Guy Time....

It's GUY time around here. Darn mare and filly always hogging the bandwidth, sheesh!

Today my human came to work on my skills balancing her up on my back, something she calls riding and I call darned hard w.o.r.k. which is definitely a four letter word *snorts with disgust*

Being the great gelding I am, I prefer to avoid w.o.r.k. whenever possible but silly human decided that it might be one of the last days we get to practice this 'riding' stuff outside in the outdoor arena due to the rains kicking in for the rest of the year, so outside we went to practice today.

Well I like new things. It makes W.O.R.K. less boring and I get to snort and blow and perk my ears up at things like leaves blowing around in the wind and deer running across the field. It was particularly brisk outside with just a touch of rain falling and wind blowing and temperatures about 42 degrees so I decided it was a good time to work on my human's balancing skills and do a few extra snorts and jumps sideways...

I must be getting pretty good at keeping her balanced up there because she managed to stay with me through all of my playing and antics and even laughed at me and told me I was a 'doof'...

Now what the heck is a 'doof' anyway? Last time I looked in a mirror, I saw a VERY handsome Arabian Horse looking back at me and my human told me it WAS me, so I don't know what a 'doof' is but I'm pretty sure she's wrong about that one.

I must have done this 'riding' thing pretty well today because when we were all done she gave me a really tasty molasses and oatmeal cookie treat and scratched me in all my favorite spots. If we can keep having this kind of fun when we do this riding thing, I might grow to like it and perhaps not all kinds of w.o.r.k. are bad after all?

Peace Out Dudes!

Elle's Fan Mail....

I see my cyberfans, errrr, friends, are already starting to send me mail!

Yesterday I was asked the following question:

Ponigirl said...
Thank you, Elle, for the advice. I've been wondering what the appropriate tip is for such maid service. Is an extra "road apple" in the barn's walkway enough? Or should I leave a generous offering of slobber on the maid's shirt, too?
October 8, 2008 10:48 PM

Hi Ponigirl! Your question is a very good one as tipping for maid service is kind of a fine line. Leave too little and the maid won't come back in a timely fashion the next day. Leave too much and the maids appear to go out and party on it and not come back in a timely fashion the next day either, so here's my standard 'tip' scale.

If it's summer time and I'm not spending as much time in my stall, slobbering the maid's shirt after you take a big drink of water is the PERFECT amount. Not too much, not too little.

Now winter months where we spend more time indoors and tend to muck things up more, require a better tip, so normally I find that a well placed pile of road apples left immediately after stall cleaning and bed fluffing is done, seems to do the trick.

Thanks for the note and keep those letters coming!

Hello everyone,

I decided it's aboot time to properly introduce myself, eh?

I am Dancer, my human's dream of over 25 yrs that finally came true!

I was born in Canada and used to live in Saskatoon, SK before I moved all the way here to Bellingham.

The place I lived at before was a lovely place called Wunderbar Arabians http://www.wunderbararabians.com/.

It was a great place to live but VERRRRY cold in the winter and there were no lovely views of Mt.Baker like I have here right outside my stall door. The picture to your left is me when I was 4 yrs old right before I moved from Canada to here.

I am now 7 yrs old and have lived in the States for just over 3 years and in that time I've learned to carry my human on my back both as a Western Pleasure horse, a Hunter Under Saddle Horse and we have been working on reining and reined cow horse until I hurt myself this past summer and have had to take a few months off (really, I just pretended to be hurt so I could have a nice vacation!). I have also learned to take my owner for long rides she calls trail rides and am looking forward to doing more of those, although I hope we don't fall off any more tall cliffs like I did LAST summer (a story for another day!).

Being from the cold lands of Canada where it often was in the 20's below zero (Celsius of course!) I find myself amused that my daughter Elle who was born here, is already complaining that it's getting cold outside at night when it's still 48 degrees Fahrenheit. I mean sheesh that's down right warm! Kids today...

I hope to make many new cyberpals and look forward to sharing my stories from A to Zed!

Tip of the day....

It's Fabulous Elle here. I just wanted to share a tip to all of my fans , errr, friends, out in the cyber-pasture!

When your human comes in to the barn in the morning to provide room service and maid service and open the doors to the lovely pasture, they LOVE it when you refuse to go out into the pasture and instead hang out with them while they're doing their cleaning duty.

First, it is really helpful to walk through the stall floors several times while they're trying to clean, this helps them see all the muck they've not yet cleaned up! Then, once they have the stall muck cleaned up and move on to paddock cleaning, they really appreciate your help in dumping the wheelbarrow over!

