2/2/2025
Regards loved being a mama. She enjoyed her extra attention and was thrilled to show off her filly to anyone. That filly, however, was huge in the personality department. Very confident too. She would walk up to a human and attempt to introduce herself by nosing about their pockets or chewing on their clothing. She was so cute that it was hard to be angry with her. She learned that to not get in trouble, all she had to do was scoot around her mama and ‘ hide’.
One day I was grooming Regards. She was enjoying it immensely as her winter coat was beginning to come out. All of the horses were incredibly itchy, too. I was currying her tummy when her daughter slid her face underneath from the other side to see what I was doing. She was fascinated. All of a sudden, she scampered around to my side of her mama. I looked up and saw two little hind hooves flying towards me. She had decided that I wasn't supposed to be there and was letting me know by kicking at me. Ears back and a baby grunt with the effort.
Ok, that was the end of baby cuteness. Had I not known to keep an eye on babies, I would have been kicked. Those foals look adorable but a kick or a bite can be serious. It was time to respond to this as another horse might. She could learn how to speak ‘ human ‘ soon enough.
The next time she was a bit more confident...trotting up to me, shaking her head. I ignored her and let herself get into trouble. I wanted to be sure that she understood that it was because she had been a bad filly and she caused the discipline. I had to grin at her fierceness...she was so darned cute. As she got close enough to reach out to bite me, I stood up very fast and got “big”. Arms stretched out to my sides, my jacket also, and I roared at her in my most intimidating voice. “ Don't you ever try that again !!!” I clapped my hands as I yelled at her. Regards, who had grown used to the fact that humans were all pretty much crazy, turned her neck around and calmly continued eating her hay.
The filly whirled around like she had been hurt somehow, ran to the safe side of her mama, and peered from behind Regard's tail. It was really hard to be angry with her, but I had to let her feel my anger at her trying to hurt me. Those mile-long eyelashes were blinking at me in between Mom's tail hair. After I finished what I had been doing, I gave Regards a piece of carrot, ignoring the little stinker, and left.
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