Call Me Crazy

The horses are speeding northward up the interstate as I write - Chloe, Bridget, George and, yes, a fourth horse:  Rose!

Melissa, the manager of the rescue barn, is kindly chauffeuring our little troop up to Pennsylvania.  I was talking to her on the phone the other day and found myself agreeing to let her bring us another horse.  Well, Rose is such a dear, and there's lots of room on that six-horse trailer, and Melissa wouldn't charge any extra, and of course we don't pay board here.  And the Mississippi climate doesn't agree with Rose, who the vet said would do much better in the north.

The clincher came when I took one of my older daughters to visit her.  My daughter, who is very intuitive and rather picky about horses, took an instant liking to her, and that was that.

So we will have the challenge of getting to know a new horse, who will have the even greater challenge of getting accustomed to her new surroundings and new companions.  She is a former pasture-mate of Bridget, however, which should ease the transition for her.

Rose is a thoroughbred from polo stock.  We went online and looked at pictures of polo ponies, and indeed she resembled them rather a lot.  Rose is quite beautiful of course, but her neck is, well, shortish.  I found it odd that the polo pony sites all talk about how a long neck is desirable for a polo pony, while at the same time depicting only short-necked creatures.  Maybe I'm missing something.

She is rather reserved.  I went several times to their pasture to visit Bridget before Rose came up to greet me.  I confess to referring to Tellington-Jones in the matter of her almond eyes - according to the great T, such eyes mean a fundamentally very cooperative character who takes time to let down her guard. Sounds good to me.

All right.  Four's enough.  Don't nobody let me get a donkey.