His Name is MerryLegs

I anxiously awaited more photos. She promised to send me some over the weekend. Her farrier was coming out to trim, and she would get them, then. When the photos finally came, they weren’t the best. There were, what appeared to be frost spots on the pictures. She claimed it was 28 degrees below zero. Wow, her farrier must be a tough guy. Our farrier has cancelled on us when the temperatures were below zero. What does 28 below feel like? She said it had gotten as low as -45 this winter—and that doesn’t figure in the wind chill. It must be awful. Here in Cleveland, the record low, ever, is -19. This was a particularly cold February, and we did see a few nights nearly that low. How can anyone live in a climate like that. Canadians must be crazy.

Back to the pictures. They weren’t the greatest, but I couldn’t see anything wrong with him. Of course, I know how camera angles can distort horses. I have struggled with that on my own pictures—sometimes their heads look huge—and sometimes they have pinheads. Tilt the camera—and they look like their legs are stubby. Horses don’t always cooperate, either. Standing still can be a challenge. But when I put all the pictures together to average out the distortions—I found that he is a beautiful horse. He is a big, stocky palomino with a super, fluffy winter coat—and a beautiful eye.

She told me I could email her farrier and get his opinion, so that was my next step.

Of course, I forwarded the photos to Ellen, who was getting just as excited as me. And speaking of excitement—sometimes it seemed like Kevin just couldn’t contain himself. Other times, he would be very quiet about it—not wanting to influence my decision in either way, I think.