You can't talk to your horse over the phone

Which is a shame because all long distance relationships are hard to maintain.

The King has a real good life. He has two acres of pasture that he only needs to share with one other horse. He gets to go into a cozy clean barn on winter nights, and a guy who keeps on eye on him to make sure that his Arabian skin isn't shivering in the Canadian chill. His little female equine companion is the best mate he's ever had. He tells her to move over and she asks how far. He gets to go for rides with kids around the pasture and sometimes a long ride around the block. Many people who stop by the place have to pause to admire him. He loves that.

He should have been a show horse, not a saddle club horse, but a horse who gets groomed every day and travels to interesting places. Instead, he got stuck with me, and has spent much of his adult life in various forms of semi retirement. I shouldn't feel guilty though, because he really doesn't seem to be suffering. I know a lot of horses who live with their humans and get as much attention as my guy gets.

Safe to say I miss him more than he misses me. He has no idea that there are pictures of him in all his shining red glory all over my house. I can call my folks and talk to them on the phone, and they can let me know how he's doing. I have %100 confidence that they are taking good care of him. Moving him up to a stable near my home is out of the question because I'd have to sell my house to have the board money! I don't recommend a long distance horse relationship. There are all kinds of problems.

The thought of not having him in my life is too sad to deal with. So having a weekend horse is not great, but this is better than not having him at all.