Equine Difficulties.

I hate leaving a horse by itself. It's just not good for them, mentally. They don't thrive and they get into trouble.

That's why, back at the beginning of the last semester, I moved my older mare Legs.

Well, Farmmom did the actual moving, seeing as how I had three horses to settle in at the college. And, Farmmom had a few difficulties, including not being able to get her backed out of the trailer, or turned around. She had to take this extra large mare out through the emergency door in the front of the trailer.

Today, we got her moved back, and I blithely assured Farmmom that we'd be able to get her out of the trailer just fine.

Well, we did when we brought her home from the sale...

'Course, she's put on quite a bit of weight since we brought her home...

I could not get that mare to back out of the trailer. She'd back, one step at a time with me cajoling, pushing, cussing, and sweating, all the way to the back of the trailer... and stop.

Then she'd take that one last step back, her foot would hit the ground, and she'd hit the front of the trailer like a rocket.

And she's too fat to bend enough to turn all the way around in the four horse anymore.

I tried bribes, I tried getting in front of her and waving my arms, I tried blindfolding her... nothing worked.

I opened that escape door, and walked out, and she unloaded nice and easy.

I swear that horse will follow your lead straight into Hell, as long as you don't try to get her to back up to it.

Of course, it helped that she's been on pasture for a long time, and the last two months she's had free access to the high-protein ground grain that we feed the cattle. All the grain she can eat.

Plus, the hussy is in heat. To say that she was on the muscle today would be the understatement of the century. She looked like a high strung race horse on the end of my arm, and I was wishing for a chain shank lead rope by the time we were done with the walking we needed to do.

We'll see if she continues to be this much of a handful during her estrus, or if it's due to the combination of the grain and the hormones. If it's the latter, being off the grain will help. If the former, and I'm not sure because I haven't had to handle her much during her time of the month, then I'll put her on Regiment when I take her to the college.

I don't want to deal with her being flighty and on the muscle, and I don't want to deal with the consequences if she flirts with one of the unruly little two year old stud colts hard enough to get him to come to her through/around/over fences and then kicks the valuable little sucker with those dinner plates she uses for feet.

But, she's back with the others, and she's happy to be there. When I turned her loose they met at the gate to the corrals and then took off at a high lope bucking and kicking across the pasture, with Miss Legs in the lead.

All I can say is, after wrestling with her today, I'm really glad that she's fairly laid back about doing what we want her to do... cause frankly if she was just the slightest bit rank, she'd walk all over anyone in her way.