A Horsy Post

 

 

 

It has come to my attention (both thru e-mail and comments on my Blogger and AOL Journals) that some of you may be interested in hearing about the horses that I take care of. Before you hear stories about them, first you need to know the cast of characters. Today you get a glimps of all my 'babies' and a little about each. Then, if people seem interested I might do some individual entries.

Only one of these horses belongs to me personally. He is an arabian and his name is Boo. You've seen a few pictures of him over the years. The picture at the top of this post is of my handsome boy. I've owned Boo since he was a baby and he is going to be 18 next year. He is what we call a black bay, but, since he lives in Florida, he is usually sunburned to a lighter brown ;p

The rest of the horses are owned by a very dear friend of mine who I knew before we moved here. Her farm turned out to be right across the road from where I live now, which makes it very convenient for me! She own performing horses, and is often away performing with them. My normal compliment of horses are the ones who stay home when she is away. All of her horses are gray and either Arabians, Andalusians, or an Andalusian crosses. Yep, they are all supposed to look similar.

The cast of Characters that stay here all the time, in addition to my guy,  are:The Five who are retired from the ring for one reason or another (mostly because of age--two are over 30 years old!). They are Ten, Omar, Orin, Mahome, and Abduhl. All five of them are Arabians. The next two are also Arabians, but they are Yearlings (soon to be 2). One is a smokey color, and the other has a pink cast, but both will eventually be gray. They are known as Bebe and Bizou. You probably guessed that Bebe is French for Baby, but Bizou's name means Kiss. Why French names? Because my friend speaks French to her horses as that is her 'first' language. The last two are my andalusian crosses. They are both 2 years old (soon to be 3) and they will start their training this year to join the act. One is an andalusian/percheron cross and the other is an andalusian/quarter horse cross. Their names are French for thunder and lightning: Eclair and Tonnerre. All of these guys are geldings.

Currently my friend is on vacation for 19 days, and in addition to the normal cast of characters I also have 7 extras! The 'young guys' are four geldings known as: Gomlet, Sahab, Bajo, and Gazie. I'm not sure I got the spellings right, but that's how I pronounce them! We also have Alidar who is a little bit older. He is snow white and gorgeous. They are all arabians. The last two are the stallions, Rico and Shagal. Shagal is a smokey gray arabian  and the apple of his mama's eye. My friend has had him since the day he was born and you can tell. He just worships her. Rico is a beautiful andalusian stallion.

So, there you have it. My friend was worried that adding in the extra 7 would be a problem, but really it doesn't take that much extra time to take care of the extras. Everyone is outside in pastures enjoying the Florida winter weather most of the day. The stallions come in at night so I don't have to worry about them getting into trouble, but unless we get a cold snap everyone else is happy in their pastures. We are a little cramped with double the numbers, but with a little shuffling of pastures everyone has a place.

Have I bored you all to death yet? LOL!