born to run

10/12/2011

I am pretty sure Emmy was feeling left out when I did a photo shoot with her best bud, Tramp. So to lighten her spirits I turned her loose in the arena and started snapping away. With her big brown eyes and long red hair, she turned out to be a nice little model.

Emmy joined the Dodson family shortly after I started conspicuously hanging out on the farm every weekend, and before my last name fit in. She was promptly (and very appropriately) named after Emmy Lou Harris and her song "Born to Run". Emmy Lou is most definitely born to run.

Living as dangerous as dynamite
Sure makes you feel nervous but it makes you feel alright
Makes you feel alright

Well I was born to run
To get ahead of the rest
And all that I wanted was to be the best
Just to feel free and be someone
I was born to be fast I was born to run

Nobody's gonna make me do things their way...

Miss Emmy is a fun little ride. She has the smoothest fox trot I have ever felt and her spirited gait (and personality) turned a few heads at the gaited clinic we attended last spring. It is my understanding that there were several offers for breeding and sale, muttered under cowboy hats along the arena fence, as she pranced by. Her quick intelligence and sensitivity make her easy to train. Although occasionally her red haired stubbornness often also comes in to play. And we are still working on that whole concept of walking slowly and calmly around the arena. She is the one I should be working up to being my gaited show horse, although her real forte seems to be out on the trail.

For some reason this picture reminds me of a drawing out of the Billy and Blaze books from my childhood. Maybe that is why I like black and white pictures of horses so much. They make me smile.

And this picture? Well, I had to prove to you that she is a natural red head. And if I ever doubted the red head stereotype.... well... I don't anymore. Notice all four feet are hovering just above the ground. This is Emmy's happy place.