Some days.

It's hard to believe that Snoopy has been retired and living in Temecula for almost two years. 

Snoopy kept following me around the paddock. 

Last year, Frostie joined him, although they don't live in the same paddock. She lives at the other end, with another mare, Aisha, and a gelding, Bodie. Her next-door neighbors include a Mustang named John Doe. He's her boyfriend. Bodie is interested, also. It's quite the triangle.

Frostie, chilling in her fly mask.

I try to visit as often as I can. Sometimes, it's once a week, sometimes it's once a month. Temecula is a good hour-and-a-half from my house, so I have to plan a 4ish-hour trip. I always bring treats for them all, carrots or apples. At Christmas, there are candy canes. When I can in the summer, I make popsicles for them out of Jello, apple juice, carrots and apples.

It never feels like enough.

Some days, I go and feed them and pet them and feel happy that they are settled and being horses. Some days, it's more like a haunting--a graveyard of memories. I remember meeting Frostie for the first time, at a horse show in Santa Barbara. By the time the show was over, I wanted her so badly, it felt like a fire in my gut.

I also reminisce about Snoopy and me. I have a new show horse now. His name is All Hats Off, aka Dhani. He is beautiful, and a great competition horse--easy to ride, totally chill personality, yet quirky. I'm having a great time bonding with him. He's not as cuddly as Frostie, but he doesn't try to eat me like Snoopy does. I'd say, he puts up with my nose smooches. He's a much better show horse than Snoopy, and we get better every time we compete.

Dhani and I at the Hollywood Charity Horse Show

Having said all that, there are still days when I wish with all my heart that he was Snoopy.

Today, I visited and spent time talking to each of them. Frostie and I talked about planning for an emergency. I explained that, if and when the time comes for her to cross over, I want to be there with her, but I may not be able to. The most important thing for me is that she not suffer just because I can't get there in time. I told her that I would be with her in my heart, and I would always love her.

Did she understand? I can't say, but it made me feel better.

Snoopy and I remembered all the good times at the shows, even the times he was a total goofball and grabbed plants and things on the trail course. I told him how grateful I was for everything he taught me, and that, even if he wasn't an "old soul," he'd earned his place as one. When the day comes for him to cross over, I thought he'd be able to return, if he wanted, to help someone else the way he helped me.

Did he understand? I can't say, but... hell, I'm not sure if I understood.

Afterward, I had a lovely lunch at South Coast Winery, and cried all the way home. 

Some days are like that.

Retirement is good

Dear Diary,

I am happy. Living at Miss Linda's ranch, hanging out with my friends all day, is good. I get lots of food and attention. MomToo visits me pretty often. I'm always happy to see her, but when I first moved here, I got mad if she didn't come every week.

At least, as I counted the sunrises.

I was in a pen with Freeze and Briley. Then a new horse came, Sebastian. He was next door, with Joey and Seven. Sebastian is a big horse, bigger than me, and kept pushing Joey and Seven around. They didn't like that, so Miss Linda moved me in with Joey and Seven, and put Sebastian in with Briley and Freeze.

That was pretty perfect. Joey and Seven liked me a lot better than they liked Sebastian. Of course, I've gotten better horse manners, too, after being with Freeze and Briley. They are now teaching Sebastian good manners.

Our paddock is quieter than next door. Briley and Freeze like to run and play. I like to run and play, too, but sometimes it makes my body tired. Joey and Seven just like to hang out. Seven can't run very well because his knees hurt. I like hanging out, especially with Joey. We are best friends now.

(Seven and I are waiting for Joey to come back from his morning snack.)

My hair is getting very thick and my mane is long and I don't look like a show horse any more. Monte still comes to trim my feet. I don't wear shoes on my back feet now. MomToo says I look like a horse, which is good, because that's what I am.

Life is good.

The big change

Dear Diary,

Things are different now. 

