Sometimes I write poems about things that I love, like lovely hays and tasty, tasty grain. Sometimes I tell stories about Sinatra or Owen or The Big Baby. Sometimes I ask nice peoples for dollars for pointy horses. But right now I have to tell you about something important and true that peoples need to know about horses. I hope that many peoples will listen to this true thing.

There are peoples who think that horses don’t need peoples to live and this is just wrong! There are peoples who think that horses should be okay living in a field with no peoples around. I am a horse who says “Don’t sit on me” and “Don’t touch my face” and mostly I want peoples to leave me alone. But that does not mean that I do not need to be taken care of every day! Here at SAFE, nice peoples bring us hay four times on every single day and even tasty grain once time on a day. Nice peoples fill up our water tub two times on every day, so even if Sinatra knocked over the water tub, we would not be thirsty for very long. Other nice peoples come to our paddock on every day to take away our poops, and some other days other nice peoples come and brush us and put braids in our manes. And it seems like almost every hour someone walks by our paddock and says “Hello!” to me or Sinatra. And they smile at us, which is a very nice thing to do.

Our days are very interesting with all these nice peoples bringing lovely hays and smiling and saying “Hello!” But also, if I had a pain in my belly or my foot or my ear, someone would walk by and look at me and probably they would notice that I was feeling not right. They would probably say “Oh Honeycutt! What is wrong, old buddy?” and they might make a concerned face. Then they would call someone for help, like the vet, and pretty soon I would feel better. This is another very nice thing to do.

But imagine if no peoples walked by! Then no one would notice I was feeling not right and I would just keep on feeling not right for maybe a long, long time. Maybe I could get better, but maybe I would not. So if I was alone with no peoples walking by, a pain in my belly or my foot or my ear could maybe turn into something very, very bad. And no one would be able to make me feel better.

This is the true thing that peoples need to think about and know: Horses cannot be okay living in a field with no peoples around. Lovely hays need to come more than one time on a day so that horses can be eating most of the times. Water tubs can get knocked over and everyone gets thirsty, and that is bad. And peoples need to check on us to see that we don’t have a pain.

Peoples with horses living alone in a field really should not have horses. Those people would be better off with bicycles. And those horses would be better off with other peoples.

Hello to all my friends! I have something wonderful to share with you, but first I have a question to ask: Adoption — do you know this thing? Adoption is when someone says “Oh horse! Please come to my home and live there forever. There will be lovely hays and tasty, tasty grain for you, and also friends and fields and little houses. I am a good peoples and I want you to be my horse!” That is the thing called Adoption, and that is the thing that has happened for me and Sinatra.

Me and Sinatra have been SAFE horses for a long, long time, and sometimes we thought we would be SAFE horses forever! But one day a nice man named Chris saw my picture on the Interwebs and thought that it would be nice to have a horse like me living on his big farm. He came over to meet me, and right away I liked him very much. Chris was very calm and quiet with me, and when I stood next to him I felt like yawning, and I did yawn many, many times. Chris and Mom talked for a long time about me, and Chris told Mom that he had a big ranch where I could live with acres of room to roam and lots of different animals to be my friends. Mom was very very sad to think about saying “So long” to me, but when she saw the yawning, she understood that Chris was someone who I could be happy with. She did not want to be in the way of me being happy, so she was brave and said that Chris could take me to his ranch and that would be my home for ever.

Now when Chris was meeting me, Mom told Sinatra “Oh Sinatra! You must be a very very good horse and maybe Chris will take you to his farm for ever and ever too.” But Sinatra did not listen to Mom, so instead of being a good horse, he was a very bad horse! He screamed like a goat every time he could not see me, and he banged and banged on the metal gate because he was too far away to be my shadow. He even escaped into the barn and helped himself to some tasty, tasty grain, and made Mom have to pull on him to get him back outside. Sinatra was a very bad horse the day that Chris came to meet me, and when Chris went home, Mom told Sinatra “Oh Sinatra! You will not be going to Chris’ farm with Honeycutt because you could not have been a badder behaved horse today.” Sinatra just said “Shoelace” and went back to being my white shadow.

But then Chris said something that made Mom and all the SAFE peoples cry a little with happiness. He told Mom that he didn’t think it would be right to take me away from Sinatra! He said that he could see that I am Sinatra’s rock, and that Sinatra would be very, very sad if I was to go away. So he said that he wanted to take Sinatra to his farm and that both of us would have a home for ever and ever.

So Mom put us in the moving box and took us to a place called Onalaska which is where our new home with Chris is. Our new home is a giant ranch that is so big that you cannot see all of the ends of it. The ranch is already home to many things called Cattles, and also the ranch is where bales of lovely, lovely hay come from! At first when we came to the ranch, I was quite startled by some very different sights and sounds and smells! There were a bunch of very ugly things in the barn that made scary gobbledy noises…Mom said they were Turkees, do you know those things? Turkees are giant birds that were up to no good, I think! I watched them from my new stall, and although I tried to be very very brave, there was a little quiver in my leg that showed how worried I was about Turkees.

Later when we went to explore the ranch with Mom and Chris and my friend Debi, I saw a giant black thing off in the distance called Bull, do you know THAT thing?! Bull was black and gigantic and when I saw Bull, I turned into a horse statue made of glass! Mom laughed and told me that Bull was very far away and would not hurt me, and eventually I changed back into a horse and then I could walk again.

