The Princess

There have been many times I have made a reference to the Princess, or the Mare.  Violet is most definitely both of these.  She is a good girl.  That does not make her a push-over or easy.  She is a very sensitive ride, and requires that you do things absolutely correctly or she will take it personally.  She has been known to give the me hoof and tell me to screw off, especially if I lean too heavily on that left rein.

But again, she is a good girl.  She has thrown herself under me when I got unbalanced during a jump line. For the longest time she would stop when I took my feet out of the stirrups, I'm guessing because she thought I might fall off.  The first couple of times I rode her bareback, she kind of lost her mind a bit for the first few minutes because I was wiggly.  She has not yet truly bucked under saddle.  This is not saying she doesn't buck.  She can crank out a buck that is worthy of the rodeo.  She just doesn't do it under saddle.

Example of said cheekiness.

When we first started cantering, my old trainer used to laugh because she would root down and hop and look like maybe she wanted to buck.  But by the third stride she would come out of it like "dang, it's just too much work".

She is now the high maintenance girl that has to be separated from all the boys, because she gets them all riled up.  She like super mare, and all girly.  Twice she has been put out next to the boys, and she has gotten two of them all besides themselves, so now she stays apart next to Pearl, unless she's on babysitting duty. She has been known to just randomly run and squeal around her paddock.  By the time she gets the others running, she has stopped and is eating like, "What?  I just wanted to come over to this spot of grass.  I didn't do anything."

At the same time, she is the ultimate babysitter.  She babysat Marcy's horse for a couple of years.  Now she babysits whenever a new horse comes to the barn and is learning the ways of Market Street.  She will go out for a few hours in the morning with them (after her breakfast, of course), where she teaches one very important lesson.  It goes something like this:

Violet:  So, you are new here, yes?

New horse:  Yes, it's so very exciting to be in a new place!

Violet:  Ok, so here is how this goes.  It is daytime.

NH:  Yes, much sun!  We should be running in it!

Violet:  No!  When there is sun on the sand, the sand gets warm.  When the sand gets warm, it is time for a nap.

NH:  Nap?  What is this nap of which you speak?

Violet:  Ok, I'm only going to show this to you once.  You just fold your legs under yourself and lay down in the sand.  Make sure to really rub your face in it.  Then roll over and get the other side.  Then just lay flat out for a while and enjoy the warm sand.

And, amazingly enough, it works.  She will take a nap with whoever it is, and then graze a little.  They don't run around, and both seem to enjoy it.

Example of the napping (with prior boyfriend, Basil)

She is definitely the princess of the barn.  I know she is much happier now than she was in St. Augustine. She lost a bit of her mojo when she got put out in a small herd situation.  I think her feelings were a little hurt because she wasn't the top mare.  And she got a little depressed and lost some confidence.  But now that she is back where the world is right and she is the princess she was always meant to be, her confidence is coming back.  Girl's got swagger now.