Horse Crazy

I have known girls in my life who were absolutely obsessed with horses. They tend to be a "type". Rugged country girls who live, breathe, and sleep horses ( I was going to say "eat", but that just seemed wrong). They almost always live on the outskirts of town, if not in the country and if they don't have their own horse, they have access to them.
My little girl seems to be following in that tradition. For as long as I can remember, she's been horse-crazy. She was born in town and until a year ago, lived in town, but she absolutely loves horses. When we moved to the country and our neighbor we share the property with had a horse, I thought Princess was going to lose her mind. Unfortunately, "Lady" the horse is old, cranky and set in her ways. She only gives you the time of day if you have an apple or carrot for her. Then, she grudgingly walks over, strettttches out her neck and takes it delicately with her teeth all the while maintaining enough distance so that you couldn't possibly pet her. She sticks around for a minute to see if you have more, then tosses her head and snorts, dismissing you, and trots off.
Princess was heartbroken at first at being given the brush- off by the object of her affections, but she continues to admire her from afar, staring out the window for long stretches and watching Lady graze in the pasture. Hopefully, one day, she'll have one of her own to love, but in the meantime, she's amassing an admirable collection of horse paraphernalia. She receives ponies and horses as gifts, horse books, pictures of horses. Whenever she gets any money, it gets spent on, you guessed it, horse stuff. Most recently, she used her Christmas money to buy a stuffed horse. She tied a string around its neck and it has become her constant companion. Although Princess's Daddy is of the same school of thought as my Papaw ( "horses don't provide a service and you can't eat them, so they have no place on a farm"). They do have some that are barely bigger than a dog, now- surely he couldn't deny something so cute and less than three feet tall? I'd bet it would still eat less than our cat! :)