A LETTER FROM A READER…a very young, new blogger.






(I received this email from a young reader…)
Hi Dawn ,
 You have a great blog ! Me and my mom check your site every day! How is “Moma Tess ” Doing? And all your other horses?  I have wanted to email you for a while and today’s blog post  was so interesting about  the horse trainer that it prompted  me to email you . Do you have his web site and his name? I couldn’t catch it on the video. Would love to train my Shetland pony and Haflinger pony to do that !  Wouldn’t it be neat to have burros do this too? I am sending a photo that I took of our burro, Winston, with his hat on !  I placed first  with it at  the NJ State 4-H Equine Art Show  .
I also really enjoyed your carousel post too! It was very informative . I make carousels out of  new and old hobby horses . Attached is a photo of one that I made. I call her , “My  Denzel Carousel ” . I also made Joey from the movie War Horse,  Trigger  and many others .
This year I am in seventh grade and for my homeschool project I would like to create a horse art/craft blog . My mom is encouraging me to email some of the writers of  blogs that we follow . And then I thought I would  email you to see if you would give me any helpful ideas for starting a blog and how you started out blogging!
I know you must be very busy, but I just thought that I would email you to see if you would give me some tips.
Looking forward to hearing from you ,
Shya Beth
P.S. I am also including a photo of me and our chicken coop  that we are building. We put some horseshoe art on one side and Heartland (a horsey tv show) brand on the other !
Screen Shot 2013-11-13 at 6.52.10 PM Screen Shot 2013-11-13 at 6.52.46 PM Screen Shot 2013-11-13 at 6.53.16 PM

MY RESPONSE

Dear Shya Beth:

Thank you for taking the time out of YOUR busy day to write to me.  Clearly, you have as many or more projects happening in your life as I do mine!

So, you’d like to become a blogger?  Well, I am no expert… but, I did hear from an expert that it takes 10,000 hours of doing any one thing before anyone becomes an expert at anything.  So, patience, perseverance and passion are key.   I think it really helps to write about something that totally excites you.  If horse art/craft projects thrill you, then I think that is the perfect subject for you to explore on your blog.

My only learned advice is to add photos.  Readers love photos.  In fact, they love them more than words.  So, I always put my main points as captions under the photos so that those readers who only skim the photos will get the idea of that day’s post.

Oh and I learned about blogging from a book.  So, if your Mom wants to have ‘learning how to blog’ as one of your subjects, you could do this together with her.   You can get a book about WordPress or Blogger (blog platforms) at the library or search them online – very easy, especially for computer savvy kids like yourself!  That is all I did… I got a book and started writing!  You can, too!

Always be honest.  Always be kind.  Always be fair.  Appreciate and say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.

As far as your chicken coop and carousel horses… WOW!  Wonderful!  Keep it up.  I’d love to see more images of other horses you have created.  I’m sure that would be an excellent blog topic!

The trainer you spoke of from the video is Jean Francois Pignon.  He is French.  Here is his website.  (The website is in French, but you can have it translated by using a web translator – google it.)  I encourage you to learn all about him and train your lovely horses as he does.   Perhaps write to him as you wrote to me…   Training  your horses like Jean Francois Pignon will teach you many, many things including patience, perseverance and passion.  Keep me posted.

Click image to go to his website.

Click image to go to his website.

In conclusion, dear Shya Beth, know that I totally appreciate that you took the time to write to me.  I’m sorry it took me a few days to write back.  You are correct, I am very busy.  But, I have learned another trick that I will tell you –

When you don’t have time, keep a running note on your desktop of all the people or topics you need to get back to or discuss.  It is like having a stickie on your computer.   So, when you have the time, you can address those people and those topics without forgetting anyone or having all of those ideas floating around in your head when you are supposed to be doing homework or chores.

All the best, my friend.  Keep up the good work!  You will get to 10,000 hours before you finish high school!  Oh, and please tell me the URL of your blog when you get it up and running.  I will happily tell my readers.

Most Sincerely,

Dawn

HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth… if you like this, please pass it around!

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Our November Bucket Fund mini jenny, Lila. Can we help her with her eye? Click image.

Our November Bucket Fund mini jenny, Lila. Can we help her with her eye? Click image.

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Your purchase with Riding Warehouse through this portal benefits the Bucket Fund!

 

 





HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth... if you like this, please pass it around!



2 comments have been posted...

  1. Shya Beth

    Hi Sarah ,
    Glad you like the chicken coop ! We made it out of straw bails. The heartland logo was made out of one-inch thick pink Styrofoam and cement . I also made a star and heart design out of used horseshoes. If you like would like to contact me, I will send you step by step photos I took while making it. I will also be featuring it on my new and up coming blog!!

    I made the carousel horse out of a hobby horse, a door knob, a lamp, a music stand and curtain rods and rings . I also made the roses out of salt dough clay .

    Thanks for your encouraging words ,
    Shya Beth
    shyapony@yahoo.com

  2. Sarah

    Good luck, Miss Shya Beth! and fabulous job on the coop (would you share directions for that?) and the carousel horse!

    Great response, Dawn- it’s awesome that you take the time to respond to kids, and to share your advice with all of us at the same time. Kudos on all of your awesomeness. :)

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