{"id":44991,"date":"2013-11-19T00:09:06","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T08:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=44991"},"modified":"2013-11-19T00:09:06","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T08:09:06","slug":"horse-dreams-merit-badge-intermediate-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/44991","title":{"rendered":"Horse Dreams Merit Badge, Intermediate Level"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tThe adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our<\/span> Sisterhood Merit Badge program<\/a>, now with 5,558 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20147,822 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Wondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my<\/span> former life<\/a> \u2026\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

For this week\u2019s Garden Gate\/Horse Dreams Intermediate Level Merit Badge<\/a>, I\u00a0delved into and researched one of my favorite animals: horses.<\/p>\n

I must admit, my knowledge of horses didn\u2019t run deep up to this particular point. Oh, I could categorize them, all right:<\/p>\n

Pinkie Pie<\/p>\n

Rainbow Dash<\/p>\n

Applejack<\/p>\n

Fluttershy<\/p>\n

Twilight Twinkle<\/p>\n

Rosedust<\/p>\n

Sea Shimmer<\/p>\n

etc.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0 … turns out there are more to horses than the oh-so-majestic My Little Pony. Hey, gotta cut this farmgirl newbie some slack: I spent half my life in a toy store, you know.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I lugged home a stack of library books the size of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, each and every one regaling the merits of equestrians and their noble steeds. To earn my Intermediate Level Badge, I only had to pick one.<\/p>\n

Just one.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s like picking your favorite child! (Which I totally was, right, Mom?)<\/p>\n

I had to narrow down my choices, but how? While I was pondering over the intimidating list of my new four-legged friends, I dribbled a small bit of yellow mustard from my pita sandwich on the image of a golden Palomino, effectively highlighting it, you could say. I took it as a sign.<\/p>\n

The Palomino would be the source of all my horse knowledge from here on out. I polished off my pita,\u00a0took a napkin to the mustard-hued page, and began to learn about everyone\u2019s favorite blonde, the grand and splendid and delightfully pretty Palomino.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, Applejack, I do believe, was a Palomino. She was a good friend; remind me to ring her up soon. She\u2019ll be impressed with all my Palomino facts.<\/p>\n

Like:<\/p>\n

No one knows for sure how old the Palomino color is, or where it originated from, but it\u2019s mostly believed Queen Isabella of Spain is responsible for bringing them to America since they were her personal favorites. Thanks, Izzy!<\/p>\n

Pegasus, the winged horse from Greek mythology, was a Palomino.<\/p>\n

So was Mr. Ed (of course, of course).<\/p>\n

So was Mr. Rogers\u2019 horse, Trigger (and Trigger, Jr.).<\/p>\n

In order to be registered on the Palomino Horse Breeders of America list, your Palomino must be as close as possible to the \u201ccolor of a newly minted U.S. coin\u201d and have a white or silver mane and tail. No brunettes or strawberry blondes, I\u2019m afraid.<\/p>\n

A Palomino is not a breed, it\u2019s a color. Palominos can be many different breeds, actually: American Quarter Horses, Arabians, Morgans,\u00a0Missouri Fox Trotters, Thoroughbreds, Tennessee Walking Horses, Morabs, Quarabs, Paint Horses, and even some solid-colored Appaloosas (that one surprised me, I confess). Applejack was a Hasbro. Haha! Get it?<\/p>\n

Sorry. Back to research.<\/p>\n

I fell in love with the adorable and spunky Palomino.<\/p>\n

This badge did nothing for the little girl inside me who really, really, REALLY wants a pony.<\/p>\n

I can see me now \u2026 hair blowing in the breeze as I ride through the meadow on the back of my Palomino \u2026 I shall name her Buttercup.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll find one another someday. You can\u2019t stop destiny. In the meantime, I\u2019ll see if I can find Applejack\u2019s phone number.<\/p>\n

 \t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 5,558 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20147,822 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ Wondering … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}