The Dominant Horse.

So I went out and all the horses were still out...apparently Bob was just running late this morning. It was around 11. So not so bad. The QH mare out there finally got bred last night and then again this morning, which was why they had the barn clear.

I helped him bring everyone in. By that time it was too late for me to ride, which makes day 5 off for her, but I'm not worried about it. She hasn't lost condition that fast, and we will pick right back up.

I decided to just give her a bath. We need to work on her refusing to have her rump/tail washed.

I took the hose and shook it at her. I swiveled it all around her. No reaction. So at that point, I knew it wasn't the hose hanging up high that bothered her. She just didn't like the water for some reason. Sorry for her, it's not acceptable to get pissy at the human involved.

So I turned the water on and started to wet her down for her bath. She was pretty chill with her front half. So I gave her a treat and praised her. She was okay for the first few minutes of her hind end on the right side, and only a little agitated when I soaped her up. I rinsed her and switched sides. She was a bit worse on the left. As I started to get closer to her back end, she picked up the opposite leg and made a clear threat. I gave her a firm pop and told her no mam. She thought about that, and then tried again, and I gave her an even firmer pop and got louder. She then threatened with the leg CLOSEST to me. Oh hell no. I kicked her. Not abusively nasty or enough to REALLY hurt her, but enough so that she knew I was pissed. I reacted just like the leader in a herd would have if she had threatened them with a kick: I kicked first.

And she gave me the googly "Oh my god, I can't believe you did that!" eyes. And then we went back to washing. She thought about it a few more times, but she didn't DO anything. She let me wash her tail. Quietly.

Me - 1
Amber - 0

I'm really surprised at her about that. She's always had such polite ground manners I never would have imagined her to be a kicker in any situation - but just proves that horses are unpredictable and you never know. Expect the unexpected.

After she remembered that I'm her boss mare, I put her away to dry and cleaned up my tack cubby a little. It was super windy today so I left her stall window open and she dried uber fast.

I went and pulled her out again and brushed some loose hair off her, and brushed out her tail. I put some fly spray on her and trimmed up her leathers/legs. And applied some hoof conditioner. She's shedding her frogs. Also seeing some chips on the front, but her right hind has actually gotten BACK some of the white line. I know for a fact it was almost gone...so baffles me but good news. The fact that she drags one more than the other still bothers me, but the vet didn't see anything, so maybe it's just an issue of better direction.

Also, Katie is coming to visit Friday! I promise lots of pics. I haven't seen Katie in 2 years, so I'm super excited! Do you guys even remember her from the Gulliver days?