Hi everyone, it's your roving reporter Tapper again. Mom's been getting a lot of complaints because she hasn't updated the blog in ages, so she asked me if I'd write something - of course I said YES! Don't expect any photos this time, mom has to do those and she said she'd do them another day.

So, first of all, I'm doing great! Kate has been riding me a little this summer and I'm feeling really good! In fact, Kate rode me yesterday and I tried to buck a little because I was feeling so frisky, but Kate wouldn't let me get away with it - spoilsport! The farriers were here yesterday morning and we all got our feet trimmed, shoes reset, etc. My feet are beautiful - of course.

As for the other horses, well....

• Maggie doesn't live here anymore. She moved at the beginning of June to a home in Woodstock with a really nice lady who is leasing her from Gail. The nice lady keeps in touch with mom and she said Maggie is doing great and they are having a ball together.
• Cami is also gone. She went to another place in town - some friends of Kathi's, and we haven't heard anything about how she is doing there.
• Shady is still looking for a new home. Esther rode her the other day and she was very good. Mom says she really is sweet (of course no one is as sweet as me!) but needs to find a person of her own to spend time with her.
• Becca is staying here for good now and I'm glad because we are good friends. Mom agreed to keep Becca so I guess that means we are now sisters! Becca gets ridden at least once or twice a week by mom, Kate, or Carla. She went on a really long ride yesterday and was very tired when she came home.
• Dolly is just Dolly. Her mom (Carla) has been riding her more, and she uses spurs and a dressage whip sometimes just to get Dolly to move! That's dumb, if she would just move on her own it would be so much more comfortable for everyone. The good news is that Dolly's allergies have not been bad this year. She hasn't needed to take pills at all this summer and she's very happy about that.
• Starlight is looking good, she's put on some weight and seems happy running with us girls. She's finally kind of figuring out where she fits with the rest of us, but she and Dolly still absolutely hate each other! I wish the 2 of them would just get over themselves and stop with all the squealing and kicking!
• Sparkie is still full of himself - I just love him - but he's getting old. He's slowing down and he's tired a lot. He still is kept in solitary though because he wants to be boss man and ends up getting beaten up if he's out with others.
• Ziegy is just hanging out. He doesn't play like he used to because he said his feet and neck always hurt. The vet lady came out and adjusted him (it really doesn't hurt, I've had it done before), and she said he was out just about everywhere but his neck was especially bad.
• Jazz is mom's boy. She rides him a lot and he's been all over the place this summer, on all the old trails and exploring a lot of new places too. He's lost a lot of weight, and is way more fit than he was. Don't tell him I said so, but he's really kind of cute. Too bad he doesn't like mares.
• Scotty goes most everywhere with Jazz. Carla rides him and he's usually a good boy (except for yesterday, must have been some sort of bucking thing in the air, hmmm.....). He's looking pretty good too, except we can't figure out why he's turning roany brown when he's always been black with white markings. Weird!

So that covers all the horses. There are only 9 here right now, that's the least amount in a really long time. Mom said she'd like to get in a couple more boarders so she's going to put up some ads. We've had funny weather this summer, really way too hot and very dry. We had a big wind storm a few weeks ago and it knocked down a big tree behind mom's house. Jim came and cut it up and guess what??? It was a poplar tree! Yea! So we got all the branches and leaves to eat up - YUM!

Kate has been bring her kids up about once a week all summer. Sam gets a riding lesson on either Becca or Dolly, and Eve gets a pony ride on whichever Sam didn't use. Eve was doing her pony rides on me for a while, but that's really not my thing - you know? So they switched to the other girls.

There have been ducks and herons on the ponds, lots of deer around too. Mom was having some trouble with some of those pesky large rodents with flat tails down in the back field. You know the ones I mean, they block up the stream and try to flood the pasture! How rude! So mom was taking the tractor down every day to break up their dam and they finally seem to have gotten the hint. I hope they stay away because mom has a guy who will come shoot them if they come back!

Esther helped mom make a new website for the farm. If you want to see it (even though I don't write on it), go to https://sites.google.com/site/dancinghorsefarmvt/

Well, I guess that's all the news I can think of for now. I'll let you know if I come up with more. Have a great summer!