Yellow

Yellow is the name of my horse. No, not his actual name, silly! His registered name is Skips Sport (who comes up with these?!?), and then he has his barn name, and then there is his color: Yellow. When I first heard about Yellow, the horse trainer said, "I got this yeller horse I think you would like." That's the way my horse trainer (aka The Cowboy) names his horses. In all the time I spent with The Cowboy, I think my mom's colt was the only horse he had a name for that was not color related. Of course, "Sumbitch" is not something we wanted the little colt to be called, but if you tried to ride that little horse, you might have had a similar name for him.

I rode The Cowboy's rope horse, or, "that big bay horse." I rode "that appy horse." And finally, I bought "that yeller horse."

Did I mention Yellow can rope too? Well, the cowboy can rope...Yellow can chase a cow or a donkey. This donkey's name is Leroy!

I was pretty intent on giving Yellow a very sophisticated barn name. After all, shortly after I purchased him I moved him from the country life he was accustomed to to a fancy-shmancy barn in Spokane, WA. Our side of the barn was mostly reining horses with a few dressage horses mixed in. Surely "Yellow" on his stall card would never fly! Not next to horses with real barn names!

Yellow's arrival in Spokane.

Now, I'm not saying I don't like his barn name. I gave it to him, and it works. I combined his registered name with a person very close to me, and it suits him. It's easy to call out in a pasture, easy to use with nicknames, all the things a good barn name should be. It's kind of like our city alias.

But then in March, I moved him back down to my parent's farm. And soon after that, my mom got a new colt. Amazingly, "Sumbitch" didn't work out the way we had hoped. So her chestnut colt came home, and to help my dad remember who's blanket fit who, we adopted the saying "white fleece on Yellow, green fleece on Brown." And thus, my horse became Yellow once again.

Yellow and Brown, hanging out on the farm.

Yellow is a simple kind of horse. He comes from every Skip, Skippa, or Skipper horse you've ever heard of. He's 15hh and slightly long, but everything is proportionate. The main thing about Yellow is, he has a lot of "try." That's a phrase I think even non-horse people can understand. Yellow will try anything. If you have a leg or a rein on him, and he's not sure what you're asking, he's not just going to stand there. He will do something. He's almost never goofy (sans the 2 months he was on stall rest and then I decided to break him out and chase a mechanical flag while still in my work attire...bad Palomino Girl!) and loves to go to work. I wish I could say the same about myself!

All in all, Yellow is my dream horse. And who gets to have his/her dream horse at the ripe ol' age of 24? Well, me, I guess.

A cousin recently told me that my mom's horse, Brown, needs to learn that the sun does not rise and set on the butt of that yeller horse. Well, clearly I disagree!! And I'm sure there are plenty of you who feel the same way. I had another cousin tell me that all she had in the world was her husband and her horse. Well, to that I say, "Who needs the man when you've got a Quarter Horse?" Of course, shortly after saying that I found a man worth keeping around...but even he knows to respect my time spent with Yellow. That is Palomino Girl and Yellow time, not anything else.

Note the Ipod headphones? I don't like to be bothered by anyone or anything when I'm with Yellow.

Last week at our cousin horse camping trip, we decided to each do a routine to a song that represented either the cousin or the "equicuz," as we call them. My song? Yellow, by Coldplay. Chris Martin wrote it for the yellow-haired beauty in his life, Gwyneth Paltrow. I rode to it for the yellow-haired beauty in mine.

Look at the stars, look how they shine for you. And all the things that you do.

What song would best represent you and your horse? And what kind of a routine would you do to it?