Pampered Princess!

Just a post, about what a pampered little madam Kika is becoming!
The weekend before last Kika got a new neighbour in the stablen next to hers, another chestnut mare - I know what you're thinking "recipe for disaster" aaaannndddd you'd be right!
To say that Kika didn't get on with her would be a bit of an understatetment! The partition between the two of them got such a hammering, and embarassingly for me it appears to have been all one sided. The new neighbours partition did not have scuff marks where hooves had made contact! *embarrased*

On top of this the weekend before this "move", the two brothers who run the yard had *seperately* said to me that she kicks up a massive fuss at feeding time! Pawing her door till the feed gets to her, which is mighty annoying considering feeding could start at the opposite end of the barn (50 odd horses away from her!), but Miss (it would appear) has amazing hearing when it comes to the sound of feed! Yet if i walk into the barn and say hello to her, i might as well be talking to the wall... Go figure! *eye roll*

Anyways so chalk all this fuss down and imagine my discomfort at asking the owners if it might be possible to move Kika to another stable as:
1. I was changing her from straw to sawdust (straw was getting too wet as she was spending so much time indoors and the soles of her feet were being affected) and
2. I was worried as to how much more the partition between herself and the new neighbour could take.
I spoke to one of the brothers on friday to which he informed me that they had been planning on moving her ina ny case as the stable she had been in since arriving was not infact going to be her stable for the winter months! He couldn't tell me where exactly to which stable she would be moving to, but did give me the barn aisle she would be on so i could narrow down my search for her on monday.

So up I went on monday evening after work, looking forward in a childish way to my game of hide and seek ponio. Imagne my suprise to see her rugged self staring back at me as soon as i walked through the door. Not on the aisle i had been told she would be on, but simply 2 stalls down from the one she had been in and now the first stable in the row (right beside the hay supply - so that'll be one fuss sorted as she will be first fed with the hay each time so no door hamemring on that count), another bonus of this stable is that she now only has one neighbour and the partition separating them has some sort of rubber matting (similar to what's inside horseboxes) to stop her damaging the wood and/or herself is she ever does kick up a  fuss again. The other good thing is that her sole neighbour is a tiny little miniature mare, again chestunt, but I don't think that will be a problem this time, as for as long as I've owned her Kika has been incredibly broody and loves animals that are smaller than her! I think it stems from where she was before I bought her from her breeder, where she had obviously lived her whole life, and once she was weaned from the mare she was in a field with other young horses. So after her first year of life she was joined in the field by the next year's foal(s) and so on until i bought her at three. In the three years I have had her, she has always had a healthy obsession with small ponies/foals and adopted a protective stance over any youngsters that used to join the "big" herd when she was in Ireland!
And to see her reaction every time I return her to her stable makes me think that we shouldn't run into any problems with this neighbour. Whereas before when I used to return her to her stall, she'd try to turn straight to check for feed and/or eat her hay (this was a habit that was not allowed to form and she got over it pretty quickly but often looked longingly in their direction when returned to the stable). Now when she gets back to her 'new' stable, when released from teh headcollar, she goes straight to teh bars taht divide her from the neighbour and checks that the little mare is still there!

I also got an explanation (re:the change in stable) on Monday evening as one of the yard owner brothers was there ar the same time as I was. Turns out she had been moved to the aisle I had been told she would be on as those stables are ever so slightly bigger than the one she is in now (by like 5-10cms), but she kicked up such a fuss in there. Hammerig and pawing at the stable panneling that they couldn't leave her there for fear she would do herself or the stable damage! (Cue a very red face from me!) So she was moved back to her "orginal" aisle.

So here I am rather embarrased by how misbehaved my horse is being when stabled. But when I explained to the YO (yard owner) that she has to get used to being stabled and has to learn to be patient, he asked why? Turns out either i forgot to tell them, or they forgot that i had told them that this will be/is Kika's first time being stabled for any length of time. She used to live outdoor sin Ireland, taht combined with her age, has them looking upon her slightly more leniantly now! So hopefully she'll buck up soon and stop acting like such a pampered princess! ;)

PS: sorry if my spelling is atorcious, I don't have time o re-read as I'm running out to lunch before my first german class in 8 years! Scary, and yep - you guessed it, I'm freaking out a little! (*ahem* read: A LOT!)