Hi! My name is MiaKoda. I am five years old. Recently my humans started fussing with me. They washed and scrubbed me until I was the most beautiful horse in the barn. I was very proud but then they did something that I did not like. They made me wear jammies all night. There was a stretchy hood thing that made me look really silly. Then they put a borrowed cotton blanket on me that didn't match my hood.

I knew that something very strange was going to happen but I really couldn't guess what it might be. Two of the young humans who come to the barn were there all night. I could hear them up in the hayloft talking and giggling for a long time at night. It was hard to sleep with my funny clothes on and those noises from upstairs. In the morning my special human arrived very early. I thought that she would rescue me and take these silly clothes off but when she took me out of my stall she just cleaned the dirt out of my feet. Then she painted my feet with some shiny stuff and made me stand still while it dried. This was all very strange. After a few minutes one of the giggly humans came to see what we were doing. She talked with my special human and they started to take my clothes off. I was very relieved until the giggly one began to braid my mane. Then they put those silly things back on me. What was going on?

I was kind of glad when they took me to the arena. I thought I would be able to run around and roll but we kept going into the other end where the boy horses live. All the boys were getting ready for something special too. They were all very clean and had funny looking knots in their manes and tails. They were wearing jammies too. I heard a noise outside and soon we were all being loaded into trailers. I got into a big red one with Buckshot. Buck wasn't very happy and he was kicking and pawing the floor. We went for a long ride. The place was pretty nice. I got to take off my jammies. There was lots of grass and my special human let me walk around the field and eat all I wanted. Oh, yeah, all that fussing with braiding my mane didn't do any good. It came out so I got to go with my mane loose. I like that better.

Before I noticed what was happening one of the barn girls snuck up and started putting a saddle on me. I don't like to have saddles put on my back. It makes me think that I can't get away if I need to. The girl got on and we walked over to a gate in the fence. There were lots of other horses with their humans too. We walked around and even trotted some. Then we all got in a line and stopped. A big red building was talking to the humans. I couldn't see where the building's mouth was but maybe it was on the other side. It had a very loud voice. A human was walking from one horse to another and soon came to me. She handed something to my girl human. I heard someone say it was a third place ribbon. Hey, that wasn't so bad. Let's do it again.

We did do it again. They called it something different but it seemed the same to me. And we got another yellow ribbon. This is kind of fun.
Next we went back into the ring with several other horses and there were things that got in our way. At first I didn't think I wanted to go over them. I wasn't sure if the ground on the other side was safe. What if there was a hole and I fell in? My girl human was very calm and she helped me understand that it was just like we had done at home. This little bit was practice. Then we all took turns running and jumping over those poles. I jumped very high so I wouldn't bump my back feet. We only got a pink ribbon this time. I think it was called fifth place.

There were so many fun things to do. I was walked around another ring. There was a blue floppy, billowing tarp to walk over. I guess some horses are scared of it but I didn't mind. Then I had to step over a piece of wood but I didn't really understand what I was supposed to do. I think I was expected to walk sidewards. We then walked into a box like shape of boards and had to turn around. No problem. Oh, oh. I didn't like the next bit. I have seen traffic cones at home but I always walk around them frontwards. I had to do it walking backwards. That wasn't fun. Then we went to a green box on a post and stopped to take a bit of paper out. I looked inside to see if there might be a bit of a treat for me for doing so well but there wasn't anything but paper.
Then my girl human got on and asked me to do it all over again.

Oh, my! Next they started trying to put something on my head. Horses don't wear hats! And funny stockings that fit tight and came up over my knees. My girl human was wearing a hat too and some other funny looking things. She said that we were Robin Hood and Little John. I didn't know what that meant but it was fun to see the other horses dressed up silly too. One looked a lot like a deer. I think another one was a spotted dog but we don't see too many dogs at home so I am not sure.

Then it was time to get back on the trailer. I was having such a good time that I really wasn't ready to go home. Buckshot was acting bad in the trailer and I wasn't sure if it was safe to get in with him. I was a little stubborn but since I didn't really want to be left behind I got in and we had a long ride home. When I got to the barn I remembered that I was very thisty and I drank water out of my bucket and then moved to Crusoe's stall and drank some of hers. I even tried out some of Belle's. I was very thristy. A human was trying to get my fly mask on but I was trying to get away so I could drink everybody's water. The humans had tried to get me to drink from a bucket at that other place. I played with it a little but I didn't want to drink. It wasn't water from home and I thought it might not be good. Next time I think I should try drinking some.

My special human hung my ribbons up over my stall. I am the only horse on our end of the barn with any ribbons. I feel so special.