This weekend a friend dropped by, Ellen Cameron. She has horses and is a photographer. I’m looking forward to seeing the photos she took of Zelador in the arena doing a variety of things. At one point he did the body parts game. He raised his tail. I asked him to bend his knee and he bent a back leg! (He’s done this before. Lately I’ve remembered to say “front knee” or “hind knee”.) He did bend his front knee when I said, “Please show me your front knee.”

I asked him to move his ears and to touch my outstretched finger with his nose. He did both easily.

Then, out of the blue, I asked him to do something I’ve never asked…ever. In fact I’ve never used the word in his presence and I don’t think anyone else has, either.

I said, “Can you blink your eye.” I blinked as I was saying this. He blinked. I was a bit surprised and asked again. He blinked again.

I watched his eye closely while he blinked. I could see he was making a conscious effort and realized I’d never seen him close his eye quite like that. Interesting…