Why blog?

This is the question I keep asking myself.  There is no shortage of bloggers on board the world wide web, so why would I add my voice to the chorus?

I blame Hamish.

Hamish Cargill is my favorite blogger.  I look forward to his posts with breathless anticipation.  Hamish is funny, clever, erudite (you know...smart) -- all the things that comprise an excellent blog.  Also, he doesn't talk about himself too much.  He writes about his experiences (he calls them "adventures", and believe me, the description is apt) and does so in a very entertaining manner.  It probably helps that he is an Aussie.

(Hamish is also a rider, an eventer no less, and I got to see him go at Rolex last spring.  Yes, I admit, I am a little star-struck.)

So let's get back to this business of blogging.  Here is exactly why I want to write like Hamish:  instead of saying "We had an awful dressage test"  he says "Tiger, having cleverly worked out that a dressage test was imminent, decided that he would take control of the situation and his naughty streak came to the fore at the worst possible time."  Instead of saying "My horse misbehaved in the trot-up" he says "At the trot-up he resisted the urge to behave like a mature adult and acted instead like an unbroken brumby. As the crowd clapped the previous horse and just before they called my name to present to the Ground Jury, Tiger decided that the Burghley atmosphere really did knock the years off. While rearing on the end of the reins was a new but manageable trick, what really upset me was the volley of snot bullets that he fired into my face and body as he did so."

See?  Funny, funny stuff.

And so, here I go, my first foray into blogging, and I think I'm pretty clever to quote the good stuff from somebody else's blog from the get-go.  But I know that you, dear reader, will expect the real stuff from me next time, and none of this borrowing from Hamish.  That is my goal as well.