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Lady is one of "the girls" and also Rina and Taya's mom
Meet Lady...
Our resident Equine Aristocrat, and "Hoity-Toity Horse", she is a purebred Arabian. Descended from Bask, she was a show horse in her younger days and traveled extensively before coming here. Rina was her first baby, and Taya was her second. Because she was stabled for much of her youth, she did not develop the social skills found in most horses. She does, however, throw some spectacular hissy fits.
She hates to be clean, and has a tendency to find the biggest pile of poop she can to roll in should you dare to give her a bath. While she doesn't mind a nice icky roll in the poop (or plain old dirt if there's no poop handy), she will not set foot in mud ~ go figure :o) I have seen her stand and stare longingly at the water trough after a rain; if she gets thirsty enough she will mince around the puddle and stretch waaaaaaaaay out to avoid getting her tootsies dirty.
What has she taught us?
Our resident Equine Aristocrat, and "Hoity-Toity Horse", she is a purebred Arabian. Descended from Bask, she was a show horse in her younger days and traveled extensively before coming here. Rina was her first baby, and Taya was her second. Because she was stabled for much of her youth, she did not develop the social skills found in most horses. She does, however, throw some spectacular hissy fits.
She hates to be clean, and has a tendency to find the biggest pile of poop she can to roll in should you dare to give her a bath. While she doesn't mind a nice icky roll in the poop (or plain old dirt if there's no poop handy), she will not set foot in mud ~ go figure :o) I have seen her stand and stare longingly at the water trough after a rain; if she gets thirsty enough she will mince around the puddle and stretch waaaaaaaaay out to avoid getting her tootsies dirty.
What has she taught us?
- That horses, just like people, need interaction to develop their social skills. Our attempt to introduce her to the Moo Crew (rest of the herd) in the pasture was an absolute disaster in spite of carefully following the steps ~ you can't just chuck them out there, you know :o) She still clacks her teeth at the other horses in the pasture (which is a baby thing), and squeals when running for play (another baby thing).
- That just because horses like shelter, it's important (where possible) to make it an option and not a rule. Shortly after we got her, we left Lady eating in her stall (door closed) and walked out into the pasture to take some video of the Moo Crew. The minute Lady finished eating and realized the stall door was shut, she began yelling her head off (I could see her from the pasture, and knew she was fine, but boy was she loud!) I walked back down to her stall and opened the gate (she was distraught, it seemed, that we might just leave her in there). She all but exploded out of the stall and pitched what could only be called a horsey hissyfit. She executed a series of bad tempered tigger bounces complete with equine expletives and then made several laps of the yard squealing in indignation (Um, note to self: work with Lady on Stallaphobia issue ~ because wow :o)
Favorite Lady Anecdote: Mother of the Year
Once upon a time (before cancer came along) we bred Lady to a gorgeous Paint with the sweetest and calmest temperament a person could ask for: My Dream Cochise. As this would likely be the only time we bred, (we'd already established I was probably keeping it :o) I was very careful in my choice of beau. Cochise is not a very tall horse, I believe Lady was taller, but he is huge in build and definitely drop dead gorgeous. My hope was to create the world's calmest endurance horse (casually speaking, that is). Of course there was also the possibility that we would get a seriously hyperactive tank - hmmmmmmmm.
As the time drew nearer, we began tucking Lady away in the stall next to the house every evening and letting her out bright and early the next day (we had worked our way well past the stabling upset by this time). Every morning I would go and find Lady crossing her legs and dancing around in front of the stall door waiting for me to let her out to potty ~ don't ask me why, but she refused to (ahem) tinkle in her room. When you factor in the fact that she carried Taya for almost an entire year, we had a pretty good routine going on.
One morning I walked outside to find Lady in the opposite corner of the stall watching for me. She had the strangest look on her face. When I asked her what was wrong, she kind of stuck her nose out at me and whinnied; that was about a nanosecond before her water broke. Oh, wow ~ you mean NOW?? So we all got to witness Taya's birth, which was an awesome thing to see (truly miraculous :o) We spent a little time taking care of the necessary details and of course playing a bit with our newest resident, and then quietly left mother and daughter to bond.
What really fascinated me (mostly because I didn't remember it from any book I'd read, or person I'd talked to) was Lady's maternal makeup. For the first two weeks of Taya's little life, Lady would not let her anywhere near the electric fence. If Taya began heading in that direction, Lady would simply walk between Taya and the fence, turning her gently away from it. Every afternoon, like clockwork, Lady would take Taya into the front yard for her daily exercise. Lady would trot and canter in a big circle for about 8 or 10 minutes without fail, and always with Taya safely on the inside of the circle ~ What a Mom!
Once upon a time (before cancer came along) we bred Lady to a gorgeous Paint with the sweetest and calmest temperament a person could ask for: My Dream Cochise. As this would likely be the only time we bred, (we'd already established I was probably keeping it :o) I was very careful in my choice of beau. Cochise is not a very tall horse, I believe Lady was taller, but he is huge in build and definitely drop dead gorgeous. My hope was to create the world's calmest endurance horse (casually speaking, that is). Of course there was also the possibility that we would get a seriously hyperactive tank - hmmmmmmmm.
As the time drew nearer, we began tucking Lady away in the stall next to the house every evening and letting her out bright and early the next day (we had worked our way well past the stabling upset by this time). Every morning I would go and find Lady crossing her legs and dancing around in front of the stall door waiting for me to let her out to potty ~ don't ask me why, but she refused to (ahem) tinkle in her room. When you factor in the fact that she carried Taya for almost an entire year, we had a pretty good routine going on.
One morning I walked outside to find Lady in the opposite corner of the stall watching for me. She had the strangest look on her face. When I asked her what was wrong, she kind of stuck her nose out at me and whinnied; that was about a nanosecond before her water broke. Oh, wow ~ you mean NOW?? So we all got to witness Taya's birth, which was an awesome thing to see (truly miraculous :o) We spent a little time taking care of the necessary details and of course playing a bit with our newest resident, and then quietly left mother and daughter to bond.
What really fascinated me (mostly because I didn't remember it from any book I'd read, or person I'd talked to) was Lady's maternal makeup. For the first two weeks of Taya's little life, Lady would not let her anywhere near the electric fence. If Taya began heading in that direction, Lady would simply walk between Taya and the fence, turning her gently away from it. Every afternoon, like clockwork, Lady would take Taya into the front yard for her daily exercise. Lady would trot and canter in a big circle for about 8 or 10 minutes without fail, and always with Taya safely on the inside of the circle ~ What a Mom!
Pictures: Are you coming or not? Hanging out in the yard, a mother daughter lunch with Rina, Lady with baby Rina, taking Taya for her afternoon exercise (see anecdote); pitching a horsey hissy fit I mentioned earlier; and the last photo is Lady after a nice roll in the dirt. I wonder if she thinks it's a beauty treatment of sorts....
