Silliness

Silliness on my part, I know.  I have a picture of my first horse, Brandy.  He was an old-time Morgan.  Now, Cole is a Morab, but he looks like an old-time Morgan. I have a picture of Cole that is nearly the same angle as the picture of Brandy.  I had them next to each other, and I realized their bodies had nearly the exact proportion.

Now, I only had Brandy a couple years, but my aunt had him the 20 years before, and we used to go over her house and ride him.  He was a very special horse.  I learned so much from him.  He was a barn sour, hard mouthed prancing runaway out on the trail.  We worked it all out, and had 2 great summers on the trail.  I still don't know how I survived to get us to that point, but I was young. 

He was a gently, sweet horse just like Cole, but he had a bad start in life.  I actually met his original owner--the one who wrecked him.  She would race him on the trail as a 3-year-old, and then he learned to go, go, go.  She put a stronger bit on him to try to stop him--a curb.  He learned to twist his jaw and break the chains.  She had to carry spares.  Soon she traded him to my aunt for a used saddle and $50.00.  I think an old truck might have been part of the deal, but I'm not sure on that.

Brandy paddled when he trotted, but it never caused him any lameness.  On the trail, he had a good Morgan fast trot.

The other day, Cole trotted towards me, and I saw it--he paddled.  He wasn't as bad as Brandy, but it was a paddle.  I missed it when I checked him at the breeder.  He was trotting in circles, and I only had him walked towards me to see if he moved straight.  He doesn't seem to paddle at a walk.  I'm not worried--it never did cause any problems with Brandy.

Back to the silliness.  I always thought that animals can be reincarnated.  In fact, before he died, I told Mingo to come back as a cat and find me.  Anyway, could Cole be my old Brandy, back so he can have a good start in life?  Yeah, I know, silliness.  But he treats me like an old friend...