some girls......

Nina is apparently having a PMS week. This is unusual for her, normally her seasons come and go with no notice other than some inappropriate flagging at a gelding or two. But this week has been hell week. Her ears have disappeared back under her mane. She is ouchy when being groomed (she had finally decided several months ago that grooming was actually a good thing), threatening when being tacked up. When I sat on her for a couple of trot strides a few days ago she told me to get off and generally she is just grouchy with people and flirty with the poor geldings around her.

Yesterday took the cake. I have a great farrier, he has been doing my horses for almost 15 years and patiently follows me around as we change barns. He is enormously patient with the horses and has been more patient with Nina than I would have been. She was a PITA for her first few shoeings but has slowly gotten better and better. Until yesterday.

Let me back up just a little. A BIG storm blew in here yesterday afternoon and is sticking around today, although not as violent as it was. All week leading up to it has been still, 95+ degrees and while most people had to check the weather forecast to know that it was coming, the horses have seemed to sense it. The entire barn was spooking and flighty all week, even in the heat.

So, yesterday Nina is getting new shoes as the storm approaches. She was OK for the fronts until it started raining just as he was finishing up and she backed away from him hard enough and suddenly enough to put him and all his tools on the ground. Nearly pulled me off my feet also.
Explained to her that this was unacceptable and finished her front feet. Then the hail started, just a little, but enough to make it unsafe to be crawling around under her, so we moved to the indoor arena. Just in time, the skies opened up and the rain came down so hard you could only see a few feet into it. This sort of deluge usually only lasts for a few minutes, but this went on and on, for over half an hour. The parking area and surrounding areas disappeared under running water and the noise inside the indoor was deafening. I found myself holding a frantic TB and just trying to keep her attention so she wouldn't run over me at every sound of thunder, which was even drowning out the roar of the rain and hail on the metal roof.

We waited this out and went back to shoeing. Nina had had enough and was a complete jerk, so the process took twice as long as it should have. At some point she turned, glared at the farrier and kicked him. Not hard enough to damage, just a nasty fast snap kick that barely connected. A great big F U from her to him.
I could have killed her. If she hadn't had him cornered I might have tried. What a nasty, bitchy thing to do. He just shrugged it off and even made some excuses for her. I don't know which was worse, having her behave so badly or hearing him excuse her bad behavior. *sigh*
Thank heaven for good, loyal relationships....we actually have an appointment for her next shoeing set.
On reflection, I have to admit that there are days that it might be nice to be 1200# and able to just lash out at someone who is annoying you.