Oh, she has the goats trained - I wish they respected me half as much as they do her (of course, I don't bite them; maybe that's the secret?).
But now, I find my own respect for that little animal growing. Being restricted to only the highest ground near the barns is wearing on the horses' nerves; they are getting bored and a bit cranky. I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but I looked out my window to see that a section of the fence between the two paddocks had been flattened, and my "bigs" were where my minis should be. This is a nightmare scenario for me; Latte at 15 hands and about 1000 lbs. is very much a "boss mare," and I have seen her squabbling with Syd over the fence on many occasions. Having seen what Latte has done to her buddy Sunny many times, I had no doubt that she would make short work of Syd's 400 lbs of brattitude. Fearing the worst, I hurried out there.
Latte was prancing and bucking around near the minis' barn; clearly, she was feeling very pleased with herself. Unfortunately for her, the soil around the mini barn hasn't been exposed to the compacting effect of big horse feet, and the rain had softened it quite a bit. A mini could get away with that kind of shenanigans, but Latte kept feeling the ground give way under her weight, and that spooked her quite a bit. As I surveyed the damaged fence, I said something out loud (don't remember what). Apparently, the minis hadn't heard me coming; they came flying out of the "bigs'" barn looking for all the world like kids caught doing something they knew they shouldn't. I was very relieved to see that all were uninjured, and wasted no time repairing the fence. Thankfully, most of the time the minis were on one side of the fence, the big girls on the other, so I could concentrate on what I was doing. At one point though, Latte and Sunny went back to their side, and I had to keep an eye on them. At one point, I saw Latte pinning her ears, but it was Betsy, not Syd, that she approached. I don't think she actually made contact, but Betsy squealed and let fly with both hind feet, and
Latte backed off! I know they say it's "the size of the fight in the dog," but wow!