Part of the process of opening a place like ours is insurance and the biggest issue is horse insurance. As I mentioned before, there are no laws that protect stables from the inherent risks involved with horseback riding.

So the insurance agent offhandedly said, "I'll just check your horse's record and as long as it's clean we can insure the horses."

And thus we learned that every recorded incident goes onto the horse's record. So if a rider falls off the incident stays there for the animals life. On one hand, advocates for this system might argue that buyers can look up a horse's history. Because, world over sellers lie. Buyers lie too. Really, everybody lies except the horse. So I just get my information there.

Today, I was thinking about a safety video we will be making. It's a basic don't go under that horse, don't run behind a horse and so. Our horses really don't care what we do, but a lot of horses haven't had the time put in that takes. In fact, if you run up behind Pan and Super, you will find yourself roped into to butt scratches.

However, probably because I'm in quarantine, I suddenly realized how sad this is for a lot of horses. Even the kindest, best trained horse in the world can spook and kick or bite. An injury might cause a bite or being surprised might cause a kick. There is now amount of training to erase the fact that horses are horses. They are big, lovely animals.

This is a song Gabe wrote about our horses. Superman is my best friend. Thunder Girl is grumpy. Hold your  brains Thor. Whoa Panther. Horseback riding is fun....

He has written another song "Pets" in which he asks, "Mommy, can I have a dog?"

"No."

"Mommy can I have a snake. "

"No."

"Why? I am capable."

And so on.  His "Pets" song is now going to be in a music book filled with songs taught in public schools nationally. He is writing a third song about the cats. It's quite cute because it's literally about cats, but from an adult's perspective its about a young man and a girl. "Why do you only want attention, when you want attention. " This is paraphrased because I don't know the lyrics exactly. But is has been decided that the Pets and Girl Friend song will be in both English and Korean.

Gabe is young, just in third grade, but he wrote this song in first grade and finished it in second grade.  Though he plays drums, ukulele, piano, guitar, and violin he doesn't yet know all the instruments. Or play anything better than above average.

Sound harsh? I said he is talented in music. But he is like any kid. He likes to play games and not study, And he isn't forced to play any instrument outside of lessons and the practice the teacher assigns. He is best at drums and piano and will play  those on his own for fun. He will never pick up the violin on his own, but he likes understanding the instrument if that makes any sense. He probably will never play it for fun, but to use the synthesizer well, he has to understand the instruments that make them.

So each new set of lyrics is a start to a long, intense learning process from writing lyrics to sheet music, to singing the song.

There is a saying in Korean: "Your arm is bending in." This mean you are favoring your family, not necessarily reality. Our arms bend in a lot toward Gabe. But we keep him grounded as well.  He recently got cast for a national ad campaign for a very big educational company. We didn't know how big it was until filming day. There were 60 support staff and Gabe was the star. When he asked for a hamburger, all the kids got hamburgers. Later, one of the kids said he didn't drink milk. The staff said so what. Gabe being Gabe, used his power to get everyone a smoothy. But his mom told him that if he ever acts spoiled she will pay the fee and end the contract and go home. He can do this or not do this, but if he does, he must honor his commitments.

There have been a handful of other jobs before this and also KBS came to the farm and filmed Gabe and the horses. During shooting, they asked him the same questions 20 times. He had a real attitude at times... because he is a kid and someone asking you "So how many horses do you have? " again and again... it's hard not say, "I already told you. Four." 

KBS was a great learning experience for us all. And the farm is a little bit famous  now.