The Princess and the Village Idiot

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” -- Shakespeare

“This horse by any other name would still be an idiot.” -- Me

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Well, we have officially moved two horses from Oakdale to the East Bay so that we can ride during the week. As a result, it has rained pretty much every day for the last ten days. The arena has been closed because of this, and the horses are out on pasture so they currently look like two gigantic balls of mud with ears. We go out and try to knock off most of the mud in the evenings, which gives us plenty of time to talk about new names for these horses.

(Pretend that there are pictures here – I forgot to get my camera out until it was completely dark, and I’m not sure what the flash would do…)

From her name Princessa should be a dainty little horse who looks elsewhere for protection. In reality, she is pretty butch, was a professional polo pony, and rules the pasture herd. She’s more like the princess of a biker gang.

Beau, whose registered name is “Dances on Air”, is a four year old gelding who can’t seem to figure out where his feet are going to go when he puts them down. Or maybe he’s actually trying to step on me. That’s possible, too. For a four year old horse he’s pretty good, but he’s still a four year old horse, and thus is somewhat like a teenager. A big, goofy teenager who wants to be next to his protector (Princessa) at all times. His common name is “Idiot Boy” and it fits.

In any case, “Princessa” and “Beau” are the names on the boarding agreement, so we’re probably stuck with them, but I suspect we’ll have lots of time to come up with alternate names while we’re waiting for blue skies…