T

For all of my life, I have always wanted a horse. I started taking riding lessons when I was four years old, and have loved horses ever since. I never in a million years ever thought that I would get a horse of my own, but on June 25, 2008, my dream came true.

Mister T is a Welsh mountain pony cross. He is chestnut, which means he has a reddish brown coloured coat, mane and tail. He has four white socks, which means the bottom of his legs are white, and a white stripe on his face. He is 12.1 and 1/2 hands tall (1 hand is equal to 10 cm). The boundary line between a small and medium pony is 12.2 so Mister T is a small pony by just 2.5 cm! Because he is so close the boundary line, we are often pulled aside at shows to have him remeasured.

Mister T and I compete a lot. Because he is quite small, the only hunter competitions that we can enter have pretty small jumps (2.3 - 2.6 feet). (Hunter is based on how pretty you and your horse look while working together. You need to have a good position, and a fancy horse to do well in hunter.) Because we like to jump bigger than that in competitions, we tried entering jumper contests. (Jumper contests are a race against the clock, with bigger jumps than hunter.) The jumps were 3 feet, which is pretty big for a pony like Mr. T, but we did really well, and I really enjoyed it. We decided to continue doing both hunter and jumper shows. I had a great, but busy summer last year, finishing in second overall in jumper.

My pony has a lot of nicknames. Everyone in my barn has a different name for my pony. I usually call him Mister T, or just T. But here are some of the other names that people call him: T-Pony, T-Boy, Tea Time, Mister, Ponykins, T-T, or Shrunk In The Wash. (Shrunk In The Wash is his show name, or his official name, whereas Mister T is his barn name.)

I tell everyone that T is my pony, but that doesn't say enough about what he is to me. He is always there for me. He is always so happy to see me. When I'm sad, he cheers me up. When I'm stressed, he calms me down. He accepts me no matter what. He is like a best friend, or a brother. As Winston Churchill once said, "There is something about the outside of a horse, that is good for the inside of a man."

Life Lesson: Animals are there for you when humans are not. They listen when the world won't. They give you advice when the world is silent.