During the foal check, Doc Jim says, “My, she is feisty – even if she were a colt!” I have already raised five foals so I don’t think twice about his comment. We repeat the imprinting of human hands all over her. Later, I will wonder whether this is what made her feisty. But, I decide she was simply born an oral colt, as is her mother. As time will tell, she is much more investigative than my other horses. I understand this because I am an oral person. If I am not talking, I am eating. If I am not eating, I am moving. Much to the aggravation to some who love me, my chatter and constant physical motion drives them crazy. When I was a kid, the nuns would rap my knuckles for touching things on their desks. My mom put me on Benadryl because, she said, I had an allergy to … what??? That is what I remember. Five decades later, when she was in hospice at my home, she laughed and said, “Dr. Gumper gave you Benadryl so that I could get some rest! Today, I think that is illegal. On the up side, I think I am more curious about things than the average person. I am not saying I am more motivated to learn about a great many things – my very quiet husband is the one with his head forever in academic books. I am just saying that I think I will not mind Ruby being feisty.

During her first week, Ruby takes the initiative to play with a twelve-inch rubber ball on her own, and I teach her to enjoy the massage of a riding crop. Although I learned forty years earlier to ride with a crop – both because of show protocol and to reprimand a horse who thought twice about obeying a command – I have since grown away from the practice.