I am Pretty Boy and I got in trouble

Hello my barn name is Pretty Boy and I have gotten into trouble. Oh yes. Nice horse that I am I got in big trouble this morning. You should have heard that little human girl. I am going to try very hard never to do that again. Here's what happened.......

It was a lovely morning. Perfect weather for grazing on tender young grass while waiting to get horse feed brought out to us. And then we saw her coming. She had the big white bucket. I know what that big white bucket is and I'm fine with it. Inside that big white bucket is warm epsom salts water for my foot to soak in. So she gets us our feed and puts it into our barrels for us. Then she gets my lead rope hooked onto my halter and sets the bucket on the ground in front of my bad foot. She picked my foot up, asking me real nicely, and put it into the bucket of water. I stood there eating while she rubbed my shoulder. Everything was fine until it wasn't fine anymore.

For some reason I decided I would step out of that bucket and go see what Precious had left in her barrel to eat. Only I didn't step cleanly out of the bucket. Oh noooo I didn't pick my big ole foot up high enough because I was looking over at her feed barrel and I knocked the bucket over.

'Bad horse! Why would you do that? I only just made that for you special and you go and knock it over!' That's what the human girl said to me as she sat that bucket back up. She looked in it and said 'Well I don't care how much is left in it you are going to put your foot right back in there mister and you aren't going to take it out until I say you can. I JUST made that for you special and you go and knock it over for pete's sake what were you thinking!' Of course she knew what I was thinking she knew I was thinking I'm going to go over there and see if can get me some extra feed but she had to say that anyway instead of exploding I guess.

So we stood there. Me with my foot in a bucket of warm epsom salt water that was only about an inch deep instead of a 12 inches deep and the human girl with her hand on my lead rope just in case I got stupid on her again. That's what she told me. She said 'Why'd you get all stupid like that?' We stood there so long that my horse, Precious, left the big red barn. And I still wasn't allowed to go look in her feed barrel. Oh I wanted to and I made a move to do just that but that little human girl said very quietly 'Do not move. Do not jerk your head or pull on this rope.' I hung my head down because I knew I was in trouble and not going to be going anywhere anytime soon.

When I hung my head down she was able to talk straight into my ear. Very very quietly she told me that she loved me and she was sorry if she had sounded mean but that she was very upset that I would step out of that bucket without being told I could. And knocking it over was just unacceptable. She told me quietly into my ear that we were not going to be standing there all day but that in just a little bit of time we were going to be walking out into the pasture and that I was going to follow along with her giving no trouble. And we did just that in a little while.

She told me 'Pick your foot up' and I did. She got the bucket and told me 'Come on.' We walked out of the big red barn into the horse pasture. I thought maybe we were going to go over where Precious was getting a drink of water but I was wrong. We walked straight ahead until she said 'Whoa' and I did. Then she put the bucket down, picked up my foot and put it back into that bucket that didn't have but an inch of water in the bottom of it. My head dropped because I knew there was no telling how long this was going to last. She rubbed on my forehead and said into my ear that I was a very good horse. She said I was very pretty and well mannered. She said she knew I didn't knock that bucket over on purpose. She was just talking and talking and talking to me. My horse, Precious, came over to see what was going on and when she got there she saw me still with my lead rope on and my foot still in that bucket and she put her head up to mine to tell me she understood. Then she went back over to stand by the water to wait.

It was not a long time after that that the girl took the lead rope off of my halter. I knew not to move. Then a few minutes later she picked my foot up out of the bucket and set it on the ground. She set the bucket off to the side. Still I didn't move. She hadn't said anything since before she took the lead rope off of my halter. She was just standing there in front of me looking at me. She backed up a few steps and then came back up to me. Then she stepped to the side and said 'You can go now. You have been a very good boy and I thank you.' She patted me gently as she walked away.

I didn't move. I wanted to make sure she wasn't tricking me. When she got back to the barn she said 'You can go now!' whew. That's exactly what I did. I will try hard in the future not to take my foot out of that bucket till she says it's time to take it out.