How Andy Became Fofo Andy

In the spring of 2011, the owners of Bits & Bytes Farm, where I board, bought a Thoroughbred yearling by the name of Saint Lawrence. Because of his age, we nicknamed him “The Baby” — but believe me, he’s one BIG baby! He was already almost 16 hands when he arrived at the farm, but even though he was big in size he was still young and growing, so we needed to find him a pasture mate who would not be too dominant or aggressive. After trying several pairings, Andy got his chance to play babysitter, and the two horses just clicked perfectly. Andy was like a doting uncle to The Baby, and so we started calling him “Uncle Andy.”

I happened to be reading a book at the time, “Say You’re One of Them” by Uwem Akpam. One story in the book, “Fattening for Gabon” had a character in it named Fofo Kpee — “Uncle Kpee” — and for some reason the word “fofo” stuck in my head. I started calling Andy “Fofo” or “Fofo Andy” and it stuck. If you were to see him in the pasture with Saint Lawrence, you would immediately see how fitting the nickname is.

Unfortunately, Fofo Andy has taught his little nephew Saint Lawrence bad things, as well as good ones. For example, he taught him how to escape from his stall by leaning on the stall guard until it snaps. And he taught him how to race around in the paddock shaking his head and kicking his heels up in the air, just like his Fofo does — but, maybe The Baby already knew how to do that!