(no subject)

[which_chick]

There's a discussion on vanity over at ornery_chick's LJ, got me to thinking when I went to play pony after work today. (The term play pony, as I use it, means "go twink around with real equines". It should not be confused with the BDSM-spectrum activity known as pony play. That's another thing entirely and it does not involve real equines.) Anyway, I realized that while I am not horribly vain about myself, I'm a very looks-ist judge of ponies. Ponies should be cute. They should be attractive -- a nice build, well-proportioned and uniform. They should move with some grace. They should be appealing to the eye. The eye-candy factor is something I look for in a pony, something pretty high on the must-have list when pony shopping. (Sanity, as careful readers have no doubt already ascertained, is not nearly as high on my list of requirements as "cute" is. I can and do work with the attractive-but-insane pony.)

And therein is the problem. Pretty sometimes is as pretty does. Taku, for example. Taku (or possibly Tacoo or Tacku. Sounds like "ta - coo", ta like goodbye and coo like what doves do. I've no idea how they spelled it, but here, it's going to be Taku.) is not pretty. She was an ugly filly. She grew up to be an ugly mare. We were sort of hoping she would grow into herself... but as she got older and bigger, the ugly just got more spread out. *sigh* She has an ugly, coarse head with little pig eyes and big muley ears. She has a short, straight neck with absolutely no class to it. She is underweight because she's a hard keeper and will never be fat on just hay. She's got big rafter hips, which would look better if she had more weight on her, but they still are big and don't look good. She's got coarse legs, though they are set on reasonably well. She's got a long barrel, longer than it should be. She's not got a real winning personality, either. Taku is a bit sour, a bit distant, like she knows she's ugly and is waiting for you to laugh at her. She's not open and warm and friendly. Taku is not at all pretty. There is no pretty on her. Taku is the ugliest thing in the field.

She is also the fastest thing in the field. Now, Nick is in that field. So's Thyme, Whisper, Sphinx, Elklin, and Martini. There's some decent speed in that group... and yet, when the herd thunders off at a hell of a clip, the horse in the lead, invariably, is Taku. It's not because she's at the top of the totem pole. She isn't. She's at the bottom, or near enough. The other horses pick on her. (Horses have a pecking order. It's the way they are. People cannot do a whole lot to change the pecking order. If there is a field with more than one horse in it, one of those horses is going to be at the bottom of the order. This is the way of things.) It's not because she tries hard -- she doesn't have to work to beat the other horses. She pretty much cruises along in front. She's got a reach, when she runs, and it eats up the ground before her like sixty. The way Taku runs is not delicate and floaty, like Elklin. It's not powerful-looking like Thyme or an eye-grabbingly graceful dance like Whisper. There's nothing to her running but covering ground, as quickly and efficiently as possible. It's efficient, spare and workmanlike... but not pretty. There is no pretty on Taku.

Taku is six or seven this year, and she's still not broke to ride. It's time to drag her out of the field and see what we can make of her. I'll let you know how that project goes. There will probably be pictures, so that all ya'll can see what I mean by "ugly". Taku and Nick are half-sisters who live in the same field and are fed the same, so there's some ground for comparing the two. I'll pack the digital camera tomorrow and get you some shots of both of them. It'll be fun. Really.

Comments

[ornery-chick.livejournal.com]

I hope it goes well with breaking Taku to ride. She sounds intriguing, just because it sounds like she's got a pretty big spark of that "underdog who can" spirit.

I'll agree with you that your Nick is a pretty pony. I'm no judge of horses, but she does have a glow of pulchritude about her. Now I am very curious to see Taku in juxtaposition with Nick. What's Taku's ridiculous official name?

My mom bestowed a ridiculous name upon her dog. Her dog's just a little mutt, but she looks just like a purebred Shih-Tzu, so my mom registered her dog at the vet's office as a Mutt-Tzu with the name Natasha Ursula Peepot Barkowitz Davis III. Her name that she goes by is "Tasha," however.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

Taku's ridiculous name is actually Taku, however it's spelled. She's a registered Arabian (Really. Still ugly as sin. She's got two attractive parents. I don't get it, myself.) and her full name is Four Oaks Taku. Over the years, we sort of slid into calling her "Ugly" because nobody could remember her damn name -- there are more than a few horses under discussion, here, and some names do not stick in your mind. Everybody knew who "Ugly" was. Aside from my guys, mostly the horses are called something that matches their real names.