Straight From the Horse’s Mouth – Tucks St. Aly Checks In from Texas

Dear Elizabeth and Barry (*nuzzle* got any peppermints by chance?),

Since I have been here in this crazy west Texan place for almost 5 weeks now, I thought I had best send you a note relating the FACTS about what life has been like here. Unfortunately I can’t fit my hooves on Alex’s minuscule laptop (that is an odd looking laptop by the way, after many sniff tests of it I’m still not all that sure it’s OK) so she is having to type it out for me, but don’t worry she promised to relate it exactly as I’ve told it to her over the days.

Well, first off, let me tell you, the honeymoon is over! This girl now, instead of giving me 3 peppermints every time she comes to see me….now only gives me maybe 3 or 6 per day. Imagine that, peppermint consumption going from 30 per day to only maybe 6 per day….I’m sure you feel for me. Not only that, but we are finally in a dadgum thing called a ‘regime’. Instead of getting 4 or 5 meals a day, as when I first got here, it’s now back to 3, and no 30 minutes early stuff either. At least I am rid of the wild burro’s ungodly noises, and am trying to make friends with my pasture buddies…never seen smaller horses…but they don’t seem that friendly with me and for some reason seem to be quite scared of me; you’d think I was huge or something! I have also had a not so pleasant time coming in contact with some of the desert vegetation around here;…I always related the word “desert” to something pleasant you know…tasty and sweet…well let me tell you, it’s poky and inedible! Cacti….mesquites…yucca plants..and Tumbleweeds – especially the ones that dare to get caught in my tail! Tell all the guys back at the farm, they better hope they never try to munch on these nasty plants as I did…even though they’re green, it’s a nasty surprise!

Anyway, even though, after this report you might be alarmed…I figured I should let you know that you don’t have to come pick me up…though I wouldn’t mind a visit. I get an idea that this girl really does like me quite a lot…She’s keeping me in shape by lunging almost every day, and wonderfully enough Mr. Kemper is building us several jumps to start doing our favorite exercise together. I get my own personal visits from her many times a day and she even reads in the pasture with me ( pretty impressive huh, I always knew I would enjoy learning to read) and keeps me company quite a bit. I have my very own stable crew trained to call me handsome and beautiful (Alex and Mrs. Kemper are professional at that now; and Mr. Kemper is even in on it too – his blue truck pulling up beside my stable is a highlight of my day because the back is almost always filled with lots of hay for me…even though he does make me share it with those pesky weird animals that looked like very shrunken horses- some people call them goats…) I’ll keep you updated, and you can tell Joe Bear that I miss having a ‘normal’ pasture buddy, but hopefully, if all goes according to plans…maybe I’ll convince them ( I haven’t given up my pawing yet!) to up my alfalfa ration (Alex says too much is unhealthy..oh the burdens of eating healthy ! (sigh) ; there is also a black cold box in the tack room…that I have found out the majority of its contents are bags of carrots and even two bags of peppermints…there’s hope! Alex is really very in love with me, she just doesn’t want it to go to my head too much I guess. (knowledgeable, horsey wink)

Nuzzles from me and hugs from my girl,

The A-team.