River is not an only child.

As I have mentioned, River is not my only horse. Here is an introduction to my other ponies.

Striker is a 24 year old Thoroughbred who is incapable of acting his age. His show name is, for good reason, "Suicide Run". He was the first horse I took a lesson on, the first horse I leased, and we're still together. It's been nearly 6 years since the first time I rode him. Now we're an old married couple. He annoys me, I annoy him, he behaves himself for me and drags other people around when they try to lead him. I can't bring myself to get annoyed with him for that; I rather think it's endearing. Striker is the horse I lease.


Next up is Irish. She's a 17 year old Thoroughbred who is rarely addressed by her name. She usually goes by Mare, Red Mare, Mare-Mare, or Beautiful. I've been riding her for about 4 1/2 years, and I've owned her for a bit over 2 years. There's a very long story with her, but in short she was given to a scumbag horse trader behind my back while I was leasing her, without her owner's knowledge or consent. I got her back in the end, thank goodness. In some ways she's perfect for me, in others she's perfectly wrong. Mare is me in horse form... sometimes that's a good thing, because I know how to get her to do what I want. Sometimes our similarity is bad, because we feed off each other and a situation gets worse. Unfortunately for her, she's stuck with me. Mare lives with River.


And last, but certainly not least, is Lily. Lily (AKA Pig, Piggles, Pigs, Piglet) is an almost-8 month old Thoroughbred/Connemara cross filly (registered and branded ISR, Premium awarded). She is Irish's baby and was conceived while I was still in the hospital after falling off Irish and breaking my leg. Lily was quite beautiful as a very young foal; she now unfortunately bears more than a passing resemblance to a poorly-bred mule. Pig is a stubborn, feisty, attitudinal little beast. She's also very affectionate, if a little too demanding at times.


I know, I know, you look at the fuzzy muley beast and wonder what on earth I was thinking, and how much did I pay the inspector to make her a Premium foal? But honest, she was once a lovely filly:



She's going through a rather unfortunate phase now...

And there you are, my other horses.