Monday, September 2, 2013

Mares

Make no mistake. I adore my L. But sometimes I have to wonder what ever possessed me to bring home a mare.

She's in heat.
Don't touch me. I mean it.

I could plainly see was in heat. Which can go any one of who knows how many ways. She might be bitchy, she might be off on another planet somewhere.

Here she was spooking at the *floor*.

I lost 9 pounds one summer weekend 6 years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was showing L. Big show. It was hot. Like...100 degrees hot. And L was in heat. We were in the ring Friday night and she was all kinds of antsy. She let out a scream and I heard a stallion in the barn answer her. I'm thinking "oh crap". She starts spinning and bucking and kicking the wall and I was sure we were going to get kicked out of the ring.

Much to my complete amazement we took 3rd place in that class. I got her back into the barn and tucked her in. I peeled my shirt off and it made a loud "thwack" when it hit the floor. I sat on a milk crate mumbling something about never ever doing this again.
The next morning, gassing up the truck at 5:00 am someone even called over to me and said "whoa, you sure got a workout last night didn't you!". Yes I did. I lost 9 pounds that weekend.
Geldings *never* do that. I've had two geldings and in all the years we were together I don't think either one of them ever so much as gave me a dirty look.

Oh. Her hormones settled and later that weekend we got ourselves some blue ribbons to bring home.

Mares have a *lot* of personality. I think I can pretty much count on L giving me her "you've got a lot of nerve!" look almost daily.

And mares tend to be ..oh...busy. Sleep in the barn sometime. They make a *lot* of noise. Doing things like ...this:


Here. This better depicts the product of their shenanigans:


L's little sister in the adjacent stall was thumping the wall and somehow got that board to pop. So all the other boards over it slipped down the wall. Just on that one end. I'd really love to know what they're thinking sometimes.
It was a real stinker fixing that, btw. This is what it's supposed to look like.


And I just love this little piece of handiwork:

No that's not a big cartoon mouse hole

You know what that's for? It's obvious! It's there so L and her little sister can peek at each other. And scream and kick the walls. I don't know which one of them made the hole.

Mares make things so much more ...interesting. Seriously though - they're not for everybody and you have to think about that if you're going to have a mare in your life.



Look what popped up the manure pile!


The bees were all over it. Bees love sunflowers. It was a cheerful thing to have around while it lasted.

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