Simply Magic

The new boys are settling in around here. I've been having so much fun working so hard out on the trail with Jet and Sandy that I've not spent much time behind the camera lens photographing them, sadly. I thought about hauling my camera out at feeding time this morning as the sun hasn't quite poked it's sleepy head up over the hill yet and the lighting is fantastic...but some little skunk head borrowed my camera yesterday and left it in the trunk of City Boy's car...which is now 50 miles south of here. So no new photos. Yet.

In Molalla, aside from getting into trouble for hauling four horses home, I also met up with a friend from a northwest forum named Skittles. Okay, that's not her real name, but it's what she goes by online, therefore it's what she shall be called here.

Skittles wanted a horse, and for some reason all my romantic talk of mustangs had her thinking she absolutely MUST adopt. And of course, being the friendly enabler I am, I was more than happy to help her out in that endeavor. We spent the better part of Saturday morning moseying up and down the alleyways between the corrals looking at the horses. Her husband was partial to darker colored horses, as was she. They also preferred geldings, and they wanted something stout.

We found a super little yearling gelding, but decided it'd be a couple years before he was ready. But up in another pen of geldings stood a chunk of a brown three year old. He had a few nicks and dings from the other horses and was definitely the bottom of the pecking order in this group of four. Darling had liked him Friday night and Saturday morning told me that if I was getting the bay, that the brown really needed to come home with us as well because they were best buds. So when Skittles and her husband saw him and liked him, Darling was quite happy.

Skittles and her husband named the gelding Simply Magic, and he's been sent home with me for 30 days of gentling. Magic is not a hugely tall horse, but there's no doubt as to the drafty influence; this boy is mammoth! Huge shoulders, humungous hiney, and heavy neck. Thankfully he has no clue just how big he is or he'd steamroll right over me. As it is, he shares with Sandy a bit of timidity and isn't too eager to get up close and personal.

The goal for Magic over the next three weeks is to get him relaxed and easy to catch. He wants to be my buddy. He wants to be brave. But he hangs back and prefers to stay safe inside his bat cave, aka stall, rather than joining me outside in the sunlight. He has, however, learned to give to the pressure of the lead and is now following me, although a bit reluctantly, around his pen. Last night he was brave enough to let me touch him, even outside of his bat cave.