She's freeeee!

We had an uneventful trailering last night. She loaded right up, hopped right off, no fuss. When we were waiting, she did have a HUGE meltdown while tied up. Seemed to happen when I walked out of her sight. Have NO clue what that was all about...I moved her to a different spot and she chilled out. Go figure. She stayed in a stall last night, and this morning I turned her out into her new home. She was definitely excited as soon as she saw the horses in the distance and the huge field. She stood there, somewhat impatient, but trying to be a good girl, while I opened the gate. Halter went off and she flagged her tail and trotted off. I realized this could get pretty interesting, considering I think she's in heat. It's hard to tell with her, because her heat cycles are never really apparent except in her conduct with other horses. Definitely wanted to stay to make sure nobody went through any fences. At first the horses didn't pay any notice, but soon realized it was a new horse, and came galloping over. They all galloped around for a minute, and Amber, as always, ate the dirt early on in the chase, but thankfully jumped up no worse for the wear. What is it with her and falling down, scaring the crap out of me? It didn't take long for the other horses to get over it, but one horse, Zeus, who was also at Avalon incidentally, would NOT leave her alone. He kept biting and chasing her for like, 5-10 minutes. She nailed him a couple of times and they eventually settled down and wandered off alone to graze. Amber got a pretty nasty bite on her neck and back. I went to get the wound ointment, but by the time I got back she was a good distance out and I didn't really feel inspired to chase her down, nor did I feel it appropriate to get any grain because I'm pretty sure I'd get trampled in a fight adding grain in a situation where there is a brand new horse in the group, freshly turned out. I'll be out tomorrow to fix my tack cubby up with some hooks, so I can clean them up a bit tomorrow. I was a little concerned, because she was doing some sliding stops and actually ran into the gate, although not full force, at once point. She kept running back to the gate, and she AND Zeus were quivering they had run so hard - which was mainly what worried me. That's her thing when she's afraid of a pasture bully - runs to the gate if she sees a human there, because she thinks they will remove her from the scary situation. But she needed to work it out on her own and find her place in the herd. She's going to be dead tired tonight after her gallop. Kind of annoyed that she's probably going to have two huge bald places for a while, but it's to be expected when introducing a horse to a new group. Especially in a huge field where there's an even bigger "herd mentality" going on. Probably needs a bath, but to what avail? She's just going to be a mudball soon as she goes back out. I really hope she kicks Zeus' butt a few times though, when there isn't a human to run to. She gets way too stressed out and dependent on me when she's in a situation with a pasture bully. Funny, because Zeus was lower on the totem pole at Andrea's. Remember this post? That was Zeus who she was charging at, because I later found out Victoria was leading Zeus in the barn. I'm sure everyone will chill though. She's been kind of strung out as of late. Obviously from lack of exercise and turnout. Monday she's getting lunged, and that's that. Her girth came. It is the cheapest thing I've ever seen, and it's NOT the color that was in the picture...but I'm far too lazy to return it. Isn't that terrible?