The Mare is silly

[quietann]

So I did get to ride Minnie today.


She's *much* happier now that she has her #1 guy Trumpie living with her again. Of course this caused a little bit of silliness when we took them into their stalls to tack up; because of Minnie's heavy feeding schedule, they have separate paddocks outside their stalls so Trump can't steal her food, and Minnie at least considered pitching a fit when goddessfarmer led Trump away to get him into his paddock and stall. So, she still has separation anxiety.

Getting on her was... tricky. goddessfarmer had to lead her up to the "mounting block" (a picnic table) a couple of times, and Minnie was being very bad... would not stand still, fussed, carried on, and it just continued once I was on her, at least until goddessfarmer brought Trumpie out of the stable and got on him. I have to say that I am *much* better at dealing with silly mare behavior than I was when I first rode Minnie almost a year ago.

We had a nice hack through the woods, all walking except when Minnie trotted to catch up to Trump, and accompanied by Pedro, the Very Large Black Dog. Minnie was fine although she got tired towards the end and was stumbling a bit. I think she gets so focused on staying with Trump that she pays no attention to where she is putting her feet. Trump is a *saint* for allowing Minnie to follow him with her nose up his butt. He doesn't pin his ears or kick or anything; she's just there, and that's OK with him.

Minnie sweated up a bit, though it was probably more nerves than anything else. And I was, yes, a little sore from riding in "terrain" as opposed to a nice flat arena. Lunch afterwards with goddessfarmer was very fun. I left her to her huge "to do" list by 2 p.m., and came home.

Comments

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a pleasant afternoon despite marish silliness. :-)

[gingicat]

B and I both went "Awwwwww! Poor Minnie! How cute!" at the separation anxiety.

I'm glad both you and Minnie are feeling better. May the trend continue!

[quietann.livejournal.com]

The separation anxiety is actually a pain to deal with, as a 900 pound anxious horse is... well, a 900 pound potentially explosive device. And Minnie has it as bad as I've ever seen. The poor thing will go nuts every week when J takes Trump away so Alice can have her lesson up at Kinney Hill; luckily, Trump is pretty mellow about being taken away from her.

But... it doesn't matter *what* horse she is with, as long as she's with *some* horse. (Pigs, cows, and goats are adequate substitutes if no horses are available.) We were a little worried about how she'd deal with the show in August, but there were at least 100 other horses around, and Stjarni right there in the trailer with her, so she was fine.

She's just silly.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay. Glad she's (and you're) feeling up to the ride. :)

[quietann.livejournal.com]

It helped that today was so gorgeous. I think this level of very light hacking out is good for Minnie. She needs the Bute to be comfortable, but she's much happier with this little job to do.

[coalboy.livejournal.com]

Glad -you're- up & around again, though Minnie's ridability is a plus too.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

thanks :) I've gotten infinitely better in the past week; the hip doesn't bother me unless I do a few very specific stressful things. Of course, part of my problem is that I was "up and around" way too much in the few weeks after I was injured, and just made it worse.

Minnie brings me a lot of joy, even when she's silly.