Sunday, 2-1-09

Rachel comes out with me after Mass. I clean stalls and then play with Calico some. We need to  spend time getting reacquainted and building trust. Another boarder is there with her girls. They have an older thoroughbred gelding, Duke. They let Philip sit on his back. He's a sweet old gentlemen, a baby-sitter. We introduce our horses to each other in the arena. While we're sitting there visiting for about 15 -20 minutes our horses are hanging out together. All of a sudden, the old  gent starts chasing my mare around the arena. She's running at a full gallop and he's biting her and ripping hair out of her tail and back. She tries to kick him a few times, but realizes she has to keep running. We tried over and over to break them up. His owner was shocked and upset, 'he's never done anything like this before'. Apparently he was defending his herd from this outsider. It did seem like he wanted to kill her. We finally got him into a corner long enough to get Cali back to her stall. I'm sure that's hardest she's ever worked in her life. I walked her out for a while after we got Duke put away. She needed to cool down. Debbie felt so bad, but I assured her that I wasn't upset. Horses have a pecking order. My horse was okay, just tired and humbled.