They will throw their hands in the air and yell and holler all excited like, it's a LOT of fun to watch them get so happy and animated and it makes their morning so much more entertaining, well at least for ME *snicker*.

SO Tip of the day to all you Silly Cyber Ponies? HELP your humans with their maid service duties! They really appreciate it although they do show it in an odd way by then locking you out completely, I guess they don't want to feel like we did all the work!

The Weather Outside is.....

Emmerson here and since I'm currently an hour's drive in the horse trailer from home combined with the fact that I'm male, therefore obsessed with weather conditions, I found a cool widget to add to the blog!

Scroll to the bottom of this page and you'll find a Doppler Radar widget you can set for your own area OR you can set it for some other zip code (like MINE!) to view what the current conditions are like....

Now if that bratty little sister of mine, Elle, tries to tell me she's 'drowning' from the rain, I can check up to see if she's telling me the truth or just playing her usual drama queen roll! I give it two hooves up!

Silly Pony Tricks In Action

Welcome to Silly Pony Tricks. Home to the musings of 3 purebred Arabian Horses, *CC Autumn Dancer, *Emmerson Echo, and Fabulous By Design. These three make up BlackFyre Farms along with 5 purebred Belgian Tervuren Canine buddies.

With no further ado, I'll let each horse introduce themselves.

I am *CC Autumn Dancer, a 7 yr old Polish line Purebred Arabian Mare. My passion is to run miles through the field with my 2 yr old daughter Elle and flirting endlessly with our resident hunky gelding, Emmerson.

Currently I'm on layup after 'injuring' myself back in June. **Shhhhhhhh my human doesn't realize that I've actually been FAKING the whole thing so I could take the summer off and laze about the pasture!!!** Recently I've been 'feeling' better (in other words, becoming bored doing nothing worthwhile) and the human has decided I will start back in training in a few weeks. Because we're heading into winter and nasty weather, I welcome the work, it gets me inside the arena out of the rain!

Hey, Dancer, quit hogging the bandwidth! Hi!!!!!!!!!! I am *Emmerson Echo, I am a 4 yr old Polish line Purebred Arabian Gelding who holds court over one lovely mare and 3 FINE Fillies! Dancer who you just met, and my paternal sister Elle, plus two Quarter Horses who hang out around here from time to time.

It ROCKS being sole man of the barn with a harem! Even my human is female. Although when I get bored for male companionship, I just toss a nicker and my mane and my human's male counterpoint comes out to scratch my neck and feed me treats, he's an alright dude!

Currently I'm on 'location' at a training barn learning how to become what my human says is a Western Pleasure horse... not sure what the heck that is, but in the past two months I've been learning the 'ropes' of how to keep a human on your back (well most of the time, on occassion, I do forget how hard it is to keep them balanced up there when you spook or bolt, sigh, and OFF she goes, tsk, tsk) and we spend a lot of time inside the arena, although if I give her enough of a big eyed look, she'll take me out to the woods with buddies for something she calls trail riding.

I guess I'm going to be a show horse this coming Spring... Not sure what that is, but if it involves food and attention and fillies I'm all for it!

Oh Emmerson, MOVE IT... Baby Sis coming through!!!!! I am FABULOUS... well OK, I am BF Fabulous By Design aka Elle. Named after Elle MacPhearson the super model. I am a 2 yr old Polish line purebred Arabian Filly and if I say so myself (which I of course DO) I am HOT... I mean, ALL the studs and geldings far and wide want my number... I LOVE to flirt with them but in the end my heart belongs to my human and her male counterpart. They always give me what I want, accolades on being so beautiful and they play fun games with me and feed me great treats (but not so much I loose my super fit figure!).

I love hanging with my mom and I hate to admit it, but kind of miss my older bro right now while he's visiting that other barn. I am not as fond of our Quarter Horse visitors as he is, but I guess even ugly girls deserve some attention, but I don't really know why.

My favorite things are myself, (of course!) my mom, my bro, my human and then chasing Cajun one of the human's show dogs.. He and I have a lot of fun bouncing about the field together, especially when I grab the tip of his tail! He LOVES that, (well ok, he loves to give me evil glares for that!). Life is great for me, my human says my only job right now is to be a baby and play and have fun and grow up beautiful ... Well I am already a super model, so that part is EASY... silly human.

Watch for this crews tales of Silly Pony Tricks on a weekly basis. Tell us what you think and share your own Silly Pony Tricks... Most of all, Spend time at the barn, Ride and be happy!