The excersize of my roll in the giving of pleasure to the Kiddies riding our backs has made my Exmoor muscles to be strong. I now look over my withers and flanks at a body shrouded in taunt toned muscles.Ever bone gives the word strong of body a new meaning to me. I was weak in comparison and now prancing about with pride of form and fulfilment.
My partners in this Equine state are very friendly and we love to nickker and play. A odd feeling to communicate with companions by rolling one's upper lip high and showing off big slab teeth. To snort as if they were periods in each sentence. Pawing the ground with a forehoof to show a questioning of the others actions and wants. A flicking of tail to show urgency when moving it fast, or an easy calm manor to suggest willingness to agree. My body language is a hard thing to control. The human feelings and thoughts result in some often strange reactions from this animal body.
Each day has it's work and some freedom. I consider how much the day's go by as they did when human. To get up early in the morning, recieve from the caretaker a ration of grain and hay for breakfast. A glup of water to drink and clean one's teeth. The lining up as we are bridled and saddled for a long hot day with children walking in a never ending circle. The same scenery to each side and in front.
As we stop for midday break the musty oat bag tours our heads. A groffeling of the sweet grain by thick muscled lips searching the cloth bag. Snorting the chaff and dust from our nostrils as the bag covers our face.
Then on we go again round and round in a slow mindless movement. Plodding along together with no privacy for ourselves and little real consideration for the children who love us so much.
Our muscles ache as the day finally ends. We are relieved of the bridle which torque's our mouth and the hot, heavy saddle which heats our back and sucks in our belly. Now we run for the pasture to kick up one's heels and frolic well into the evening.
The past weeks have melted into a daily lifestyle. Time in of itself has lost any reason to keep. I find myself thinking less of the pleasures of pony life and more of a longing for freedom. The freedom which I as a human wanted for myself to enjoy, has become the same desire for me as a working pony too!
The lingering thought of two more weeks prods at my mind. Soon the Mentor will return and ask the heavy question. I try to ponder my answer of whether to return to the world as the man I was, or live on in this hardy form. The pleasures that I'd ever imagined were not yet in my grasp. The desire for free expression has eluded me! I stand on all fours a true animal of form and a question mind which so far can not make that final choice.