Katie Knows The Importance of Gratitude

Katie understands the unique challenges of being a miniature horse.

Dear Katie, I am a 9 hand tall Shetland pony.  I can’t think of anything to be thankful for.  Can you help me?  I can only think about things that upset me, like small hay rations and fences.  Signed, Ungrateful

Dear Ungrateful, what you focus on increases, so be thankful for the small, good things in your life, such as:
-the times your “owner” accidently leaves the gate open
-the times the electric fence is turned off
-the pasture buddies that your “owner” didn’t bring home to eat your food
-the lush grass on the septic drainfield

If you focus on these things, soon your life will overflowing with riches.- Katie

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Katie Wins a Year-End Award

Katie was the proud winner of this year-end award jacket, which I ended up wearing since she can’t wear a jacket.  She also won a blanket, tailbag and even a large jug of shampoo!  The shampoo is almost as big as she is and should last until the next millennium.

Katie Survives the Change to Daylight Savings Time

 

Katie’s weight loss program is not going well due to Daylight Savings Time.  Daylight Savings Time is an evil plot to get people in the northern climes to buy more coffee.

When you add the gray clouds and cold rain of Seattle to short days, it’s hard to get motivated to exercise your overweight pony.

Katie is OK with that.  She is happy to eat and not exercise.  In fact, it may be her dream life, though I think she likes to get out and spook at things at shows and trails.  If we get a dry day I can take her out for a hike.

Last night she practiced her spooking by pawing her feed pan, sending her dinner flying and spooking at it.  Now, remember, Katie is 19 1/2 years old and has been eating for that entire time so she should not be scared of her food.

But she is Katie, so spooking at her food is just part of who she is.  She’s naturally suspicious, which she believes has kept her alive for 19 1/2 years.  But it is a little bit the opposite- she is lucky someone puts up with her spooking because she is so darn cute.  She also has good points: she falls asleep while you clip her, she does tricks, she loves to let  kids groom, braid her and pick her feet.

Count Your Blessings

November is a time to be thankful and count your blessings.  I count Katie among mine.  If you own a horse, you are quite lucky.  Sometimes the horse wasn’t what your plans said a horse should be, but exactly the horse you needed.  That’s Katie.

The Horse World

After posting about the craziness of the horse world, I realize this could be taken wrong.  So I will dig an even bigger hole by writing more.

I also realize 98.9% of the population does not care about the horse world.  Therefore in order to make this interesting, I need to relate it to something people do care about.

Such as chocolate.  To some people horses are like chocolate.  Or coffee.

But horses are more expensive, and they require tack and supplies and cost money every place you turn.  I think some horse people don’t mind telling a few white lies like, “no, that is not a Hershey bar.  It’s Organic Free Range Chocolate with pure vanilla.  None of that fake vanillin stuff.”

And they hand you a half-eaten Hershey bar.

“No, that isn’t eaten on,” they say, “the end broke off.”

And so it goes, down the slippery slope.  If someone needs to lease or sell a horse, the horse is perfect and can win the Kentucky Derby, never bucks and loves children.

So always make sure your chocolate bar has a wrapper and isn’t half eaten.  Unfortunately horses don’t have a wrapper and you are at the mercy of the horse person and can only hope they are upstanding.