Meet Bestie

Now for Princess Bestie. She really is a princess: pretty, fine boned, very demanding, very "it's all about me." She's a Paint mare but everyone assumes she's a Thoroughbred because of her looks and demeanor. That's her "Horse Illustrated" cover shot above (not really!).

Whereas acquiring Dude was a drawn-out process, Bestie pretty much popped into our lives. Maddie was leasing an older horse and interested in jumping more, so her trainer at the time started looking around. She had seen Bestie previously when she was looking for a horse for another family, and made arrangements for Bestie to come to us on a trial period. A pretty extended trial period, it might have even been a year. She was on a farm in eastern Vermont, and between the weather there and the condition of the dirt road leading to our barn, her arrival date changed from week to week. Finally, in late April she arrived, tethered all by herself in a big stock trailer, looking pretty ratty and a bit skinny after a winter out in the field. What struck me was how accepting she was of the whole situation, coming off the trailer to a bunch of people standing around, and being led into a new barn. Right from the start she was great in the stall and great to handle. Although it took two broken halter crowns until we realized she needed to get used to being on cross ties!

Maddie didn't get on her for a few weeks, until Bestie put weight on. The first time Maddie got on, Bestie reared and I thought, "Oh my God, what have we gotten ourselves into??" She's definitely a rearer when she gets ticked off. A rearer and a prancer. The rearing occurs fairly rarely, but the prancing occurs pretty often. She's tempermental and will fight you constantly if she doesn't want to do something. Amazingly, the only time Maddie came off of her was when Maddie was fooling around, spinning in the saddle, and Bestie I guess had had enough, popped a little buck and off Maddie came.

Lots of ups and downs with this mare. With Dude it was injury-related ups and downs, with Bestie it's been temperament. Maddie and Bestie had their share of successes, but it was never easy and never predictable. You really have to pick your battles with Bestie (with Maddie too, come to think of it!).

You're probably wondering why on earth we bought her. Well, we were on a girls' vacation with some friends, two months after her arrival, and my husband took it into his head to finalize the purchase while we were out of town! To this day I'm not sure what possessed him to do that. If he hadn't done that, to be honest, I'm not sure what we would have done; if we would have stuck with the lease then sent her back, or in fact purchased her after Maddie had a few more months with her. Who knows! In any case, she's part of the family now.

We had the horse psychic talk to Bestie, too. Actually I shouldn't say "we," because it was all my idea (the girls thought I was crazy). She characterized her as a Chatty Cathy, a very social, nosy busybody mare with strong opinions about everything. Yep.

One funny thing about her is that she's the mirror image of the horse I had growing up. Black mare, little star on the forehead, little rear sock.

Things I love about Bestie: Her high pitched whinny as soon as she hears me, sometimes even when she hears my car pulling in; how she delicately goes to the back of stall to poop; how she nuzzles different fabrics--she loves Velcro and nylon; how in the spring she will handgraze and seemingly not come up for air, just methodically eat and eat and eat.