galloped round and round like there was no tomorrow.  When Lisa heard us, she came running over but it was too late: I'd hurt my leg again in all the excitement. 

The next day, Harry came to the Vets in a land rover and trailer.  Mum went up a ramp and actually inside the trailer.  I did too - after a bit of a discussion.  Next thing I knew, we were moving along a road and next after that we'd stopped and were let out into a field full of grass.  At last!  I thought this day would never come.  And what a place! Mountains, trees, a stream, grass.  Lots of grass.  I could get used to this.