Hello Everyone!  My darling mother has been hogging the blog, so I haven’t had a chance to check in with you in recent months.  She really should be a little more cognizant of my need to share my point of view.  Maybe Santa will bring me a laptop of my very own so I don’t have to hijack Mom’s.  Hmm, guess I’ll have to suggest that WiFi access be installed at the barn as well.  I’m sure Mom will be willing to pay extra for this small convenience.

But I digress.  Mom has been very focused on the “tests” that we perform when we leave the farm.  I sometimes don’t see the point of them.  What fun is it to do the same thing as the horse before you and the horses that go after you.  Bo-ring.  My paddock is sort of shaped like the riding arena and I try to show Mom and Ms. C what I think would be fun to do.  I run really, really fast, kick up my heels and end with a high-stepping trot.  But no, the two fuddy-duddies frown upon my antics.  When I do try to cut loose under saddle, Mom gets a very stern tone to her voice.  She then tries to squelch my creativity and slow me down.  It just makes me want to try harder to impress upon her my thoughts and suggestions.  I’ve got one more chance this coming weekend to break free from the pedestrian walk/trot/canter.  What do you think my chances of success will be??

And speaking of paddocks, I have been granted the privilege of spending time in the BEST paddock at the farm.  Ms. C calls it sanctuary.  I call it heaven.  It is smaller than my normal paddock – more of a square than a rectangle.  I can visit with two pony girls, the chestnut mare that sometimes is kind to me when she thinks no one is looking, and my brother Cigar.  Most of the fences have hot wire, but I’m tall enough that I can just arc over the wire and visit with anyone I want.  The little bay pony likes to squeal at me.  Cigar likes to rough house.  I could stay in this little paddock all the time, but they make me share.  I’m not always good at sharing.  I try but it is hard when I see Mom paying attention to others and giving away my candy.  Hmmph.  She can pet the others, but my candy is mine.  Mine, mine, mine.  I wonder how Santa would feel about this.

I’ve also been told that the scores from the prancing routines have been good enough to qualify for awards.  I think Mom tried to explain them to me, but I was too busy dunking my hay to really pay attention.  I guess they can be a good thing if it means there are more bags of treats or peppermints.  Usually awards mean ribbons.  I tasted one once.  Not worth the effort.  Definitely not as tasty as candy.

I did behave for Mom these past two days.  She is so easily flustered, so I like to be kind to her most of the time.  We worked on the routines we are planning to do this coming weekend.  That Test 3 is a hard one, especially the left lead canter turn onto the long diagonal.  If we’ve got a good clip going, it is even harder.  Thank goodness Mom’s knee is there to buffer me from the fence.

So nice catching up with you!  Come see us at the show and tell Mom to breathe and have fun.

Ike