After the last horse show, MomToo and Auntie Niki acted a lot different. They tried not to worry me about it, but I knew. The last horse show was my last horse show. MomToo kept crying and trying to hide it from me. I could tell, though, when she rode me, how sad she was. 

It was okay, really. I like the shows, but I'm tired. My legs are always kind of achy, and I can't stand up as straight and round as I used to. I feel kind of...old.

I heard MomToo and Auntie Niki talk about moving me to a place. At first, I thought they were talking about the Clover Fields, and I didn't think I was ready to die. Then I figured out they were talking about places that have pastures for me to hang out in all day. That sounded good, but I was worried I'd never see them again.

A friend of MomToo's came to visit me. She was a very nice lady, very quiet, and just listened while I talked. I told her to tell MomToo that it was okay to give up showing. It was fun and I know we won some things, but I was too tired to keep doing it. I also told her how much I missed Bubba. He died last year, and he was my only friend. 

I asked her, if I went to another place, would I ever see MomToo again, and she said, "Oh, yes, she says she will visit you at least once a week." I felt a lot better.

(Now I have to remember how many times the sun comes up in order to make a human week. I don't count that well.)

After that, I made certain to tell the lady how much I love MomToo and how grateful I am for everything she did for me, from helping me be born to making sure I had good doctors when I broke my leg, to never giving up on me. The lady started crying when she gave MomToo my message. 

I didn't mean to do that.

One morning, Auntie Niki and MomToo showed up and put me in the moving box. I didn't have a bath, so I knew I wasn't going to a show. I was in the box for a long time, bouncing along. At last, we stopped, and when I got out, I saw great big pens with horses in them. A lady was there. She showed Auntie Niki where to lead me.

Auntie Niki put me in a pen by myself. It was huge! I walked around, sniffing it, until I found a horse in the pen next to me. He put his head over the fence--I hadn't put my head over a fence since I was a baby. We started to play, running up and down, chasing each other, striking and kicking. 

All of a sudden, the lady chased my friend into his barn, and Auntie Niki took me out of that pen. Darn! She put me in the pen with two horses, Joey and Seven. Seven is really old and grumpy. When I tried to touch him with my teeth, he kicked me. Joey kept trying to bite my shoulder, so I bit his leg. I thought that we were playing.

I guess it's been a long time since I played with another horse. Johnny and Tucker and Uncle Snowy weren't that playful when I was a baby. They just wanted me to behave.

Auntie Niki took me out of that pen and put me in with two other horses, Freeze and Briley. I liked these guys. Freeze made me walk to each corner of the pen, while Briley watched. Nobody tried to kick or bite me. At last, we all just stood in the sunshine and rested.

"Relax," Freeze told me. "We live here all the time. We've got forever to be friends."

It was then, standing with my head down and my leg cocked, that I felt like I was home. I wasn't nervous about anything. I still needed to get to know my new friends, but I hadn't had a friend for a long time. 

MomToo was nervous. She and Auntie Niki kept looking at me as they walked to the truck. Even as they drove away, I knew they were looking at the pen. I didn't look at them. I was too busy introducing myself to everyone, even the lady. Her name is Miss Linda, and I like her.

So far, MomToo has been visiting me a lot. She brings me treats, and shares them with the others. Freeze and Briley and I have figured out who is in charge, and I can now eat at the feeder with them. I'm still learning my manners--I had forgotten much of what Uncle Snowy taught me.

MomToo says I can live here forever, which is good. She says she'll visit as often as she can, and that I'll always be close in her heart, which is better. 

It's still a wonderful life.

The last dance

Even before we went to Burbank this weekend, we knew.

After the Del Mar fiasco, I said I wanted to take him to the Burbank show, just to see if he was calmer, to see if his performance improved when he wasn't stressed and exhausted. I said he'd definitely be retired at the end of this season.

But Niki knew the truth of it, and in the end, so did I.

