A horse with no name...

Our name-less friend

Actually, he does have a name - Slick, sometimes called Red - but we don't really like either one. So E and I have spent the last couple of days trying to come up with an appropriate name for the big guy. Naming a horse is just about as hard as trying to name a baby!

Our first thought was Moe - as in Curly, Moe and Larry of the 3 Stooges. Of course, that means that eventually we would have to get a third horse! (I can hear hubby M groaning as he reads this!)

Not satisfied with that, however, we then moved on to Quin, named after Joaquin Miller, a 19th century American poet who also happened to be a horse thief and a Pony Express rider. Quin stuck around for a bit, but still didn't feel perfect.

Last night, as we were sitting on the couch I suddenly yelled out "Jake!" And we both liked it. So today our nameless horse is named Jake. Now if only I can find some obscure literary connection to make it perfect.....

E and.....Jake???

Friend A gave E and I the perfect Christmas present. She chauffeured us out to the barn on Christmas day so that we could spend some time with our equine friends. The snow and ice have kept us pretty much at home, so I have had to rely on others to get me anywhere that was too far to walk. We had a wonderful time, did some chores and just soaked up the peace and beauty of the horse barn.

Merry Christmas, Curly!

Snowy barn day

I couldn't stand it anymore - I just had to see Curly. So I called up Grandpa J and begged a ride out to the barn. He has a snow-worthy truck that was able to get through the snow and ice with no mishaps.

The next storm front is beginning to make its presence felt, so the snow was falling as we drove down the semi-plowed roads. This also made me hurry to do my chores once we arrived; I definitely didn't want to be stuck out there in the middle of a blizzard!

E, the snow princess

Curly was happy to see us...or maybe it was the treats that we gave him and the extra handful of hay I dropped into his feeder. I scooped as much of the accumulated poop out of his stall as I could; some of it has frozen fast to the floor and won't be moved until the temps go up a little. (It was warmer today but still only 14.)

Curly, looking good in his winter coat.

And then we moved a couple of bales of hay over to a stall in the main barn for the horse we are trying out. Yup, you read that right. We will be evaluating a new horse soon. I'm so excited! He's an 8 year old sorrel QH, about 15.3 hands, with a wide back and big ol' butt. And he was super friendly when we first saw him - maybe even too friendly! Because of the snow and ice, we haven't been able to do much more than take a quick look at him out in a pasture. His owner is hoping to move him to our facility today (hah! There's no way I'd drive a trailer in this mess!) and we will be given an opportunity to check him out more thoroughly. I'll post a pic of him once he gets settled. Soooo....in preparation for his arrival, I had to make sure there was some feed up in the stall area he'll be in. Because of the deep snow, wheelbarrows were out...but sleds work just dandy in this weather!