Everyone on the farm seems to be in education mode. Stevie is doing extremely well at his lessons, and today we're taking him to a show in Hollis to get him more accustomed to the show environs he will start performing in come fall. Pete is learning to enjoy scratches and to not be afraid of weird stuff—Mark added a couple of large rubber tubes to the round pen and mounted a shade umbrella on one of the pen's uprights for his educational benefit. Mist and Maggie are learning a new routine—they are now spending their days in our neighbor's grassy back paddock, partly so their paddock can dry out, partly to shake up a monotonous daily grind that seemed boring to them (they love it!). And Nate has had his very first riding lesson at Photo Finish Farm!

One thing about Mist—when we took her to Karen's paddock for the first time yesterday, she was a little wired and spooky—new stuff does that to her—but when she was released into the grassy expanse, so much bigger than her paddock on our farm, she kicked up her heels and stretched out running, and MAN was she beautiful. Head and tail high, beautiful full strides, it was breathtaking.