Every lesson at home told me that his body moved differently. I was now doing a lot of work to keep his shoulders up, his hips pushing forward. Sometimes it felt like rubbing my head and patting my stomach--lifting the reins, sitting right, rubbing my right spur against him, just to get a left lead that would get us both over the poles. Poles that were flat on the ground.

By the time we loaded up for the Hollywood Charity Horse Show, I knew it was our last competition.

The good news is, Snoopy was happy to be there. He settled pretty quickly. When he wasn't eating large quantities of hay, he was asleep. He actually laid down at one point. The barn was a good place, unlike Del Mar.

As expected, though, his body tired easily and getting him around the courses was doable, but not pretty. I won't fault him, won't tell you he was being lazy. He responded to my leg, never ignored me. He gave us everything he had. 

As Niki warmed him up for his last class, she said at one point he laid his ears back and she could swear she heard him say, "Woman! I am TRYING to do what you're asking! THIS is all I've GOT!"

Maybe he did.

Usually, at a horse show, Niki takes him in a class to school him, preferably before my class. Even if she goes after me, she can clean up the areas I screw up on. At this show, her class was after mine. I told her on Saturday, that if she didn't want to show, there was no point in cleaning him up after my class. It wasn't like he was going to show, ever again.

"No, no, I'll do it," she said.

Stupid me. I was so focused on my last ride with the big goofball, it didn't dawn on me that she'd like one more time to take him around a course. 

I stayed focused on the task at hand and didn't think about what it meant. It turned out to be a hard ride, because everytime I did something I wasn't happy with, I'd think, I'll have to work on this at home. Then I'd realize I didn't have to. Still, I didn't cry until I was done and had dismounted. That moment, of my boots on the ground, signaled the end.

Niki waited until the end, too, because she couldn't risk having tears on her eyeglasses. There was crying, there was hugging. An era ended.

My friends Ernie and Tina were sweet enough to capture my last ride.

And I captured Niki's go (excuse the wobbly camera work).

So here's a little ditty for us to ride off into the sunset. 




Happy Trails.

Reality packs a wallop.

I've been pretty quiet for a long time here, as has Snoopy. Last year was good for us, once we convinced Snoopy's body to cooperate. It took a few visits from Dr. Pollard, a new anti-inflammatory, and a bi-weekly shot of Adequan (joint lubricant) to get there. And by "there" I mean we got to a New Normal. Snoopy warmed up slower, and his left lead began to feel very much like an off-balance washing machine. But I learned how to push the back end and lift the front end to even him all out, and we went out and showed.

We showed well, even going to Las Vegas to the Novice Championships. It was the only time we could have gone, since you usually have to get enough show points to be invited. In 2016, they moved the show date up, so they waived the point requirement. Snoopy and I have never shown enough in a single year to earn enough points. 

Vegas, baby!

My promise to him has always been to keep him as sound and as comfortable as I can, for as long as possible. You cannot realistically do that if you run around showing all year. We had a four-show-per-year budget, both for my wallet and his body.

This year, Snoopy's body needed more convincing. In addition to the anti-inflammatory, we upped the Adequan to once a week, added monthly(ish) Legend injections (another drug for joints), injected his hocks specifically with hyaluronate sodium, and finally got "there" -- to yet another New Normal. Now his jog looked choppy and his bionic leg looked very stiff and vertical at the lope. Kind of like a peg leg.

I considered getting him an eye patch and a parrot, but he finally came around and started moving better. Not like two years ago better, but "serviceably sound," as we say in horses.

We went to our first show this month in Del Mar, at the racetrack. Snoopy was a good horse in the arena. He was very obedient and calm. Back at the stall was another matter. He was distressed. He paced, he circled, he reared, he screamed. For five days. He never laid down, never relaxed, barely ate.

The first day it was annoying. The second day it was frustrating. From that point on, it was heartbreaking. He'd only eat if the hay was outside the stall and I held the lead rope. He only slept when I led him to the arenas and let him stand around with the other horses. We had been joking about his fat hay belly when we got there; by the third day, we could see his ribs. That's about 100 pounds, folks.

