Baby stealer

Actually, she's above baby stealing. She's baby SHARING. She's the mother flipping nurse mare. She and momma-horse are taking care of the little baby together. Q is the ONLY other horse allowed to touch, be near, and interact with the baby. They will sandwich the baby between them in the field and punish any other horse who dare near The Precious' space.

As a result, Q gets nearly as uppity as a true momma would when taken away from "her" baby. SIGH. That is not okay.

Q was a whole new kind of hot mess tonight when I got her out of the field. I just wanted to practice getting her on and off the trailer because she really freaked herself out when we were trying to go to Uwharrie.

She gets on and off my little trailer. NBD. Lots of room. D's trailer though? That's a whole new monster. Bigger step up. Slant load. Narrow entry. She HATES it. That, coupled with her bad memory, coupled with not being with "her" baby... Eeegads. She was a hot MESS.

She'd get on though. And she was okay being in the back slot (2-horse), but that front slot? NO sir. She would NOT get on. She'd get on, bump into the bar trying to go forward more than she could, and then back off quickly. And when she'd unload and back off from the second slot that she came to be "okay" with despite her nervous reactions, she'd ALWAYS back off waaayyy right - rubbing on the wall and everything. She ended up with two little superficial scrapes on her flank and one on her lip. Hot mess of oxytocin hormones. 

But the whole time she was quivering. And breathing hard. And wanted to back off as fast as possible as soon as she could. And has taken to pulling back and starting to rear up if I don't let her back up when she wants to. AGH. This must be remedied. This must be remedied soon.

And when I was trying to just walk around and lead her through the barnyard she was trotting circles around me. I'd tried lunging her, backing her, making her stand, but she just wanted to trot-trot-trot-trot. And so she trotted circles around me as I walked. It was slightly comical. She respected my space, but she just couldn't calm down enough to walk.

I was fortunately calm enough through all of this to be able to laugh at her a little. But eegads. NOT OKAY.

Here's hoping 30 miles will help calm her! (And that she gets loaded tomorrow morning without being a witch, hurting herself, or hurting Jen or I!)