This Is Straight From the Horse's Mouth

If I went to school with you I'd be the hall monitor, because I don't break rules, and I love to tattle on anyone who does. When somebody forgets to lock Tango's stall door and he opens the latch -- which he does all the time -- I raise a big, fat fuss.

My owner, Laura Cramer, uses a fancy medical term for my mental state, but she's joking. She likes her horses to have personalities. She tells us to "be who we are" because that makes us "so secure and so real."

But until Sandra arrived four years ago, nobody really knew who I was, and nobody liked to ride me.

I figured that if they made me jump the same stupid jump a billion times, I must be doing something wrong -- right? So I'd do it differently every time, and still they weren't satisfied.

Then Laura saw Sandra ride at a horse show and brought her home to me. When we jumped just right together, Sandra heard me say "I've got it!" and she let me stop. She understood that I'd do it that way for her in the show ring without drilling my legs off in practice.

That's when I told Valentine to give her a chance, and they made friends, too. He used to be one angry horse -- a guy who didn't like to work because he didn't get to play before he came to Fox View.

Now he knows he'll always do plenty of both, because once Laura decides to bring a horse home, it's forever. She said she would have kept my friend Eli -- who was pretty sick when he got here -- even if he hadn't gotten well enough to ride.

Eli's real name is Hold That Thought. He's a couple years younger than me, and he's a great big goofball, but you should see him perform. In fact, he might be the next me. I'm not ready to retire by a long shot (I'm a very youthful 14!), but when his time comes, I'll be glad to make room at the top.

-- American Idol, as told to Alison Howard