Dear Otto..

To my Long legged Wonder..

I know you are still relatively new around here at Acer Farm and for the most part , you spend your days eating , pooping , growing and wandering about the place looking for things to get into.   It's almost  a New Year and it makes me eager to look forward.  I thought maybe it was a good time to get some things cleared up for you. Tell you a little about what your purpose in life is going to be.

To start, let's get the "housekeeping" things out of the way...

1. Cassidy's tail - Its mot your own personal toy rope to pull  and tug. I know it's a very full and lush tail , and hard to resist but I spend hours working on that tail making it beautiful in the summer. I know its nothing like your scraggly whisp of a tail but that doesn't mean you can ruin Cassidy's.  Besides, having a mouth full of tail hair is difficult to spit out, as you have experienced..

2. Feed Bucket -When I feed you your grain in the am and pm and forget to go back and get the bucket after your done eating..., it's not an invite to poop in the bucket. We are a no frills farm around here. We don't have horse toilets and while you seem to think this is a pretty cool trick, I am not finding the humor in it.  I have to spend an extra 15 minutes cleaning it out for your  next meal because your road apples have frozen to it. Do you really want to eat your meals over the top of your own poop?? I think not..

3.The Jolly Ball. We have to chat about this..I thought this was a great idea as a toy for you. At first, you left it alone.. didn't have any use for it.. which was kinda irritating since it wasnt exactly cheap. Then one day I kicked it in the pasture and the light went off for you . You haven't left it alone since.. However..  you have not been kind to your toy. It was supposed to be INDESTRUCTIBLE.. Its a Jolly Ball , not a

They are INDESTRUCTIBLE ...do you know what that means? It means that it should not look this..

why ????

 I am not even sure how you got it too look like this but there isn't a way to fix it..I have tried.  Maybe I should call the company and send them this photo of your handiwork and they will send us a new one..


So that's that part.

Now that your settled into your new home, I wanted to let you know what I would like you to be thinking about as you  grow and develop into my "perfect, everything" horse.

Whaaaaa???

The sun is making me sleeeeepppppy...I can't be bothered

You did know that was my master plan for you , right? 
oh.. well if this is news to you, my apologies. Your mentor , Cassidy, should have mentioned that small detail..I have made a note to myself to circle back to him on that. He really needs to step up his game if he is going to be your role model.

Now, don't get your arab tail in a bind. (you do it quite well and I just have to look away when you do...) You will have plenty of time to work on becoming that horse...which is why I wanted to give you the run down now,  so you would have enough time to think about it. It's going to be a long process and come spring, it's going to pick up speed.

We have many adventures ahead and I am so excited to show you the great big world of  what being my endurance/jumping/trail/cow chasing/dressage horse is really all about. (n case your wondering, please refer back to the point about being my everything horse) Believe it or not, there is more to life than your quaint little 5 acres and barn....you'll see..

So first things first. In the spring, life will change dramatically for you . You know all those "feelings" you appear to be experiencing right now have? Yeah , well  they have to do with those two thing you have hanging between your back legs, which apparently are also connected to your mouth.
We will be taking care of those as soon as the footing is safe and I can chase you around to keep the swelling down. Thank god you have TB legs cuz your gonna need them son....

I promise, once your procedure is done, you will wake up a new horse..(and your pasture mates will like you alot better than they do right now as well) your just gonna have to trust me on this one..

After that, we will spend our days learning all kinds of things, like ponying, how to handle being clipped and having your legs wrapped. You will stand for the farrier and we will get the tying thing down once and for all too. I can't wait to see what you think about being out on the trail for the first time,  ponying along behind  your trusty mentor .But first, you have to learn how to pony at home before we take you to town. You will learn how to be okay with being behind another horse on the trail and not get worried , and you will learn that being between horses isn't a terrible thing either. It's just part of being a good trail horse. We are going to do alot of this for the next couple of years until your of age to be ridden.

See?, its easy..

You and Cass and I .. we'll be like the three Muskateers.

 There will be alot of new things to see and smell out on the trail like  hikers, bikers and jogger ladies with baby strollers. There will be other horses with other riders and  more than a handful of loose dogs jumping out of the trees or running up behind you.  Ofcourse, none of this is anything to freak out about.. it's just all in a day of being a good trail horse.. and since you will have seen it so many times with all the trips out there,  I will fully anticipate that  by the time I have a saddle on you, and I am aboard ,  we won't have any mishaps.. Capiche?

Then there is the water lesson.. Being sponged down after a long hot ride is refreshing and something to enjoy.  I know .. your Arab half despises water but you will learn that water is your friend..it's fun  to walk through and splash around in.. we have a lot of lakes and rivers around here to play in..

You know that outdoor  arena you seem to love so dearly and believe is your personal playground ? Well it will become even more fun for you soon.

I will teach you how to lounge  and ground drive. I will teach you how to walk and trot through ground poles so that someday we can build on that foundation and eventually sail over jumps together....just like this: ( and yes ofcourse I will be one handed over the fence , just like this rider  !)

Whoopeee!!

Ofcourse, at first , it will probably look more like this for a while..

There's other stuff too.. I have been doing some extra studying up on the side . Considering your tendency to be playful , I am learning about how to teach you a few tricks along the way too. As I will be patient with you, I hope you will be patient with me as I fumble through this unknown territory. I am sure we will both mess up from time to time but that is all part of the journey. We will have lots of times ahead where we are just going to have to trust one another so this is as good a time as any to start.

.....and    while this might be a little out of our reach.. .

Crazy chick

 Or even this...

crazy dude

I would think these two tricks should be mostly doable??

Sit down so I can get on you!

now take a bow

The plan is that whenever I get a chance, I will load you in the trailer and drag you along with everyone else so you can experience all the things a good "everything" horse must experience...this is how we do it here at Acer Farm and that is how you will become a good horse...

I am pretending I am not listening...

You will be brought along slowly and steadily. I promise to you that I wont push you or overexpose you to things too quickly  so that you become fearful of things.  I will always offer you a chance to think through an issue and if you can't figure it out, I will find a way to make it more clear. I will do my best to make the answer I am seeking the easiest choice for you.  I sincerely hope you do not choose to make it more difficult for yourself. That rarely works out well and usually winds up being more work. I do realize your part Thoroughbred and work is not something your kind is typically afraid of but lets just keep things easy.. shall we???


So, Mr Otto, we have some big goals ahead.. I can't wait to see what's in store for us!!