The Owls Approve topic of the day:
Idiosyncrasies.
What personality quirks does your pony have? What makes them special?
This is a fun one for me because I am confident that I have one of the quirkiest OTTBs on the planet. Yankee is a giant ham and everyone falls in love instantly. I'm not just saying that because he's mine...he really is a gem & a ladykiller.
Besides being super sexy, Yankee has 2 things that make him stand out from the crowd.
For one, his tongue is always out. Especially if there is a camera around. He can do it on command, he can waggle it, he does it for fun and he does it when he's begging for treats.
"Treats go here" |
Absolute fav of all time |
"Oh are you taking a photo?" |
I have about 200 hundred pics of The Pants and his ADORABLE tongue. Its seriously the cutest & whenever he sees a camera he poses for you. He has ALWAYS done this, but over the years he learned that humans love it and he does it for attention now more than anything else.
Secondly, this horse naps. Hard. Everyday.
Yankee never misses a nap. Usually he naps from 11-1 or around there, but I'm not exaggerating. This horse NAPS. Most horses might lay down every once in a while, but not Yankee. He has a schedule and he sticks to it. On so many occasions I've caught him sleeping, so I also have several hundred pics of him napping.
I wish I had time to upload more, because they are all adorable. My favorite is one from when he was on stall rest with an abscess and he's all wrapped and nomming on alfalfa while laying down. So cute.
The girls in Kansas have sent me SO many snaps of him sleeping. It melts my heart to know that he still does it like clockwork. Sleepy baby.
Bacardi is interesting because his "quirks" could be seen as vices but they definitely make him stand out. I'm hoping once he grows and our bond becomes stronger his personality will show more, but right now he's pretty closed up emotionally.
His quirks are more behaviors than adorable and cute, and focus hard on food. I don't know if it has to do with the fact that I got him underweight or what but he is seriously food aggressive towards other horses. Luckily, I'm the bringer of food so he doesn't harass me, but if he thinks another horse is even looking at him he flips out.
Generally, I try to feed him first so he's distracted. All the horses are separated from each other around feeding time but he will try to break the door down to murder horses near him. I know this is actually a common thing among horses, but he level of anger is astonishing & unique. Even when I'm mixing grain he will rear and flip his head around and lunge/try to climb the door if another horse is around. To mitigate I pre-mix grain so all I have to do is dump his first, then dump Lilly's.
Secondly, WHILE he's eating he paws the air. I know several horses who do this but again, his degree of weirdness with this habit is what sets him apart. He starts by pawing in front and will progress throughout the meal to holding his leg up and jerking it backwards. B usually will do it the entire meal too. Its the strangest thing.
Lilly is so chill that she basically doesn't have a personality. I'm not sure if I find that cute or disconcerting. I think maybe she's been there done that so long that she's so over everything & everyone and their shit.
She always lets you know with her RBF. Perhaps thats her quirk....she's just so over all the peasants around her.
She also knows her job. Quite well. And if you try to tell her otherwise she's like
On the trail, shes like a well trained freight train. She always has a mission and she sticks to it. I think I've actually seen her give me an eye roll or a mental finger flip off. It grows on you.
Rather odd bunch of horsebeasts I have here.
haha i love your descriptions and pictures - Yankee really does seem like such a cool dude too - would love to get more updates from how he's doing in Kansas! also - that last gif?? totally my mare too haha
ReplyDeleteI love Yankee's naptime ritual. So cute!
ReplyDeleteThe Pants is also The Man. I love that face. And we had a few race ponies in the barn that do the whole pawing the air thing. Food. It is so INTENSE. And I have a feeling that Lucy and Lily would be good gal pals on the trail. Because they are the same.
ReplyDeleteAwwww Yankee!!!!!!!! How could anyone not love him?? So adorable. I love the tongue and the naps. :D
ReplyDelete