Well, my little Havoc is adorable and home. He's scraped a bunch of hair off of his face, lord only knows how. He's happily ensconced in his paddock with his momma, and he goes out in the field with momma and Auntie Cass. He now gets just the tiniest bit of pellets because he can't share his Mom's food, and thinks he's hot stuff with his very own bucket of goodies. And he munches hay with Mom, looking very serious about the whole thing.

He's such a saucy thing. He does NOT think we need to be the boss of him and be telling him where to go! But he'll let you pick his feet and groom his whole body. He's been into the barn, with other horses in the cross ties and did very well. He now whinnies at his people when they appear. He's just as people oriented as his Mom is and loves to snuggle.. and nibble, but we're putting a stop to that!

I was pondering relationships with horses, read a blog from another poster. I love my horses very much and enjoy spending time with them. When I'm down with the little one and his Mom, it's all about making someone a solid citizen and making sure his Mom is doing well. My Mom's horse, my old jumper, gets ridden just a bit. She's very reserved, but has a real connection with Mom. Mostly because she lets her be her strange old self, which makes the mare happy, and she still does her job, which is to keep my Mom safe in the saddle.

My riding mare, my little Muffin, has always wanted to belong to a single person and be loved. I remember when i saw her as a 3 year old, the breeder said she was a 'ladies horse', always wanting to be babied. She never got that until I bought her as a 5 year old, now she's my little girl. I never took special time with her on the ground, not riding her, to establish that, because she needed to know she could trust me in the saddle too. We did have to work with her quite a bit about trailers, mind you! Now she knows Mom will be at the other end.

I have to trust her too, of course, and I do. I'm very lucky, she has some very very good qualities under saddle. She also has quite the buck and is NOT shy about expressing herself, but it's really never about dumping me, it's about HEY, that's NOT right. Unfortunately, she learned as a 4 year old that she could scare people. Fortunately, she's learned that she can't scare Mom, And so, we work together and she teaches me what I need to know and I keep her in the style to which she has become accustomed.

She's the reason I had weight loss surgery. Still working on getting where I need to be, but she's patient. And we have a great trainer to help both of us on that.

I feel bad for people without horses, or with horses that they don't or won't connect with. Today started horribly, a migraine which took two pills to get under control, then my lap-band got so tight that I couldn't get liquid down, so I had to have an emergency de-fill. So, I still had a headache (not migraine, thankfully), took some Tylenol and had a coffee, and headed to the barn. It was such a lovely ride and snuggle with my girl. Made the whole day okay. Can't imagine not having that in my life.

And this is why I can't breed my mare again... can you imagine me selling one of my precious children?!?!