I had the honor to own (or be owned by,) a very special horse for about twenty years. Today, I met his twin. My old horse passed away in his sleep almost four years ago, at the ripe old age of forty- quite old for a horse, considering most live to reach their mid-twenties to early thirties. Old Walter though, lived far longer than anyone expected. When I pulled up this morning on a routine barn call to a new client, the first horse I spotted was a little spotted filly. She is black and white, with spots in the same area that old Walter had. Seeing her brought back so many memories. It’s made this into quite a bitter-sweet day for me. I took a picture of the filly, and showed her to my husband, who is also a horseman. He knew old Walter, and loved him almost as much as I did, and the first words out of his mouth were to ask if the filly was for sale. I didn’t ask the owners if she was. It might just be too hard for me to handle having another horse around that resembled old Walter so strongly. There will always be a part of me that dreams and hopes for another spotted wonder to come along and join our family here. Our current horse is pretty remarkable in his own right, but too much horse for my sons. This filly, due to some very poor nutritional management, has had her growth stunted. She is the ideal size, and while she will grow a bit more, she won’t reach the size of our big horse. Perfect for our two little cowboys. Well, a girl can dream, can’t she?