And although he was technically good in the arena, he wasn't pretty to watch. I rode well and he got over the poles, but our scores were average. We weren't competitive.

Getting mileage out of that outfit--and that pad looks gorgeous on him!

So Niki and I have talked. Maybe it was the Del Mar stalls that stressed him. Maybe if he wasn't so exhausted, he could have moved better on the course. Maybe. 

Or maybe the day I promised has come, the day he is no longer sound enough and comfortable enough. I just didn't know it would come this soon. He's only 13. 

We plan to take him to Burbank at the end of May, to a show he's been to many times, to verify whether it was Del Mar that he hated, or whether he is telling us in the only way he can that he doesn't want to show anymore.

The bottom line is, we'll be retiring him, if not in June, then certainly by the end of this show season. 

In the meantime, Niki is looking for a good retirement home for him. The bad part about not having horse property is that I can't just bring him home with me. 

I spend my time crying at odd moments. This is my baby. I've known him since I watched the vet inseminate Frostie. I helped pull him out. He'll always be my baby. My big, silly, frustrating, funny baby.

Now I watch Niki warm him up and see how hard he tries for her and I weep about how his body looks in each attempt. I'd like him to be able to relax, just be a horse, but I worry about taking him to a new place--will he understand that I'm not abandoning him? 

I've learned so much about riding from him. 

I'm trying to be philosophical and realistic about all this, but it's hard. I keep waiting for him to open his mouth and tell me it'll be all right. 

Ranch Rashomon

Gayle's story:

I've lived long enough to know that change comes to everything. Sometimes it's a matter of simple, small adjustments over time, so that you don't notice that nothing is the same until you look back through the years. Sometimes it's an abrupt difference in the way you do things, or where you live. 

We've recently been through the abrupt thing, as a result of the small adjustments. My horse trainer Niki has moved two doors down--that's the abrupt one. It happened as a result of the little things we didn't notice until we turned around. We loved the Silver Rose Ranch. It was peaceful and pretty. Snoopy was born there. When other trainers came and went, we sighed and said, "More arena space for us."

Then we looked up one day and saw that we were isolated from other horse trainers, other horses, and opportunities for Niki to expand her business. It was a gut-wrenching process, touring the new facility, asking question after question, wondering whether we really had to do this. 

In the end, the answer was yes. We've been at the Hillcrest Equestrian Center for a week. It's lovely and quiet. The other trainers and their clients are friendly. 

Of course, my horses are settling in, each a little differently. I'll let them tell you what they think.

Frostie's turn:

Gayle told me of the new stable before we went. She tries so hard to visualize what is going to happen so I'm not surprised by anything. I don't like surprises. She kept showing me a very large pipe corral with a roof on half of it, and shavings. 

At least, I thought I didn't like surprises. Instead of taking me to the pipe corral, she took me to a much fancier in-and-out. It's kind of like a box stall with a little yard attached to it. I have two neighbors. Both are very nice, after I explained I was the mare in charge. We eat flake hay here, not cubes, and they clean my stall a lot.

If I had one complaint, I'm not fond of the walk to the round pen and the arena. It's very uphill. I had to stop three times the first day because I'm not used to the climb. But other than than, I love my new home.

Snoopy's thoughts:

WHERE AM I?!?!?! 

I am not at a horse show, because no one is giving me a bath or putting bands in my mane. I am not at home, but I am close to my home. I've never lived anywhere but my home. I can smell my home from my stall. Why am I here?

They feed me good here. Lots of hay. The first few days, I couldn't stop walking around in my stall. MomToo is worried because I look so skinny. The arena is good. The dirt there is very soft and bouncy, and makes my legs feel good. 

I don't like the crossties so much. There is a bar in the back and when I step back, it hits me in the bottom. Then there are buildings and horses and people and noises behind that. It makes me nervous. 

