A Hot Mess

So yesterday I head out to the barn, confident that my reunion with Skye will now always be joyful with her cantering toward me, her mane flying, and epic movie music in the background.

Except. Not. If she loved me on Saturday, on Sunday she couldn't care less. I called to her, and she didn't even look up from her hay. I went to get her, and finally she did me the favor of pulling her head out of the hay so I could put the halter on her. Then on the way in, she stopped about three times. Not a full balk, but she was considering it.

Then she pretended she'd never been in cross ties, moving around like she had no idea where to stand. And she was pushy and rude. Ugh! I cleaned her feet and brushed her off, and she kept looking back at me with a disgruntled look on her face. At one point she looked like she was going to nip, so I stared her down. Obnoxious.

Then Mary came over to rinse off her Tennessee Walking horse, Tessie, remarking that Tessie was so heavily in season that it was running down her leg and needed to be hosed off. I wondered out loud if that was Skye's problem, since it was abundantly clear that she did have a problem!  (For the record, Skye did not appear to be in pain, and her limp only showed up in trotting, as her walk looked good.) So Mary helped me check, and bingo. She's in heat. Not that she is allowed to behave that way, but it did make me feel better that it is likely hormonal and not anger at her mommy in particular.

So then I decided to look back over this blog to see if I could pinpoint when she is usually in heat, so I could be ready for it. Well, apparently, her moods are all over the place all the time. So despite my desire for her to be a steady Eddie to the point of lying to myself about it, she is indeed a typical moody mare. I will say though that usually although I will say she is in a bad or funky mood, it just means she is not very receptive to my affection. My standards for her behavior are very high, and I will often gently correct her (by backing her up usually) for things others will let slide. Yesterday she was a hot mess though.

I have too much to do here today to go out, but tomorrow she needs her shot again. I hope she's a least a little better by then.