A New Name

Tylo and I were now partners, whether we wanted it or not. I was thoroughly enjoying having a one girl horse, I was the only one who rode her, brushed her, now that I look back it was obvious that Gretchen had planned on me owning her from the beginning. For some reason however, it never struck me that my relationship with Tylo was anything more than care taker and rider, not even once did I realize that I was acting as a foster owner. The horse was not mine, but at the same time she was. I at least was oblivious to the situation.
   When Gretchen and Risa approached me about giving a new name to Tylo who we had been calling "Mama," or "The Mare," for two months, it did not dawn on me that naming a horse was something only owners do. I just gave them a huge ear to ear grin and set to work.
   Renaming Tylo was a challenge, there were no restrictions. Mateo's name needed to be short with Spanish heritage to honor his Andalusian father. Tylo had no heritage in her breeding, she was grade, a mix of Shire, Thoroughbred, and Saddlebred in varying degrees. I asked Gretchen what "The Mare" had been called in the past.  Gretchen rattled off a short list of names, "Lady, Lady Godiva, and Tylo."
  Renaming her Lady Godiva was a possibility, the name as a whole was a rich creamy chocolate mouthful, but it was to extravagant . I thought about shortening it to Godiva, or Lady, but Tylo did not act like a Queen or a Lady. She was lazy at best with moments of unbreakable stubbornness.
  Her age was something to consider as well, Tylo was 8 years old and a completely new unfamiliar name would be hard to comprehend. I wanted "The Mare" to learn her new name as quickly as possible, if I gave her a  name that sounded nothing like her old one, it would take time, a long time before she understood that it was hers.
  Keeping Tylo as Tylo was not an option. The name was not "pretty" on my tongue. It sounded like a cacophony a horrible combination of Tie as in a knot and low as in as close to the ground as possible.
  To solve the problem, I took the consonants  and the Y out of her name. I had a T, a Y that acted as and I, and a L.
This was my thought process:
  Tilly? No that name was almost as bad as Tylo and I had a friend with a pet Cocktail named Tilly.
T,Y=I,L, TIL, LIT. . .lite. . .light. . .Twinkle twinkle little star. . .Starlight? No The Mare is not white, she is a black bay. Twinkle twinkle little star. . .Twinkle. . .Tw. . .Two. . .Twi. . .light. Twilight! It fit like a glove, the mare acted like she was in her Twilight years of life,  and she had a dark coat with flecks of white speckled across her back and haunches, just like stars in the sky at night.
Naming accomplished, I renamed the nameless mare Twilight. And then the vampire crazy hit. . .Oops.
  Names, are powerful things, they bring people closer together. Parents spend time thinking, listing, pondering over names for their babies, and when the name is given it becomes a bond. It is a connection between two creatures. Naming another being, a horse on my own soaked me will love and pride, and drowned me in affection for Twilight.