Harley

Happy Birthday to Harley! She turns five years old this week.


Isn't Mr. Brown Eyes a stud?

Actually, we don't really know when her birthday is. We just decided we would celebrate it on the anniversary of when we bought her.

We had no immediate intentions of buying a second horse last summer. If you had asked me what animal we were most likely to add to our family, I would have said a dog or maybe another cat. Mr. Brown Eyes was pretty caught up in the idea of getting a dog--a puppy, actually--that Baby Brown Eyes could grow up with. But the idea of a tiny puppy chewing up all my shoes with its tiny puppy teeth did not thrill me. So whenever Mr. Brown Eyes brought it up I would just shrug and say something about not wanting a baby dog to take care of in addition to our brand new baby human.

Then a friend of ours told us about someone she knew who had a horse he was trying to give away. Mr. Brown Eyes had been wanting a horse of his own, and my horse, Sultan, couldn't keep up with the pasture by himself. And this horse was free. So we went to take a look. The horse proved to be as beautiful as his pictures and owner claimed, but he had practically zero training and would require much more work than brand new parents would have time to give. We had to say no.

I knew Mr. Brown Eyes was disappointed, so I promised him we would keep looking. It couldn't have been more than a week later that he found the ad for a four year-old American Saddlebred. We drove out to the middle of nowhere to see her. She was gorgeous, gleaming copper with a flaxen mane and tail. She was friendly and greeted us by pushing her velvety nose into our hands. She was gentle and well-trained. She was not free. But we had fallen in love.

By the next afternoon, there were two horses in our pasture.

I know, I know. I won't let Mr. Brown Eyes get a puppy. But a horse? No problem.

I've never claimed to be rational.

At least horses don't piddle on the carpet,
The Brown-Eyed Girl