Personality

Pictured is a photo of Ashleigh & Gary, hamming it up in the Wickenburg, AZ desert,
taken in March of 2007.

Most of our equine critters follow us around, like Mary and her Little Lamb, wishing and
hoping that it may be their turn next.   

For a few years, I alternated my daily rides between Smokey and my beautiful friend,
Gai Paris, who recently crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  Each of them knew who's turn it
was every day when I came into the paddock.  One day, I took Smokey 2 days in a row
because I planned to take Gai on an overnight camping trip the following day.  OMG!  
What a scene!  She walked over to me, stood up tall & confronted me, indignantly
bumping my left shoulder with her nose.  As if I were too dumb to understand, she
shifted her weight backwards & then towards me again and bopped me on the shoulder a
second time, telling me it was her turn.  No amount of explanation on my part would do.

When I continued on as planned and took Smokey for the day ride, Gai stopped talking
to me.  She refused to come to me and ignored me totally.  Later that night, she added
insult to injury by walking up to Gary and affectionately rubbing her head all over his
shoulder.  Mind you, she liked Gary well enough, but she'd never before shown him any
overt affection in 16 years.  She did it purely for my benefit.

Every thing was hunky dory once we went on the camp out the next day.  I swear she
understood then why I took Smokey 2 days in a row.  She was the favorite now so all
was fine in the world.  But I ask you, who can say that horses don't have feelings?  Or,
that they can't count?

Here's to my lovely companion, Gai, who was so beautiful that she was immortalized in
bronze by a sculptor, but it was her wonderful, kind, care-taking Spirit that I'll always
treasure.  You can see in the photo below, on top of St. Mary's Peak at almost 10,000'
elevation, that she was already treading lightly into an alternate space -- somewhere
peaceful where she can watch over me -- and her little buddy, Sabu.