MomToo keeps telling me that we've moved, and this is my new home, but she is still my MomToo and Auntie Niki are still here and no one will leave me. After a while, I started believing what she said. I'm getting calmer now.

I've seen Mom every day, too. She tells me to calm down, that this is a good ranch and I will like it here. As long as I'm with my family and my friends, I guess she's right.

Gayle again:

Come visit Victory Farms at Hillcrest Equestrian Center!

The view from the outside looking in

Remember a few posts back when Dr. Pollard was flexing Snoopy's feet and discovered his front feet were bothering him? 

As treatment, we've been giving Snoopy Previcox (an anti-inflammatory and pain reliever) and monthly Adequan injections for osteoarthritis. He has his days where he starts out stiff and warms out of it, then his days where he's good unless I jog him in a sudden, tight circle right. His lope still feels like an off-kilter washing machine. So I started thinking...

Perhaps it was time to take some x-rays. Not only might we see what's going on, but we would have a baseline for any future changes.

Karma was kind to me, and Dr. Pollard could only come out on the same day as Monte, our farrier. This meant Monte could pull Snoopy's shoes for the photos, then put them back on, or make changes if necessary.

My biggest fear was that we'd take the photos and not see anything. That's more frustrating than seeing something awful.

What did we see? Let me show you a diagram of how a horse's leg is supposed to look:

Snoopy's legs don't look anything like this. His cannon bones (the beige one) tilt slightly in one direction. The two pastern bones (the green and purple) are straight, then the hooves tilt in the other direction. 

As Monte said, "He gets his legs from his mom. They grow in three different directions."

The x-ray on his right leg told the story of what was wrong. Along the outside of the hoof, next to the little point (see the red arrow, but on the opposite side) there was a weird arcing structure pointing up toward the purple bone. Dr. Pollard said that was calcification, which wouldn't account for his soreness UNLESS it was combined with what he showed me on the outside of the top of the green bone - a tiny bone spur pointing toward the brown bone. 

The bone spur was miniscule, but the way his leg winds this-way-and-that, it's like having a teeny pebble in your shoe. It's not going to result in amputation, but it bugs the heck out of you.

Monte and Dr. Pollard discussed his shoeing needs and decided on aluminum bar shoes. More expensive (*sigh* Ka-Ching), but it would fortify his heels and support the sidewalls. 

We gave him a few days off, per the doctor's orders, and today I watched Niki ride him. He landed a lot easier on his front feet, and she said his lope felt better. 

I'm just happy that it's easier for him to move without discomfort. And now we know where to look when anything changes.

Horse shows are fun, aren't they?

Dear Diary, 

I went to a horse show in the moving box. Usually I go with Bubba, but this time, a girl named Gigi rode with me. She was a silly girl, stomping around in the moving box and asking, "Where are we? Where are we?" all the time. I told her we were going to a horse show, but she wasn't sure.

"How do you know?"

Well, I know because the day before, Auntie Niki took the clippers and buzzed them all over my legs and my face. And the next morning, MomToo gave me a really long bath with lots of soap, and scrubbed my head with a rag that I kept trying to grab.

When she put on my show pajamas, I knew where we were going.

I had a good time at the show. First, when we got there, I saw Bubba. He had come in a different moving box. It was nice to be at the show with him.

Next, I got to run around on the longe line. Then Auntie Niki rode me in the warm-up pen. I was very excited to see the arena where the judges were. All of the poles had plants around them, or pretty flowers. I needed to touch them all, and see if the plants tasted good. As Auntie Niki rode me around for the judges, I tried to get my mouth on any of the plants I came close to. I thought it was a fun game. I didn't notice that Auntie Niki wasn't having any fun...

...until she started to spank me. 

I was just reaching for the pretty flowers, when I felt her yank my head back and her legs kicked my belly. That was a DQ, I knew that! I was shocked - Auntie Niki doesn't DQ! We left the arena and she rode me around a little more, making sure she had my attention. 

