Updates and Naming

Having a new project horse has made the work day a million more times difficult.  All I can think about is getting to the barn and playing with him.  Its absurd.  But then again, horses do always seem to become a bit of an obsession for folks like me.

We’ve been working on picking up feet for extended periods of time.  I’ve even run a rasp over them some.  He’s real good about letting me hold them for 30+ seconds or so and really seems to like them getting cleaned.  That rasp tickles a little too much for him right now though so he really tries to get the foot under scrutiny out of my hand.  I’m optimistic though, that in two weeks we will be able to have a mostly-successful trimming.  We’ll see.

He seems to look better by the day.  Really seems to be gaining weight and perking up.  The longer he’s at the barn the more we’re all falling in love with him.  Such a sweetheart. 

I wasn’t crazy about the name he came with.  It really just didn’t match up with the little horse he seems to be – though we’re still getting to know each other.  Saying the name in my head seemed okay, but as soon as I said it aloud I cringed.  It sounded harsher than I expected and really didn’t match his calm, easy-going, inquisitive nature.  As a result, I’ve been playing around with other names.  And we’ve all been joking a lot about what he should be called.  The 3-year old like the name Oswald.  But we have an Oliver.  Oswald and Oliver.  Ozzy and Olly.  Ummm, no.  Henry and Gomer were also laughed at for a bit.  Gomer in particular.  Andrea suggested several names that I really liked, Flint being my favorite.  Now its coming down to Flint and the name that came to me out of the blue, Griffin.  I’m going to see which flows out of my mind and mouth the most in the coming days and settle with one of them. 

A local trainer has an unhandled 4-year old at the barn right now, too.  I am going to try to get a photo of him soon to post because he’s gorgeous.  Dun complete with black tipped ears, a little striping on his legs, and the most beautiful mane/forelock ever.  He’s VERY refined in his build and the way he moves just screams Spanish mustang – though I believe he’s a QH.  But because he looks like he’s Spanish we have been joking around with Spanish names.  Taco, Gato, Café, Guillermo, Burrito, El Diablo, Angel, Jesus, Caballo, Mestengo, Rodrigo, Pedro, Domingo…the list goes on.  And of course, as we came up with these names we said them in the thickest Spanish accent possible.  Duh.

Hopefully both of these guys will have a solid name in the upcoming weeks!  Naming is so hard to do right.