Giddy Up

It's been a little while since graduation, but I'm pretty sure that I had the coolest graduation party ever. With that said, I think it is only appropriate that I blog about it so you can see for yourself. What made the celebration so cool? Two words:

MINIATURE HORSES

I should probably elaborate on that statement in order for you to understand why I think (and why you should think) miniature horses are so cool. First, let's examine my early years........

A few girls in our family suffered from mild horse obsessions at a very young age. Growing up in suburbia, we pretty much knew we were never going to own a horse. I did, however, own an extensive collection of My Little Ponies, complete with a very "loved" pony castle, which I later learned was purchased by Santa Claus at a garage sale. I grew out of the My Little Pony stage right into the Breyer Horse collection stage. I proudly displayed them on the highest shelves of my bookshelf where no one could touch them. That lasted until I got sick of worrying about my horses falling down and breaking their legs - which happened twice. So I gave up the horse collecting. But I never quit liking horses.

How did this horse obsession start? I guess I could blame my older sisters Shelly and Stephanie (the latter who spent part of her childhood pretending to be a horse named "Parkie General"). But I think the real culprit was a little known Australian film that is mentioned with hushed tones in the Michaelsen household. I speak of The Man From Snowy River. I had a crush on Jim Craig. And I wanted to ride a horse like he did.

In my opinion, this movie has one of the best chase scenes ever. As a child, I did not have the patience to watch the entire film just to get to the exciting part at the end. I think I wore out the last 15 minutes of that Beta tape. Ohhhh....it is excellent.

And the music is good, too.

Anyway, so my dormant horse obsession was recently awakened by a visit to a miniature horse show at the county fairgrounds. As our inner cowgirls stirred within us, Maren and I schemed ways in which we could convince Mom and Dad to buy a couple of miniature horses for their little farm so that we..uh...I mean, the grandkids could play with them on vacation. The plan? Lure Mom and Dad to a miniature horse farm the next time they were in town. Which just happened to be for my graduation.

I think Mom and Dad were smitten. I sure was.

Soooo cuteAnd the kids loved them







Well, most of them, anyway

Can I have one? Pretty please?

I think this experience had a major impact on Kenta. He's gotten a little horse-crazy himself lately. Here is a recent conversation that we had:

Kenta: I was at the Rib Crib today with Dad and they had some footage of the horserace....oh, man..what's the name...? The one that's right after the Kentucky Derby? It starts with a P?

me: Oh! Um... yeah - the Preakness?

Kenta: Right! The Freakness -

me: (I interrupt with peals of laughter) Preakness! (emphasis on the P) "With a P".

It's okay. A common blunder- probably due to the fact that he has never seen The Man From Snowy River. We will have to remedy that.