Then she stopped and MomToo got on. We warmed up and then went to the judges' pen. MomToo had my reins a little short. I think she was worried that I was still interested in the plants. I was, but I had just been spanked. MomToo was very focused and rode me around the course without letting me do anything I wanted to do.

Auntie Niki was still mad at me, but said me and MomToo did really good. The judges gave us a 2 and a 4.

The next day, we just practiced. Practice is okay, but MomToo gets a lot of things wrong and we have to do them over and over. In between practicing, she stood close to my face while I tried to chew her shirt, and Auntie Niki pointed a square thing at us. She calls them "pictures."

Our last day was mostly like the first day, except I didn't try to grab any of the plants. When Auntie Niki and I went in to the judges' pen, I saw the lady with the big clicking box. She was in the bushes. Why was she in the bushes? I couldn't figure it out, so I did the next best thing. I tried to run away with Auntie Niki.

Boy, if she was mad when I grabbed the plants, it was nothing compared to when I tried to run. She spanked me the whole way around the course. Then she had MomToo get on me and ride me around and around and around. Finally we went to the judges' pen.

"Be good, Snoopy," MomToo whispered. "It's just the photographer."

I still wasn't sure about the lady in the bushes, but I had been spanked before, so I just put my head down and did what she said. We went around the course pretty well, I think. The judges gave us another 2 and a 4. 

We ended up being Circuit Champion. Auntie Niki wasn't so mad anymore.

Love,

Derby Day

I'm over at Equestrian Ink today, describing the horse show Snoopy and I went to last weekend. (Read it here - http://equestrianink.blogspot.com/2015/05/every-time-you-think-things-will-be-same.html) 

We'll get Snoopy's version of the show later, but today is Kentucky Derby day. 

One of our lesson horses, a quarter horse mare named Sheza Justa Sandman (aka Sandy), is part Thoroughbred, and indirectly related to the Triple Crown. Her grandfather, Damascus, won both the Preakness and the Belmont in 1967, but came in second to Proud Clarion in the Derby. 

Here's a little newsreel about the race.



I think it's interesting how much things change yet remain the same. Racial tensions were running high in 1967. When will we be able to overcome this obstacle to peace?

Another edition of He Said, She Said

Snoopy: I almost died today.

Gayle: You didn't almost die. Although I thought you were going to kill me.

Snoopy: Well, you didn't protect me. All those little bugs were running up my nose.

Gayle: I am sorry about that, but they weren't little bugs. They were little fluffy seed pods from the field of weeds next door. You had fly spray on, but there's no repellent for flying plants. I know they were uncomfortable.

Snoopy: They wouldn't get out of my nose.

Gayle: I know. You kept stopping to shake your head all around. 

Snoopy: And then the hurricane came!

Gayle: It wasn't a hurricane.

Snoopy: The tornado came!

Gayle: It wasn't a tornado. It was a miniature whirlwind that picked up the dust and leaves, kind of like a waterspout with dirt, and blew across the arena.

Snoopy: It came right at me. I thought it was going to pick me up and carry me somewhere! It was scary and awful and I wanted to run away! You wouldn't let me run away!

Gayle: Well, no, I don't like being run away with. Not my favorite thing.

Snoopy: But I would have run where it was safe.

Gayle: Doubtful. I know you. You would have run some distance, stopped and looked at the wind, snorted, then run some more. Then repeated that until the wind died down.

Snoopy: You didn't have to grab me and pull me backward.

Gayle: True, and for that I am sorry. It's just, when you do your "I'm spooking" thing, you dip your butt and bring your front end up. It makes me feel like I'm going to fall off backward, so I lean forward and pull the reins. Then Niki starts yelling at me not to do that, but all I can think is, "What language is she using? Put my hands forward? What are hands? Sit back? Am I sitting at all?"  It's hard to learn to do the right thing.

Snoopy: It's okay. I forgive you.

Gayle: I forgive you, too, Snoopy. Let's not do that again, okay?

Snoopy: Not making any promises.

