Dear Ms. Voltz and my friends in Homeroom 215,

I just learned that you’re finally about to run your big race on April 25th when you take your OOA test. I am so excited for all of you and I am certain you will do well.

I know all of you have been studying a long time and I am so proud of you. As you may remember, I promised you a Dairy Queen party if you studied and tried your best. Today, I am sending out a letter so that your class can have the party at Dairy Queen that I promised to you. I know you will do well and the whole stable will be rooting for YOU!

Good luck to all of you!!!

Love,

Mistletoe

Dear Ms. Voltz and my friends in Homeroom 215,

I recently heard of the passing of one of my “Peppermint Pals” at your school. I am so sad to hear about this and I hope that all of you know that you are in my thoughts.

I know you have been planning to host a birthday party for me on March 20th in your class. In light of the recent news, I felt that the one thing I wanted most for my birthday was to give something to you.

On my birthday, a Bonsai tree will arrive in the mail. I have heard that Bonsai Trees can live hundreds of years. Some people say they live forever. Because Bonsai trees can live so long, I would like you to take care of it and let it serve as a symbol to remember our friend that has passed away.

I hope that all of you will continue to keep my picture with you to remember that I am right by your side with any challenge you face in this world. And, I will continue to study for my next race so that I can dedicate it to our friend. I hope I can win for him.

Love,

Mistletoe

Dear Ms. Voltz and my Friends in Homeroom 215,

Thank you very much for your big box of Valentine’s Day cards, drawings and letters.  I also enjoyed the photo book that Madison made for me.  (I am a redhead, just like you, Madison.  However, they call me “chestnut” in horse language.)

I had the best Valentine’s Day once I received all of your cards and gifts.  I hope that all of you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day too!!!  I would have sent Valentines to each of you, but I am not allowed to use scissors to cut paper hearts.  (It is not easy having hooves sometimes.)

I am happy that all of you watched my last race.  I am sorry I didn’t win, but I tried very hard.  I was so excited to race that I broke from the gate before the race started and got loose while trying to race another horse.  By the time I was put back in the gate, I was tired from racing the first time around.  I guess I need to be patient when I am learning.  In the meantime, I will keep studying for my next race and hope that you will watch it. 

Ms. Voltz told the stable that all of you are studying for the Ohio Achievement Test.  When I asked about the test, I was told that it is “like the Kentucky Derby for school.”  How exciting!!!  It sounds like all of you will be studying, just like the Derby horses, to try to win your big race.  I hope you all put in your best effort and I will study with you in my “race track” school.  Let’s see how well we can do if we study together.  (I promise you that I will host another Dairy Queen party for you if you try your best.  I know you can do it!)

I hope that you have fun at your Mistletoe Doughnut Party on Friday.  I wish I could be there, but I have to get my homework done this week.  I get to have peppermints if I get straight A’s in training this week.

I hope you all are doing well and I am so proud of you!

Mistletoe

Dear Ms. Voltz and my friends in Homeroom 215,

I am so happy to hear that the students voted for my name to be on the “Wall of Pride” at your school.  I just learned that I am the first horse to ever be featured on your “Wall of Pride” and I am so touched by your support.  It makes me very happy that doing my “homework” on the race track has earned me such a wonderful honor. 

I am also thankful to all of you for sending me congratulations for coming in third in my last race.  I promise to keep doing my “homework” in morning workouts to try to win my next race.  I am also very proud of you for doing your homework with me every day. 

Love,

Mistletoe

Dear Ms. Voltz and my friends in Homeroom 215,

Mistletoe told me that it would be okay to write you and thank you for the Jolly Ball that you sent to me at my stable.  I have never received a Jolly Ball as a gift before and I am very thankful.  (I am also very happy about the peppermints that you sent me after I won my final race.  They were delicious.  I smiled all day long.)

Recently, I decided it was time to retire from racing.  After my birthday this month, it was getting tougher to run so fast as an older horse.  But, I wanted to thank you for making my last year of racing so enjoyable.  I learned a lot from all of you and wanted to tell you how much it meant to me to receive such love and support from your class during the final months in my career as a racehorse.

At age nine, I have decided to embark on a new journey in life.  This week, I am being adopted by a family with two children who would like to ride me around at their farm.  I am delighted with my new home.  And, I get to still work with children, just like you!  I am happy that you have taken the time with me to teach me about the things that children like about horses since I will use that knowledge to help make the children happy that have adopted me as their family horse.  I will also take my Jolly Ball with me to tell my new friends how special your class remains in my heart.

I hope that all of you keep doing your homework, just like I did, for many years.  In the end, there are many benefits to working hard and learning about new things.  I learned a lot from you about children, and now, that knowledge will help me understand how to make children happy in my retirement.

Thank you so much for everything that you did to make me feel special.  I feel very privileged to call you my friends and I am happy that we shared my last victory on the racetrack together.

Love,

Serengeti         

Hello Ms. Voltz and my friends in Homeroom 215,

I hope all of you had a wonderful New Year!  As some of you may know, all Thoroughbred horses celebrate their birthday on January 1st!  We had quite a lot of birthdays at our stable. 

I wanted to send you a video of myself doing my “homework” during morning training.  I am still doing my “homework” every day and training to try to win my next race.  I hope all of you are working hard at your school work along with me! 

