Willow

This cute little girl is Willow and, for the next year, she is half ours. We finally made the plunge into horse land (and it's just as foreign to me as Neverland or Oz might be) with taking out a half lease on this dun colored American Quarter Horse.

Madeleine was half leasing a school pony (our beloved Cocoa Puff) from the stable where she lessons but, sadly, Madeleine continues to grow in both height and ability and Cocoa couldn't grow either of those ways in his older age. So, a few months ago Madeleine's trainer started looking for a small horse (Willow is only 14.3 hands) who had enough tricks up her hooves to give Madeleine room to grow, ability-wise.

I could go into the exasperating saga of how Willow went into heat after arriving at our barn (and, for your horse people, Willow seems quite mareish, even when she's not in heat, so you can imagine . . . ) and hurt her right eye badly enough that she was unrideable for a solid month, but I won't. I'll focus on the positive: she's well and she's back to work. I'm simultaneously thrilled with excitement to see my childhood horse dreams fulfilled through my daughter and terrified to enter this new, unknown world.