The Yellow Mare…

I have had a new horse in training for about two weeks now.

She is a mare. For horse people, that pretty much explains it in one word. The personality of horses are all so unique already, and when you add the difference in gender… Those personalities become even more evident. But I won’t go into gender characteristics because it covers so much! What I find so interesting about her is how animated she is. She is always asking questions! Non-horse people will roll their eyes at that statement because they are wondering, how does a horse ask a question? Every morning, I walk to the barn and let her and Minnow out the back to graze for about an hour before riding. I open the back door of the barn and they know the path to take to go through there. I let them go at liberty while I watch because I know they are looking forward to the fresh grass and will make a beeline for the open door to get to it. There are many objects to pass on the way. I have tools against the wall and buckets with different objects in them. Minnow walks right past everything headed to the grass he is such a food motivated guy. The mare however, each morning, puts her nose on each object and then looks at me asking “what is this”? And I tell her, it’s a trailer hitch, it’s a hammer, it’s a rake, and she moves to the next object. I must be satisfying her curiosity. Sometimes, like a parent, I get tired of answering all of the questions. And I cluck to her and ask her to just please go on. She begrudgingly does it but she looks back at me like, but I have so many more questions! In the pens , she is very playful and finds something to pick up in her mouth and walk around with. When she is tied, she likes to grab the end of the lead rope and swing it around her head. She is an interesting character.