When I took in this sorry, starving, lame, dirty, sad little mare last fall from a rescue shelter looking to find her a home, I never imagined the Cinderella she would become. Not only did she become pretty and plump, painted with splotches of brown, black, and white, she has now given birth to the most precious baby. Even once I figured out Missy was pregnant I never expected her to throw such a fine foal. He didn’t inherit much of her pinto coloring, but he does have a chaotically graceful blaze from forehead to nip of his nose, and his coloring is so unusual I can’t find a description in equine lexicon to pin on it. Bay, but too light and coppery, almost a dusky rose but he fades to nearly dun on his legs, yet has a dark stripe down his back that leans him toward being a dark buckskin, or maybe heading ’round back to bay. But his tail is the most magnificent, streaked as it is with brown and white and black, just like his mother’s. He got her personality too. He is feisty and athletic’“for a newborn’“but also smart and mellow, very amiable temperament.

When my uncle Ed died a few weeks ago, we thought Missy would be foaling any day so we got it in our heads to call the foal Eddy, if it happened to be a stallion. He is, so we’ve taken to calling him little Eddy, in honor of the passing of a great and kind man, who loved horses.

Welcome to Aspen Ridge Ranch my sweet boy.