Sunday 28 July 2019

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 ;)





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15 comments

  1. Mares... But Bridget's face at the end is priceless! lol!

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    1. She's so funny! She tolerates Sophie, but I think it's only because she wants to be a Good Pony. She's horrified by her behaviour half the time, and either looking at me like "HELP" or giving Sophie the evil eye.

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  2. LOL I love your evaluation of the reality of it.....we'll see what happens!

    When I ride out with Rudi and she's in heat, she absolutely will not take the lead. She stops to pee in Mag's face over and over again, and no amount of ponyclubbing will get her forward. Ani begs me, "Please go first" and we must. I was lucky enough to ride a mare who had "no" heats, what a joy.

    But isn't it strange that mares will go into heat at this time of year? What is up with that?

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    1. I'm so lucky that Bridget seems to only have one obvious heat a year, and even then she's all business when we go to work - you'd never know. Sophie, on the other hand...yuck.

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  3. It can be so frustrating with the young ones, but I promise you it is worth it!! She's growing up :)

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    1. She so much reminds me of a mini Audrey, and from reading your blog, I think her and Annie would get along just fine some days too :) I'm inspired by all you've done with Annie the wonder mare!

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  4. omgosh my friend's mare screams incessantly and it's beyond frustrating at times!

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    1. It's so annoying! I'm crossing fingers hard that a lot of outings and low stress events now will curb the anxiety and need to chat in the future. I've also been keeping her in her own paddock and the farm is more peaceful...I tried letting her have live in friends but she never really got used to the fact that it was OK to be alone and the noise was super annoying for everyone!

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  5. ha mares. Sophie is still cute even when she is a brat and Bridget is just zen :) Sophie looks really cute in saddle tack :)

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    1. Thank goodness for Bridget's sanity. She's so funny, she sometimes feels the need to shield me from Sophie's antics and comes over to share a zen moment instead...my annoyed body language must be so obvious.

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  6. Oh poor Sophie! All these hormones and no idea what to do with them.

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    1. High school for ponies! Fingers crossed she turns into a responsible adult...I have to say I'm disappointed in her very loose morals right now. I would have thought I'd raised her better than this ;)

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  7. Hahahahaha! My half-lease is a mare and while Moiya isn't loud or annoying, she IS a hussy and loves to get the boys all riled up. Her theme song is "Milkshake" by Kelis LOL!

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  8. Haha Cupid is my first gelding. I've had 4 mares before him, and none of them were very "marish" even though 2 were also used as broodmares. But when I got Cupid he was awfully herd-bound and used to scream for other horses all the time. Luckily he's mostly grown out of it but will do it from time to time.

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  9. ugh high pitched screaming makes my ears bleed lol

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