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November 15, 2013: Mr. Siggi’s Legacy

Both Pete and I continue to miss Mr. Siggi something awful. Pete’s done a better job than I have of moving on, probably because Mr. Siggi and I didn’t always see eye-to-eye on everything. I sometimes asked him to do things he could not do, and I became impatient when he could not do them. For this reason, I have unresolved feelings about this.

Pete also doesn’t brood or dwell on things like I do. This is maybe why shortly after Mr. Siggi’s death, he decided that Signy would be his primary horse friend. I’m happy to say that Signy and Pete are as good a match as Pete and Siggi once were. This would not have been so if he’d attempted upon our



other two options, which are Raudi or Tinni. Pete sees Tinni as being too jumpy and Raudi as being too excitable. I, on the other hand, see Tinni as being laid back, and Raudi as being attentive but not reactive. My nicknames for the two are actually most telling. Tinni is Scout, the world’s best trail horse, and Raudi is Girlfriend, the world’s greatest trail companion. (I used to call Siggi Dweezil Hoss because he was so playful in the pen.)

Today (in the interest of time), Pete and I combined animal exercise activities. This time we opted to take Signy and Hrimmi out on the trail, and at the same time, all three dogs. I walked the dogs, and Pete walked the horses up to the trailhead, alongside the now very slippery road. Then Pete rode and I continued to walk while we were out on the trail.

My walking enabled me to watch the goings on from the ground level. The first thing I noticed was that Hrimmi and the dogs were all over the place. Then the second thing I noticed was Pete and Signy clearly had their act together. Pete was sitting tall in the saddle, and Signy was moving along in a very relaxed fashion. Her neck was arched slightly, and she moved on when Pete gave her a squeeze with his legs.

It then occurred to me that Signy’s happy to have a rider who she doesn’t have to share with another horse. Previously, she had to share me with Raudi. Now she has just one rider. In general, Signy is sort of an odd duck, a loner when around other horses. I promised her that we would not give her last foal away, and I intend to keep that promise. So she has in Hrimmi, her last foal, a pen friend.

Every so often, I get on Signy, but not as much as before. Today, the two seemed as aptly matched as Mr. Siggi and Pete used to be. Could it be that Mr. Siggi was paving the way for Pete, and preparing him for the likes of Ms. Signy? I do wonder because it’s worked out really well for both.

I’ve always considered myself to be a realist. I used to think that there was no before or afterlife. I also did not believe that an animal in any way determined human fate. Maybe my brain is now getting soft around the edges, like an apple left on a windowsill. I say this because I now would not be surprised if I discovered that Mr. Siggi and Signy made some kind of a pact before he passed on. It was one in which he made her assure him that she’d watch out for Pete when he rode her. That, he knew was not too tall an order. The tall part of the order was his asking her to befriend Pete when on the ground. That is slow in coming, but this is what seems to be happening. Indeed, it’s a legacy of sorts.

235: 11/16/13: Ryder and Sheepherding