Apparently, my little lady has some... ahem... gender issues. Yesterday, as Bettina was putting the cavesson on her, Dee began hardening the left side of her jaw and leaning into us. I had always just thought it was annoying, but apparently it's a bit more than that. For some reason, my mare is displaying teasing behavior normally seen in stallions. It's a bit strange, but there you have it. Now, instead of just pushing her away, she gets reprimanded for that sort of behavior. We don't need her getting any bright ideas and deciding to mount someone!
Other than that, she's been doing pretty well. We've been doing lots and lots of lunging and groundwork with Bettina, getting her to find her own balance, stay out of our space, and cease being a wild thing while working. It's going well. Unfortunately, I've not been faring so well. I'm dying to get on her, but have had one set back after another. 1st, I found out that the terrible back pain and leg pain I've been having will likely only be fixed by surgery. Next, I spent the past few days sidelined with a kidney stone. Thankfully, she's still been working on the lunge and has been getting some serious learning in. Her aggressiveness in hand has been greatly diminished due to dealing with it head-on in the ground work, and she's finally learned that her stall only belongs to her when a person is not present. When we go in, it's ours.
Another good thing about her groundwork? Her back is starting to come up! She's becoming rounder! A cute by-product of this? When I curry her belly, she takes the opportunity to stretch her back out. On the cross-ties, she doesn't get a great stretch in, so yesterday I groomed her in her stall. She walked her little front feet out so far that her knees were only an inch or two above the ground. It was very cute.
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