Sunday, January 10, 2010

Picture Time and an Explanation of Names

I'm the kind of person who just loves pictures. I'm very visual and I like seeing what someone is talking about. So naturally, I'm going to be posting plenty of pictures. Of course, assuming I can drag a friend or family member out to the barn with a camera...Now, I've only owned Bailey for four months, so my pictures of her are fairly limited. But never fear, more will be on the way shortly.

These two pictures, taken by a friend of mine, are from the first week that Bailey was on the farm. 





This was taken by my brother last week. Bailey hadn't been exercised in two weeks due to her need for a teeth float and consequent craziness under saddle. Apparently, she feels more out of control than she looks. Or we were having a calm moment. Or she's just really photogenic.



And on the left, we have the x-ray of Bailey's left hock. The bone spur is circled in red. On the right, there is a comparison photo. This is what a normal hock joint looks like. The bone spur looks small in comparison to the entire joint, but the vet said it was really quite large. And I can believe it, because if you think about it, any bone flaw or extra bone mass will cause problems, because it isn't supposed to be there and it supports a 1,000 pound animal.



And now for an explanation of names. Bailey Slew Bambi Crash is the "full name" of my mare because I didn't know what to name her when I got her. She came to me as Slew. Seattle Slew is her grandsire, and her registered name is Born Again Slew. So sure, Slew makes sense. Did it take an ounce of creativity to think up? Well, no. To me, it's just a boring, ugly name - and for such an exciting and beautiful mare, it just wasn't fitting.

First, I wanted to name her Crash. You see, on my way to see her for the first time, someone hit me from behind and my car was totaled. Of course, I didn't get to see her that day, but I had bigger things to worry about at the moment. No injuries occurred (besides the two totaled cars), so no worries there. It seemed more or less appropriate to have an interesting story behind such an unconventional name. And it was kind of funny, both in retrospect and at the time. There's nothing else to do in a situation like that except have some fun with it. My horsey friend (Denali's mom for those of you who know about Denali), who was accompanying me out to see "Slew", and I were having a great time joking about all of the hot firemen who were asking us about injuries, and feeling our whiplashed necks. In addition, Officer Bacon was the one asking us questions and filing the accident report. Talk about an awesome name for a police officer. So Crash seemed like a funny and original name. I quickly took it out of the running, however, when I remembered that horses have a tendency to live up to their names. Ever met a horse named Rebel? Yeah, my point exactly.

My other horsey friend (the one who took the first two pictures) and I were out there that sunny day staring at "Slew" and thinking about what described her. It went something like this: "She's brown...and has very long legs...and jumps really high...and is very reactive...sounds like a deer! How about Bambi?!" We kinda thought it could work. But we chewed it over, and casually brought it up with my trainer, and agreed that it was a ditsy and weird name. It just didn't fit.

One day, my trainer said something along the lines of, "She needs a cool name. One that's not too manly or too girly, but just a nice name. One that she looks like. Like Bailey." I thought it was a possibility, but spent the next week or so still trying to come up with something. Yet, Bailey grew on me, and my mare really looks like a Bailey. Just like many people really look like their names. So it finally stuck.

Hence, her full name is "Bailey Slew Bambi Crash." But I like keeping it simple, so she's just Bailey. And that's the way I like it.

3 comments:

  1. Yes, but I will forever call her Crash :) You forgot to mention that she was taken away right after the accident on a trial, but then came back because of $$$. It was meant to be!

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  2. That's true, I left out the small details. The irony is, the people who had her on trial offered $3000, but the owner was very offended. Since the people couldn't afford the purchase price, they wasted everyone's time by taking her on trial. Right then, the owner decided the people couldn't have her regardless of what they offered, and they hadn't been the easiest people to work with in the first place. Then I came along and actually got the vet check, and voila! $3000 turned out to be an okay price!

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  3. Your Bailey is a brunette beauty! :) I'm biased for a pretty Bay!

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