RockStar

Dino is a rockstar. Not in the sense that he gets up in front of crowds of thousands and sings and plays the guitar while fireworks go off. Although that would be seriously awesome. But Dino is a rockstar in the sense that he handles new, exciting, and potentially scary situations with confidence. And doesn't try to kill me, which is a bonus.

Earlier this week Dino and I went on a trail ride with Rachel and Toby.

'How is he on the road?' Rachel asked before we stepped off the driveway onto the street.

'I have no idea. I've never taken him out before.' It was then that it truly hit me that I had never ridden Dino off the property before, ever. You may be wondering why this didn't occur to me earlier, like over the weekend when we had first planned the ride. I have no idea, but in any case, I had absolutely no clue how Dino would react to the various things we might encounter on the road. Like cars. Which, to a pony, can appear not as harmless objects that take us from place to place, but as horrible, noisy, impossibly fast instruments of death and torture. With wheels. But by the time I finished that thought, traffic on the street had cleared and Rachel and Toby had already started walking across the pavement. So we followed.

During the short five-minute hack down the street to the spot where the open fields and woods started, we encountered no less than seven cars, three motorcycles, and two kids playing basketball. Dino in his rockstar-dom merely pricked his ears, looked at the offending vehicles and sports enthusiasts with interest, and kept walking. I think my high-pitched squeals of "GOOD PONYYYY!!!!" were heard in the next county.

When we finally got to our destination, the four of us trotted around some, tromped through the woods, and had a few gallops across a wide field. (Fun Fact: race-bred Thoroughbreds are faster than fat German ponies with short legs!) Even after all the excitement, Dino was not the least bit revved-up and wild, as horses are wont to get after frolicking and cavorting out in the open. We rode home on a long, floppy rein with Dino's neck stretched out and his whole body relaxed. He was just happy to be having fun outside with his buddy, and so was I.

Silently, I said a prayer of thanks for my rockstar pony. And for the fact that he didn't try to maim me severely during our first off-the-farm outing.

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