New from Boot Camp

Hi all. Well, I've been at 'boot camp' now for about 10 days. Things started off easy, considering how totally out of shape I am. But, the rumour is that 'easy' is about to be a thing of the past.

At first all "The Trainer" (hereafter known as "TT") wanted was for me to walk around the arena, and maybe trot for a couple of minutes. Yep, I can do that.

But NOW, she's starting to ask me to BEND! What am I? A Slinky? And she expects me to keep trotting at least 2 or 3 times around the arena before I can go back to shuffling along. I think not. I am definitely going to have to introduce her to my repertoire of evasion and resistance tactics.

My human came to visit today and watched our session. She seemed pleased. I suppose she thinks I'll let HER ride me to. Huh! We'll have to talk about THIS for sure! At least she brought me some carrots and made me the envy of my barnmates.

Heard a nasty rumour

I heard that my person actually has PLANS for me this year. Did she ask me? I think not.

Apparently I'm going to boot camp for a month to 'refresh' my skills. She wants a trainer to remind me why I should be well behaved when my person wants to ride me. Really? In her dreams! Just because she has brittle bones, why does that mean that I shouldn't buck when I feel like it? Hmm.

I tried to weasel out of this by developing a badly swollen sheath. But the vet came and fixed the problem. Darn. He also gave me all my shots so I won't catch anything from the horses at boot camp barn. So much for pretending to be sick to get out of going to school. I'm still thinking about other dodges I might pull. Any suggestions?

Greetings from the farm

I arrived here after a 3000 mile cross continent journey. I travelled with 11 other horses in what my person called a transport truck that was specially outfitted for our needs. Each of us had a space just barely wide enough and long enough to stand in with some hay in a swinging net in front of us.

We've moved a lot, my person and I. I was born in Quebec and raised and trained by a French family. When my person bought me, I couldn't speak English at all which must have been frustrating for her as she tried to get me to do even simple things - but I caught on and am functionally bilingual now: I can walk, trot and canter in two languages.

We've lived in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Alberta and now back in New Brunswick all in less than seven years. But this place, these small 5.6 acres, are ours forever. I have a lovely, cosy barn, lots of hay and grain to eat and my person makes sure there's an endless supply of clean, fresh water. During the summer months I have a whole 2.5 acre pasture all to myself, but close enough to the fence line that I can chat with 'Sally', our neighbour's Percheron mare. All in all, life here is looking good.

Signed,

the Pasture Potato