Suzy & Mickey’s Blog – February 2026

Suzy Wood: How did your second hurdles run go?

Monansunu: We should change the subject. The race was spoiled by our chesnut enemies.

S: I checked the racecard and thirteen of the fifteen in it were bays.

M: You would not believe the trouble that the other two caused though.

S: The form book says about one “never better than midfield, mistake seventh” and the other is described as “prominent, weakened after two out.” No mention of causing trouble to innocent bystanders.

M: I was a full participant, not a bystander.

S: Under your name it notes that you did not jump with fluency and hung left at the seventh hurdle. Now, I do not wish to stir up a dispute, but at risk of doing so, I would suggest that if there was a horse creating problems in the race, it was you.

M: OK Rumpole Of The Bailey, it was all a lot more nuanced than that. If you were there, you probably would have understood. I have not got time to go into the detail now. Perhaps we should be discussing your last race.

S: Perhaps we should. Oh look, it says I was beaten by two and three-quarter lengths. That’s pretty good don’t you think?

M: Again, we have to think about the minutiae.

S: I don’t have minute eyes. Voles do.

M: Were you placed?

S: Very nearly.

M: But not actually?

S: OMG. Do you see what they have done? Got us arguing amongst ourselves.

M: How do we stop that? Stand here in silence for an hour or two?

{That would be good – Ed.}

[After a long, long pause]

S: So that was nice. There are less cobwebs at this time of year, I have suddenly noticed.

M: I think that is because in winter they all hide to get warm in your brain.

S: In my brain?

M: All of our brains.

S: Whilst that does sound completely mad, we do actually all work together better in summer, when the cobwebs have come out in the fresh air.

M: You see, just because something sounds completely ridiculous, it doesn’t mean that it lacks a factual base.

S: That might be the most philosophical thing you have ever said. Or have you had another letter from a certain Hollywood star who has misled us once before.

M: Nothing from him at all. What about you?

S: Me neither. His publicist did send me some flowers as a reward for ignoring him.

M: What did you do with them?

S: Swapped them for an apple, obviously. I’m not a fool.

M: Good move. Anyway, we do have another letter this month. It is from Dave Ryding, who claims to be skier but the letter comes from that well known Alpine outpost, Chorley.

S: What does he ask? Please let it be sensible.

M: He asks if we will be watching the Winter Olympics and, if so, what is our favourite sport in it.

S: Really. No secret messages written with invisible ink, or hidden codes in the sentences?

M: No. It looks like a simple, straight forward question.

S: OK. How weird. I will be watching. My favourite is biathlon, because the humans have to do something that gets their metabolism working at a very high rate, with occasional breaks to do something that requires calmness and precision, which can undo all the past good work in the blink of an eye. A bit like jump racing. I also like the luge.

M: But not the skeleton?

S: No. That is totally different. Totally.

M: I am boycotting the Winter Olympics until they add dog sled racing. I have already been training Digger, Kayley and Tyson to make a team. Lola refused to take part. It’s a bit unbalanced, and if someone could lend me an actual husky, that might help quite a lot.

S: And the monthly question part was going so well up until now…