My new ranch also many things called Cows and another big thing called Pig, and I keep a very close eye on all these things just in case they are up to no good, like Turkees.

Chris is my new Dad and even though it was me who he wanted to be his horse first, he has already formed a very good bond with Sinatra. He says that Sinatra is one of the sweetest and most lovable horses he has ever met! He even calls him a good little horse! Sinatra does like his new home very much, and seems to be calmer and happier than before. I still have to look out for him most of the times, but now he has two friends: me and Chris. Two friends is a very good thing to have.

I miss my old home and my old Mom, but I am very happy to have a home of my own that is forever with my new Dad and my new family. I can’t talk to old Mom as much anymore, but I can feel that she is still there taking care of my friend Jay and feeling love for me and for the Big Baby. She can’t see our bodies but she can still feel our hearts. Old Mom will always be part of my life even if I can’t see her every day. I know she thinks of me often, especially in the morning when she doesn’t hear me nickering like a foghorn for my breakfast. She misses me most of all at those moments. Sometimes I call for her in the morning from my new ranch home, and maybe she hears that in her heart, and gets out of bed to feed breakfast to my friends I left behind. That would be a nice thing, don’t you think?

Here are some pictures for you to see of me and Sinatra at our new home!

Mostly I lay down normal but today I struck a strange pose which looked like I was getting up even when I was not getting up. Mom laughed. I just stared at her.

My friend the Big Baby is gone. He left his body here and went away into the sky, and now we are alone without our friend to stand with or run with or play with. This is the sad kind of Different, where a good friend was here and then he was Gone. But there really is no Gone with horses because we always remember our friends and keep them close to our hearts.

Friends are always with us but bodies can go away, even when you think they will be with you for every days. After they are Gone, you can’t bite them anymore or tell them to move away from the hays or race them up the hill. It’s not like when Mom would take the Big Baby in the trailer, because then the Big Baby would always come back, and we would all scream hello to him and ask Mom for our dinner. Now the trailer just sits, and we are all thinking about our friend and remembering him, which is how he will always be here with us.

There is a thing that is very important, do you know what that thing is? The important thing is always say I Love You when you feel I Love You because you never know when you might be seeing your friend in his body for the very last time. On the Big Baby’s last night in his body, Mom brought him into the barn to help him with a hurty thing called Abscess which is supposed to be in your foot, but the Big Baby had Abscess in his lip, which is so silly, just like the Big Baby. Mom was putting Hot on Abscess to help with healing, and I heard her say “Oh Chance! You are Good Horse, I love you so much!” She said this many times to the Big Baby before she said goodnight to us, and so it was the last words that went to his ears from her heart. We all miss the Big Baby, but we know he left us with love words in his ears.

Always say I Love You.

Owen is a new SAFE horse who lives here with me for now. There’s something about Owen that is Different, and that thing is that Owen does not want any peoples to touch him. Maybe you are thinking that Owen is a baby horse who hides behind his momma? but no, Owen is this many years old: six. Maybe you are thinking that Owen is a wild horse who has lived away from peoples all his life? but no, Owen is a thing called a Curly Horse and Curly Horses don’t run free on the wild plains of Merica. What Owen is is a thing called a Neglected Horse, because he got to be six years old with no one touching him. Owen won’t even let Mom put a Face Harness on him, which means that when it is time to go to the field, Owen has to stay behind because before you go to the field, you have to let Mom put on your Face Harness and Owen just runs away.

Owen is also a thing called a stallion, do you know that thing? You should know that thing because I explained that thing when I told you about Chip. But I will say again that a stallion is a horse that you use to make baby horses. Baby horses are great, but when there are many many horses who need homes and many many horses who are pointy because of not enough lovely hays to eat, then maybe we don’t need so many baby horses to be made, now do we? Owen can make babies but he’s never done a single thing in his life worth passing on to a baby except be born a Curly Horse. Are we running out of Curly Horses? Owen is the only Curly Horse I have ever seen, but I don’t think that means there is a shortage of Curly Horses. We probably don’t need Owen to make any more Curly Horses.

I spent many times watching Mom work with Owen. She tells him he is a good boy when he lets her pet him on his shoulder, and I try not to laugh because I know that Mom has a thing called Low Expectations when it comes to Owen, do you know that thing? Low Expectations is when you don’t expect very much, so getting to pet someone’s shoulder is still a pretty big deal. Mom would probably not tell me I am a good boy for letting her pet my shoulder. Maybe she would, she loves me an awful lot. But anyway, she spends many times trying to pet Owen’s shoulder, and I watch them carefully to make sure that Owen doesn’t hurt my mom. Owen is scared. I’m scared too, but Mom says I am Different than most horses because even though I am scared, I am gentle and I have a thing called Excellent Ground Manners. Owen is not a mean horse, but he’s big and clumsy so Mom has to be extra careful when he gets scared that he doesn’t do anything to hurt her, even by accident.

Owen makes a pretty big deal out of things that are not very scary, and I think that is kind of dumb. But Mom says that Owen is very smart and that he thinks very hard about everything that is happening around him. This might be another case of Low Expectations, but I want to say to Owen, “Oh Owen! No peoples are trying to hurt you! So please stop making Big Deals out of Not Scary things, and let Mom put the Face Harness on you!” But I think that when Mom gets to put the Face Harness on Owen that maybe he won’t be a stallion any more, and I can’t really remember how you get to be not a stallion anymore. I’m not a stallion, but I’ve been Not a Stallion for a long time.