Some of my stablemates wanted to be in the video too.  Serengeti wanted to thank all of you for sending him peppermints.  He keeps smiling ear-to-ear about it.  Pryce also wanted to show you that he is learning to play ball in his spare time.  “The Spell” just wanted to say “Hi” and show you how much she is enjoying Arkansas.  You can see our video by clicking this link. 

I hope all of you are doing well.  We are so proud of you!

Mistletoe

P.S.  Thank you for my paper airplane.  I have it here at my stable and I think it is so cool.

Dear Ms. Voltz and my friends in Homeroom 215,

 Your box arrived in the mail and I am so happy!  Thank you for all of the wonderful gifts and paintings that you put in it.  I will ask them to hang the “lucky plane” in the stable and all of your pictures.  I also hope that they hang the stocking that you sent to me next to my stall soon!  All of you are so kind and creative.  Thank you for everything.

 I am happy that your “Mistletoe” party at Dairy Queen went well yesterday.  I heard that lots of you had Arctic Blasts to celebrate the season.  It sounds really fun.  I also heard that you are all singing holiday songs that you made up with my name in it!  I was so flattered to hear about your songs.  All of you are so special and come up with the best ideas. 

 Some of you have been wondering where I am at lately.  I asked them to take a picture of me this morning while I was training for my next race in Arkansas.  This is what I look like when I am doing my “homework” in the morning.  I ran today for a little bit and then came back to the barn to tell my stable mates about everything in the box that you sent.  (If you look closely in the picture, you’ll see that I just got a haircut.  They cut my hair so that I don’t get too hot when I run.  It was so fun to run around with my new haircut.)

Serengeti and my friends are very happy to hear that you sent a bunch of peppermints with your cards and gifts.  As usual, Serengeti gave a great big smile.  He loves it when you send peppermints to him.  He always asks about all of you and wants to know if you keep doing your homework with us.  I tell him that all of you are working so hard and he is just as proud of you as I am.

I also wanted to thank you for sending the people in my stable a box of candy from Ruthie’s.  They are so excited about it and think Ruthie’s candy is the best.  It was very kind of you.

I hope that you enjoy the photo of my morning workout today and that you have a wonderful holiday.  I will be looking for Santa’s reindeer on Christmas Eve.  I heard they had a race the other day and Dasher won it.  I hope that I can stay awake long enough to congratulate Dasher when he gets to our stable for Christmas. 

Keep up the great work!

Mistletoe

Hi Ms. Voltz and my friends in Homeroom 215,

I am so happy that you are excited about my gift of Dairy Queen for the holidays!  I wish I could join you at your party, but I am too big to fit in an ice cream parlor.  Anyway, I am so thankful for the Apple Treat ball that you gave me for the holidays that I think it is just as good as ice cream. 

It is nice of some of you to send letters that talk about your favorite things.  I was told that one of you likes the color purple so much that you would like to decorate with purple and zebra prints.  I think that is a very creative idea so long as your parents say “Yes.”  (My stall is plain.  I have never thought about picking a color to decorate it.  What color would you pick?)

I also appreciate your messages about how I am a pretty horse.  I think it is sweet of you to say that.  I am so busy doing running around and enjoying life that I never even think about the way I look on the outside.  I think that being “beautiful” is more about who you are on the inside anyway. 

I have also heard that you are excited to see the “War Horse” movie for the holidays.  I have seen the previews and I hope they show it at my track someday.  I am a BIG fan of horse movies. 

Hope all of you are doing well.  As always, I am so proud of you.  Keep up the good work!

Mistletoe

Click Image to Watch Video

Hi Ms. Voltz and my friends in Homeroom 215,

I hope all of you had a Happy Halloween!  I really enjoyed all of the drawings that you send to me for Halloween costume ideas.  Thank you!

Last weekend, my stable mates and I watched the Breeders’ Cup.  The Breeders’ Cup is like the “Superbowl” of horseracing.  Horses from all around the globe come to compete for two days and it is quite a show!  I asked my friends to make a video “postcard” for you while they were at the Breeders’ Cup so that you could experience some of the excitement.  You can view it by clicking this link.  (It takes a few moments to download.)

My stable mates were really impressed with a near-white horse named “Hansen.”  He is a two-year-old male that won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.  It is a really big accomplishment.  We made sure to include him in our video so that you could see how special he is.  (Although we race, we are “fans” just like you of other race horses.  And, when it comes down to the Breeders’ Cup, we are big fans of Hansen.)

Also, I wanted to update you on our activities at the stable.  Both No Spin and I ran in stakes races recently.  I finished in the middle in my race, but I was happy that I tried to run a really hard race.  It makes me want to do my homework more so that I can see if I can win my next outing. 

As for No Spin, he WON!  It was really exciting for all of us since he was studying very hard to win a stakes race.  When he finally won at stakes race, he said, “I am so happy that I kept studying because it was the reason I won this race!”  He also wanted to thank all of you for your support.  He thinks that all of you are good luck for him.

Finally, I received updates that all of you have been doing your homework and that you aren’t getting a lot of marks.  That is wonderful news!  As always, I am very proud of all of you and hope that you keep up the great work. 

Hope you enjoy our video of the Breeders’ Cup,

Mistletoe