SWEETS

Horses are by nature herd animals; they don't fare all that well on their own.

And my poor horse, Najale, has been all on his lonesome for almost a year and a half now.

Enter Sweets, or Sweet Lady Grey (her full name).

Najale dances and squeals and gallops and races around, incredibly excited by the presence of another equine.





I put them in adjoining pens for a few hours until the fireworks peter out, and then let them formally meet.

A few more squeals - a couple well-placed kicks from each one - soon they are grazing together in harmony.









Looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED RIDES AGAIN

I am adopting a horse named Sweet Lady Gray.

She is, as you might guess from her name, a gray horse, but what they call a flea-bitten gray - not the dramatic dapples, nor the almost albino grays - but patterned over with what do actually look like flea bites of darker hairs.

She has a bit of a romantic history - she was discovered abandoned, starving, right here on the Mexican border, probably being used to transport drugs and then dumped when they got over to the U.S. Someone found her, literally took several hours to walk her to the nearest road one mile away, and then brought her home to fatten up and keep happy for the next ten years.

Her owner then had a major heart attack, and had to put her up for adoption.

Her nickname is Sweets - but I may have to change that now.

She got into a tussle with some other horses last week, and got some scrapes.

And on her muzzle now is a lovely lightening-shaped skinned area.

Harry Potter, anyone?