Last night, Pam and I stayed in a motel outside Bellingham. I had the window side bed. Pam said in the a.m. that the sound of the traffic bothered her. I remained oblivious to it. There are some advantages to being near-deaf.

And this morning, after eating our continental breakfast, we headed over to Kathy Lockerbie’s place, where I got to meet the fourth horse.

Kathy’s place – many, many Icelandic horses – at least a dozen. Her place flat, very well-tended. The horses were in rotational pastures. Like our place, she had a good number of gates, making it easy to move the animals around. She

also has a small indoor arena, where some training takes place.

Kathy – small in height, short white hair, a ready smile, a very welcoming disposition. I was, during the course of our visit, treated like royalty, which is something that I’m not at all used to.

It was a coincidence that she was the one who had the horse I wanted to check out. I first saw Tyra on the dream horse site. I never check out these sites any more. Never. But one evening I had a spare minute, so this is what I did. My attention was drawn to a red headed filly. I mentioned to Pam that I took note of her – she said that Kathy owned her and suggested that we go to Bellingham, where Kathy lives, and check her out. What were the odds of this?

I was soon introduced to Tyra. Like Raudi and Hrimmi, she is indeed a red head. The central difference is that Raudi has a flaxen mane and tail, Hrimmi has a red and white mane and a red, white, and black tail, and Tyra has a dark red mane and tail.

There was a decided resemblance in terms of personality. Tyra was, like Raudi and Hrimmi, intently curious, to the near point of being bold. Like Raudi and Hrimmi, she had good manners, and was respectful of my space. I suspect that Tyra has also had it impressed upon her that there are boundaries, and that she should not transgress them. Seems like the owners of chestnut mares need to do this.

Kathy’s caretaker got Tyra out of the pasture (she was there with a handful of other horses), put a halter on her, and took her into the arena/shed where she put her through her agility paces. With considerable aplomb, she walked over the teeter totter and went through the hanging tarp obstacle. I then walked her around – and she followed nicely. Tyra, I noted, has very good manners. When, finally, she was released in the pasture, she raced at a hard gallop back over to the other members of the herd. She in fact bolted in that direction, indicating to us all that all along, this was on her mind.

I also was afforded the opportunity to ride 6 year old Andi in the round pen, and 12 year old Gloma in the same. Both were really nice horses. Andi reminded me of Tinni – he was black, compact, not too tall, and personality wise just a little bit lacking in confidence.

I later rode Gloma in the day dressage clinic. What a sweetheart – she was very willing. I’d said that I wanted to ride her because I wanted more experience riding horses that were less forward. She had a hard time doing tight circles, but did just fine on the straightaways, and in fact did several nice leg yields.

All n all, a very good day. And so, I have now met horse number four – my nickname for her is Sister, because she will be one of three chestnut red heads in our herd.

Next: 102. 4/19/15: Talk is Cheap