Lesson time - today we had a serious lesson, I had to trot.  I am not particularly fond of trotting right now.  I like to imitate a giraffe, and then do this really cool hop, skip, trot, canter, trot thing.  My lil short human does not seem to be impressed and the trainer person keeps telling her to just keep riding.  I get tired, it's a lot of work to do this complicated impressive gait that I like to call "Bella's Dance".  At one point, my lil human actually wanted to me to keep up the canter, I quickly rethought putting that lil piece in my Bella Dance, as it is hard to keep up the canter around and around, especially with my human on my back.  I heard my trainer say something about "working on this" next week.  Eeeck, I am going to have to figure out how to perfect this gait.  We had a good ending though, we walked all the way down to the gate and back, I like those endings.

Creative Dancer Princess~
Bella

Big day for my lil short human!  Since the "incident" where I forgot that I should not leave my lil human as a sacrifice to the horse eating monster, she has not been excited to ride down to the gate and back.  I love this change of scenery (other than the scary kid noises) and miss it, but she mentioned something about not ever bouncing back if she hit the hard ground or something like that so we've just done a short walk around the barn after our rides.  Well today................drum roll please.............. she rode all the way down the driveway!  I was so proud of her and of course I did not do anything to make her fall off.  Pffft silly lil human.  We were going to come back up, but then a car came up the drive way.  I told my human I could handle it, but she chose to dismount and walk up after the car passed us.  Honestly, it's a lot easier to get up that driveway when she isn't on my back, so I was all for it. It's uphill coming back and a lot of work.

I will continue training her to relax and enjoy the ride, but it is funny to pull my giraffe imitation when a bunny jumps across the drive way.  Heehee

Loving the sun!

Princess Bella

This is a video of me snuffling my lil short human.  She just loves it!

My lil short human and I had a lesson both Friday and Saturday.  Friday went really well!  My lil human was supporting me and doing the right things in her saddle.  Saturday, not so much.  I think my lil human was stressed and I have enough to worry about that I can't take on her stress also so it was not as smooth as Friday's lesson.  But as my lil human says, "there is always another day and another ride."  We did get to take a walk around after the lesson, which I like.  I finally get to see something other than the four sides of the arena, over and over and over and I am not expected to bend this way or that way,  it's relaxing.  My lil human gave me kudos for walking through the puddle, little things seem to amuse her so much!  She said I was brave, yes I am since you never know if its a little puddle or a hole in the earth of which there is no escape or if an alligator is just waiting for you to get close enough to nab you, but we've walked past/over this particular puddle a few times so I thought I would impress her with my bravery.

I think I heard my lil human talking about checking that my saddle still fit correctly, I guess while my feet were healing I may have lost some muscle but of course, I still maintained my girly figure!

Looking forward to more strolls outside!

Forever,
Princess Bella

Easy day!  My lil short human showed up late, she said something about traffic, and drained and on and on.  I let her tell me these things as I know eventually I get a cookie!  She said I was a mess, I said I look like a horse.  Horses get dirty, they roll, they run, they kick up their heels.  I had a great time today, although I did scratch my face on something which took the hair right off.  I hope nothing is permanent, a princess cannot have a hairless scrape on her face, eeeck!  My lil human ran her hand over it and told me to be careful.  She used that Furizzy thing again, I love that thing.  Stretched my lip and neck waaaayyy out and moved so she could get the itchy spots.  Then she brushed me down and we went for a walk.  It was nice, I did feel the need to get much taller as we got closer to the scary noises of what my human refers to as "kids".  I just don't understand why they screech and yell if there isn't some predator after them.  I tell you, if they don't stop with those noises, a predator is going to come and give them a reason to screech.  All was good though, my increased height and puffiness ensured that any predators would think twice before coming after us.  We then ate some grass, grass is so good right now, and I went back to my stall for the night, but not before my lil human delivered my good night carrot and told me I made her day much better.  I am glad I can do that, a princess should make her subjects feel loved and cherished.

I think we have a lesson coming up so I should have much more to chat about next time.

Until then,
Princess Bella

It's been a busy week!  I went back into training, this means that my "teacher" rides me, or teaches me something and its very hard.  She makes me work!  With my lil short human, I can sometimes get out of things, with my teacher, no way!  My lil human told me she was very proud of me and was super excited that I had what she called "grown up hair".  I wasn't thrilled, I like my hair to be loose and flowing, as all princesses should be.  It felt funny also when I had to go to work and use my body to bend the way my teacher wants me to.  I thought she was actually pulling on my hair while we were going around the arena, but then realized that it just felt that way when I put my head down. Sigh.............the things a princess has to put up with.

My lil short human and I had a lesson, this is where my teacher tells her the things she should be doing to get me in the right position.  This means I have to work and it's hard!  She makes me bend this way and that way and actually use my muscles. My lil human kept pulling me one way, so, I would swing my butt out of the way and move there, but the teacher kept saying, "no start over".  Ugh!  I guess my lil human wanted me to move my front legs and keep my butt in the same place.  Now why would she want this?  It is much more efficient to move my very shapely, voluptuous butt over, but NOOOOOOO I have to move my shoulders over which by the way is very hard!  Get down on the floor on all fours, I dare you, do it right now.  Once balancing on 4 legs, oh did I mention that you also have a lil short human on your back?  Keep your back legs still and just move your front legs over.  Hard isn't it?  I finally did it, and got a lot of pets and praise,but I think it deserved at least a cookie. Lets be efficient here ladies, let me move that butt over and you get the same result, my body has moved over.

Next, my lil human asked me to trot, which I did and my lil short human was all excited, I am like Really?  I've been trotting for awhile now but if you are happy I am happy. Of course, this could be because last time we trotted around. I saw that monster in the corner and well, I am not proud of this, but felt the need to get my lil short human off my back because it was me or her and, well, I kind of forgot that we are supposed to be a team and launched her.  Good news is the monster did not eat either of us but I guess I am not supposed to leave my lil human behind as a sacrifice to the horse eating monster only I can see.  I guess in hind sight. I could have safely gotten both of us out of the corner before being eaten so I promise to try to keep this in mind on all future rides through the monster zone.  Looking forward to next week and what new and torturous things my teacher will think for me to do, whatever it is, I hope it's not braiding my hair into that grown up hair thing!

Until next time
Princess Bella

 Apparently, this is "grown up hair"  whatever!

Today we lunged and went for a ride in the arena.  That monster is still in the corner of the arena, but after a little episode decided to be brave and did my best.  Going in circles to the right, I am much more comfortable at the canter, so that's what I do.  My lil short human, thinks I need to trot, argh.  I tried my best, but didn't always do the right thing.  After going around and around in circles, we rode around the arena, I kept trying to figure out when my lil human would want to go faster, usually its when we go along the long wall, so I would get all ready to surprise her and go faster on my own. She didn't seem to appreciate this and told me we were walking today, soooooo boring!  pppffftt.  I guess the good thing is I didn't get all sweaty and she seemed to be happy so be it.  I do like to wear my special warm up, Back On Track sheet before and after work.  I guess I'll keep my lil short human for now.

Signing off

Princess Bella