Glasses half empty. Glasses half full.

I haven't posted in a while. Here's the thing: Snoopy's been going through some issues with his legs. At first, we thought he had tweaked his left hind flexor tendon (I always want to call it a tendor flexon). We treated it with drugs and walking and it seemed to get much better. 

Except that when we started riding him again, his left lead suddenly felt different, as in, riding an off-kilter washing machine. His left hind leg just wasn't advancing enough to round his back and smooth the ride. Niki tried to push him into the right physical frame and he actually got mad at her, something he never does.

We thought it was up in his stifle, so we had Dr. Pollard out to watch him being ridden. The doctor was surprised, only in that what we saw wasn't what he saw. He did a flex test - this is where he holds a foot up for an extended period, then has the person lead the horse off at an immediate trot. He flexed all four feet, and what do you think he found?

It's Snoopy's front feet.

According to the doctor, Snoopy's showing the kind of stress on his front feet that jumpers show, from hitting the ground over jumps. This is all part of his ongoing need to compensate for a fused joint, a metal plate, and six screws. 

Anti-inflammatory drugs seem to be working. If they don't, then we'll go to injecting the hocks, then who knows? We're also going to talk to the farrier to see if there's anything we could do to his shoeing to help him out.

So why wasn't I detailing this excruciating process? Because Snoopy is 11 and has so far led a miraculous life. I keep telling myself that every day with him is a blessing, but the truth is, I want the blessings to continue. I want him to be the same horse he was last year, when I took him to shows and participated in the three-day trail challenge at the Pink Show.

I don't want him to show any signs of age, because I suspect he will not live as long as most horses.

The result is that I stayed under the radar, giving him drugs and walking him and denying that perhaps there are changes in his body that we have to adjust to, and some of those changes may mean the end of his riding and showing career.

We are taking him to his first show this weekend. It will be fairly low key, as he and I are both out of shape, and plan to just have fun and see what we can still do. If it works out, we will plan for the one in April.

One day at a time, one blessing at a time.

I got mail.

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a very nice holiday. I'm not really sure what a holiday is, but last month, MomToo brought me candy canes and carrots and apples, more than usual. So I guess holidays mean treats. 

I like holidays.

Now that it is the new year, I am another year older. I don't understand this, either. My birthday is April 28, but MomToo says all Quarter horses have their birthdays on January 1. I didn't get a cake or anything.

But I did get one thing new: a little metal box for my lunch.

Every day, Raul gives me a very special lunch. It's sweet, and salty, and kind of stinky. My MomToo tells me it's my supple mints. (MomToo's note: Snoopy is referring to his supplements of glucosamine, electrolytes, and garlic, all hidden in alfalfa & molasses.) I like my lunch, and whinny for it when I see Raul. I like Raul.

But one day, MomToo came out of the lunch room holding a box and saying bad words. We had a rat in the lunch room. Jet's mom said it was a big rat. MomToo said it had eaten my supple mints. She was mad.

"That stupid rat chewed completely through both plastic bins and ate their supplements." 

Then she went away.

When she came back the next morning, she brought two new boxes. She was smiling. Auntie Niki was laughing a little.

"What?" MomToo said. "It's metal."

"It's a mailbox," said Auntie Niki.

"Well if a rat chews through this, then I surrender."

I don't know what MomToo meant by that, but I'm happy to have a new metal box for my lunch. Rats don't share.

We did it!

I like to take Snoopy to horse shows and compete in trail. He seems to love being there, judging by what I'd call his "happy energy" level, and believe it or not, I like that feeling of stepping into the arena in front of the judges and trying to do well.

No, I'm not a masochist.

Still, knowing Snoopy's limitations, I don't take him to a lot of shows. Four to five a year is all, once a month from February through August. Because we're both kind of newbies, we both perform at the novice level, which means relatively easy courses with poles on the ground.

I say "relatively easy" because they're still hard for us. We do all right, and it's tremendous fun, but we don't win a lot.

