One of the boys

Dee had to be moved into a new pasture last week.  Since she moved to Tennessee, she has been in a large pasture with two mares.  She's actually been out with two different sets of mares, and inevitably picks the weaker one and herds it around the pasture, uses it against people trying to catch her.  So that was the other problem -- she has been very hard to catch.  Even the barn help was having to bring her dinner down to the pasture to catch her.  It probably didn't help that the two mares didn't come in, so Dee felt like she didn't want to leave her little harem.  Well, then they switched over to night turn out and apparently something changed.  I went to the barn last week, not knowing they had switched, and she was already out.  Even a bucket of grain couldn't convince her to come in.  The BM offered to help me get her, because Dee only associates her with food, but I guess Dee wasn't going to be fooled.  BM almost got the rope around Dee's neck, at which point Dee spun around and tried to kick her while she ran off.  Witch.  (That's the one thing I've never really figured out about Dee.  When she is aggressive, like threatening to kick or whatever, no amount of reprimand serves to really drive the point home.  For as many times as she has been seriously reprimanded for awfulness, she never really stops being a jerk.  She seems to take it as a challenge.  She's better than she was when she was 3, but she's still kind of nasty at times.)  We finally got her by taking the other mares out of the pasture.

The next day, I get a text from BM telling me that one of the girls went out to get Dee that morning and Dee tried to kick her when she got the rope around her.  So, they decided to move her.  The following day, I got a text telling me that Dee was actually curled up sleeping in her stall, had been a perfect lady coming in that morning, and seemed a lot more relaxed.  When I got up to the barn yesterday, she was less wild and fidgety than usual on the cross-ties, and one of the barn workers told me how great she's been to handle.  Hmm.

I then found out that her new pasture mates are geldings.  I can only conclude that the gender change of her herdmates has something to do with her 180.  She does like geldings, and I'm wondering if, because there isn't a ton of estrogen around her, she is feeling less possessive.  It was getting really out of hand, and even the BM mentioned how studdish Dee had been (hmm... second person to tell me my mare acts like a stallion... maybe something to look into).

She was quite brilliant yesterday, and I'm hoping that will continue.

Nomming on grain after being an angel for our ride.