bad!mare

One of my favorite peeves is the hero always riding a stallion but I found the most delightful character of Lass in Patricia Brigg's The Hob's Bargain.

Lass is a mare, slender and elegant but stronger than she looks and mean as a snake. She bites, she kicks and is generally most unpleasant to be around. But it's her job to take care of her man. And she's really good at it. She's so wonderfully marish, I can't read her without giggling. Now - of all things, I know horses can't be allowed to have bad manners, but some mares have a natural tendency to be 'in charge' of "life, the universe and everything" and those are the ones you want on your side or at your back when the going gets tough.

We have an ongoing situation here with young

TELPE. She's big for her age and typically awkward and energetic. She has an injured leg from being kicked and we're working her back into the herd after a period of confinement. WITNESS isn't going to put up with any of her silly-half-grown-baby carp.





What WITNESS has done is to herd TELPE to the corner and hold her there. Look this 'snarly' face. See how tight her muzzle is, how she has her nostrils pulled back and flared? And TELPE's listening. Look at that ear pointed straight out sideways on WITNESS.

But the more interesting interaction happened after WITNESS decided that TELPE had properly submitted and would be allowed to play nice with the other girls.

Little MIREE, most definitely her mother's daughter, took the opportunity to practice being in charge.



First she put TELPE in the corner...

You can see she's working on her snarly face, it's pretty good, but not perfect and TELPE is questioning her to some extent.










TELPE didn't stay in the corner so MIREE had to 'get tough'.


What she's done in this photo is get in front of TELPE and start backing up. If you've ever tried to back up a short wheel base trailer, you know what a hard task she's set herself -- but she's getting it done. Can you see the combined look of concentration and irritation on her face, and TELPE's surprise?


Here you can see she got her in the corner, but that durn leg is sticking out. TELPE's not standing square and quiet...
...now she is. Much better -

Oops. TELPE got tired of being good and decided to walk off.
MIREE is nipping her to try to put her back in the corner. Look at MIREE's legs, you can see how she's stopped and turned TELPE and is swinging around to get in front of her.

WITNESS finally got fed up and put them all in the corner. The arrangement in the photo looks casual, but it's not. WITNESS has them boxed in the stall and is guarding the gate.

Good!mare.