In August, the local AQHA division hosts "The Pink Show", to honor those we've lost and those who have survived cancer. As a matter of fact, my main character's horse trainer in MURDER ON THE HOOF, is named after one of the wonderful women we lost to breast cancer, Emily Jungers.

The PCHA Trail Classic is held at the Pink Show. It's three days of really hard trail courses (for amateurs only), and you don't know your placing until they give out the awards on the last day. Each day you get a little gift with your draw. The courses are designed by Tim "the Trail Man" Kimura, who designs all the trail courses for all of the top shows in the country.

I've never been in a place, skill-wise, to compete in this. It's entirely possible that I'm still not at that level. But for the first time, I wanted to try it.

I discussed it with Niki. The courses would have lots of twists and turns and raised poles - all potentially hard on a horse's body. I never want to hurt Snoopy. We developed a strategy that involved the chiropractor, liniment, warm-ups, and lots of rest afterward.

I won't lie, those courses were brutal. So many transitions from the jog to the lope and back again. Intricate slow moves like side-passing on a pole and backing around a corner into a chute. Here's one of the patterns.

"All I want you to aim for is consistency," Niki told me. She prepared us both as much as she could, then turned us loose on the course.

Well, we were consistent all right. Each time, Snoopy broke from one of the lope-overs for at least one step. Each time, our back-ups got done by the skin of our teeth. Each time, I had to ride every inch of ground and could not let Snoopy take charge of what we were doing.

On Sunday, after the last horse left the course, we all lined up and waited for the results. Forty horses had entered the competition. I thought we'd be somewhere in the mid-twenties. Names kept being called. None of them were mine.

At 19th place, we were finally called. TOP TWENTY! In addition to a bucket of supplements for Snoopy, I won a really pretty pair of spurs.

So I spent a day to prepare my horse, then three days at a show, getting up early to drive for an hour to the venue and working outside in hellish heat. Every day I dressed up in jeans, suede chaps, a long-sleeved shirt, and a cowboy hat to do this. My internal organs felt like they were melting and sticking together. My eyebrows sweated.

It was so much fun, I want to do it again. Hmm... maybe I am a masochist.

I have a good time everywhere!

Dear Diary,

We went to another horse show last week. I had such a good time. There's always interesting things to see. Before we went, I got a bath.

Once we got there, Auntie Niki took me out for a nice run. Golly it felt good!

I love horse shows. I get a nice cushy stall and room service!

I tried to be a good horse on the trail course, but sometimes it was hard to do. They stuck lots of yummy plants around - what's a guy to do when he's hungry? MomToo tugged on my face and wouldn't let me eat, though. And the judges looked so friendly, I wanted to go over and talk to them. MomToo and Auntie Niki both said no.

Auntie Niki and I did really well. MomToo and I did some things well and some things not so well. Every time she asked me to turn around in the box, I got stuck. I wasn't moving fast enough and keeping my feet going, so my hurt foot would get stuck under my hip and make MomToo stop and push me to make my hip scoot over.

I guess we're gonna work on boxes at home now.

But we still had fun!

While we were there, Auntie Niki told MomToo that someone had asked if I was for sale. For SALE?!?!? I couldn't be for sale! MomToo and I still have to work on our boxes! I was a little nervous for a moment, but MomToo just laughed.

"His user's manual is way too big," she said, then petted me. "Snoop, your fate was sealed when I pulled you out of your mom. You're mine."

It was a good show.

My book is on sale!

MomToo is in charge of everything, including me. She wrote another book, but I'm not in it. To celebrate, she's offering my book for sale. Only 99 cents, she says. Regularly $3.99.

I don't know what these numbers mean. Or "sale". I just know she's pretty excited about the new book and wants to let everyone know that she writes good books about horses.

Of course, we know I really wrote my book, right?


Here's where you go to get my book. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D0HDYRQ
It's only 99 cents until May 21.

Try it. You'll like it.