Thanks, ya’ll. I really, really appreciate the support.
I like Mina, she’s sweet and funny but I don’t get the same feeling from her that I got with Tuffy. In my experience, mares aren’t as loving and affectionate as geldings.
I must admit, I do go through the horse ads on www.agdirect.com and in the advanced search section I always put in “at least 2 years old, 15.3 or taller, APHA paint, gelding.” One of these days something is gonna come up that is Tuffy the Second without the health issues. I can wait years to find him.
See, that's funny that you said that because I was just thinking the opposite. All my mares are just big ol' love bugs. They like nothing better than to stand there and let you love on them all day long. But you're right that the geldings seem to have a certain something. In Bob and Blade and Tennessee, it was a kind of curiosity and a mischievousness, a DennisTheMenace quality, that I find hard to resist. But then maybe I'm just addicted to trouble. ;o)