The Marey-est of Them All

Mirror, mirror...who is the marey-est of them all?

It's not a secret that I'm no fan of screaming horses. So, maybe it shouldn't surprise you that I'm also not much of a fan of mare drama.

 Don't get me wrong, I like mares. I might even prefer them to geldings. But the hormonal, peeing everywhere, screeching, kicking, can't function because a gelding looked at them kind? I've always been grateful I don't own one of those.

And, once again the universe laughs at me, because Sophie is all that, plus the high pitched screaming. I've been trying to pretend its not real, or just a passing phase, but yeah, she's pretty darn emotional.

Today was a bit of a struggle for us both. I moved her to a field with more grass this morning. She realized she had a cute neighbour gelding half a second later, and was in raging heat half a second after that. Such joy.

Lovely.

I returned later in the afternoon to ride Bridget and take Sophie for an outing, and by then Sophie was in full on obsessive gelding stalker mode. Also, covered in pee, because that's cute.

Dramatic reenactment of creepy stalking, post outing (The sweaty saddle marks give it away)

She could.not stand tied out of his sight. She screamed incessantly. He returned the screaming. It took me about 30 minutes to groom and tack her up because we needed frequent groundwork breaks to get her focus back on me and her immediate surroundings.

Looking good, tho. Just need a brain install and she'll be pretty decent ;)

Off we ventured down the road. I opted to bring the longe line and just go to the arena - it seemed a good idea to give her a job and burn off some off the feelings.

She started out ok on the longe, then realized it felt like work and decided to try opting out. Then she had to work harder and got sweaty, and apparently being sweaty is very, very NOT OK when you are a princess and a cute guy is waiting for you at home.

I actually had to be a bit tough on her which honestly I find difficult to do. I tend to be on the too encouraging/easy side of the spectrum, and so there came a time with Bridget when she was quite willing to give me the tiniest effort and think that was more than adequate :) I'd like to avoid that with Sophie, so I'm trying to keep the expectations very consistent. ie her feelings or our surroundings on any given day don't get to be an excuse to compromise on effort or focus.

And so, we worked hard. There was rearing, there was kicking. There was bolting. There was basically every action she could think of to make it clear to me she had other, more important things on her mind. Too bad I'm the most important thing she needs to worry about ;) Long story short, I had to be tough and we got to a good place. Princess Mare was totally tuned in to me, new boyfriend forgotten.

The walk home was silent. It was quite peaceful and enjoyable, actually.

Untacking was also quiet, easy, peaceful. Princess Pony, Ruler of Mares, was gone as if she never existed.

The good thing is that she's quite young, so I can hope challenges like today's will be a good education for daily life in a busier barn or at shows where she'll have different trailer mates and neighbours. Crossing fingers hard the dramatics get less as she gains life experience and I do my best to be calm and consistent.

I ran out of time, so Bridget will have to wait for another day. I'm pretty sure she's OK with that :)

Bridget's face, watching Sophie be ridiculous. She's not a fan, it disturbs her grazing serenity ;)