Hi Stacie - we’ve just passed our fourth anniversary with Kermit (Kirschwater). After 4 years, we have pretty much sorted out his diet and feet. This is thanks to our fabulous farrier - he came out at 10.30pm recently after I called to say he’d slipped a shoe, if you can believe it- and to our saddler and his partner, who are practically family, and to our barn owner and barn manager, who are complicit in the fiction that he is “special”. With the help of Previcox and ‘Ontario De-Hy Timothy Balance’ hay cubes, this intermittently-lame endocrine-challenged little bugger now could buck for Britain. And does. The Devil Wears Passier.You see, Stacie, I have made a valuable genetic discovery. There is a Thelwell gene. Yes there is. And he has it. This is the reason that his forelock is short and bushy, and his mane stands up - his brain is too big, and it’s pushing his hair all wrong. He has turned into the cartoon demon-pony, and all I need are the pigtails to be the chubby rider perpetually in mid-air. He doesn’t give up. Justin Nixon probably knew that – he probably had “Kirschwater” engraved on a horse doll, and still sticks pins in it. Pray for me this spring. Or send a seatbelt.Of course, there also is the Good Kermit - you know, the guy who trudged through gale-force winds in the dark the other night, because I just couldn't endure ANOTHER RIDE INDOORS!!!!!#$*%How are your guys doing? Do you get enough time to ride? The retirement programme certainly is getting a lot of positive attention - the whole issue is very front-and-centre now - and it must take up more of your time."She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot." Mark Twain
