And the mare takes over...

I feel bad for Ernie sometimes. No wonder he didn't like Stella when I first brought her home. She's competition for attention. (He adores her now, but it took a little while and a few serious talks before he was decided to play nice.)

I got on Stella for the first time 3 days ago, and have been on her twice since then. She was PERFECTPERFECTPERFECT for the first mounting. I had a good friend of mine come hold her and be there, for assurance. Afterwards, when I had gotten off, he looked at me and said, "I haven't been this nervous in a while. I was wondering what I would do with the horse if you got thrown off." Gee, thanks for the concern! She was truly wonderful though; she was actually far more interested in him and what he smelled/tasted like than the fact that I was on her back. Stella, you're such a hussy sometimes (and I mean that in the most loving way possible!)

I think Ernie is going through a jealous stage. He doesn't normally weave when he's cross-tied unless I leave for too long or get distracted. But the past couple days he's started to do his little sway. Yelling at him usually stops it, but I'm curious to know why he started in the first place. This summer he's been very lethargic and lazy, not like him. I know he doesn't sleep enough, and I pretty much already know he's slightly narcoleptic, but over the past few months he's been more and more tired. I'm afraid to think that it really may be his age catching up with him; I'm so used to this fireball of an old horse; for God's sake, he's ancient! But I love how spirited he is, even if it is sometimes (OK, quite often) borderline insane.

More to come on Stella. I'm so excited that I've been on her and gotten that out of the way: we hit the 3 day hump today, and she was a little more uppity than I'd have liked, but she understand to move forward off the leg, although she wasn't too happy to halt today, but there was a mower outside and it was far more interesting to her than whatever I was doing...silly mare.