Jealousy

["Joan Dowis" <jrd@foothill.net>]

Jealousy can be horse-over-horse as well as horse-over-human.  My husband's
horse almost took me out a few weeks ago when I went in to check on my horse
in their very large shared pen.  Instead of just moving off when I shooed
him away, he swung around and tried to nail me.  I was up against a pipe
corral rail length of fence, with my horse in front of me toward the left,
and my husband's horse approaching from the right.  He missed me by maybe an
inch and banged against the rail hard with both hind legs.  If he had
connected, it would have been bad.  If given the opportunity, he will repeat
this activity as if on command, even if I'm standing outside the pen,
petting my horse.  I now carry a dressage crop with me whenever I enter the
pen, and I don't go in unless I have to.  I have gone after him with the
crop, but he is so quick he disappears before I can reach him.  Have a
longer whip on order.  We had to put up a pipe corral outside the gate to
get my horse out by himself so I could just take him out to ride.  . . .And
my husband's horse is a horse I rode last year and the year before on a few
endurance rides, and never had a problem with, nor had there ever been a
problem in the pen before.  The two have been penned together for close to
three years.  Go figure.

Joan Dowis