Nicole has spent the past 2 weeks (during which time no one could ride, because during the interim between snow storms, the temps were below 30*) playing in 3 or so feet of snow, breaking electric fences (that one was partially my fault), and doing that particular thing she does so well: acquiring boyfriends. Ah yes, she will not allow another mare near her, but she will let her male courtesans admire her Helen-esque presence with abandon.Her sorry addiction to this attention is self-evident: I separated her from her current favorite courtier for a grand total of 15 minutes to feed her (yes FEED her), and she responded by calling ceaselessly and throwing herself against her stall door. There was some piaffing involved, during which time I made sure to point out to my trainer that yes, indeed, piaffe is in the mare's vocabulary.
Nicole's introduction to her current herd has started a Trojan War of the equine kind. Much like Paris, Nicole has stolen the object of another mare's affection, stirring up an epic mayhem only a mare can commence. One sees factions occurring among this equid crowd; all's fair in love and war, and Nicole employed the "divide and conquer" approach, and divided the males right over to her encampment (the allure of romance helped). The delicate balance that existed in this herd was blown to Sirenum scopuli when Nicole channeled Aphrodite to beguile and charm all the masculine attention towards her queenly self.
Nicolbria would actually fit into ancient society quite well, where the mightiest is at the top of the food chain. It's an idea of the Humanism Age that all men are created equal. Nicole adopts the Ancients' theory of equality, which is to say that anyone who ain't Greek ain't fit to be around Greeks. The Ancient Egyptians had a similar outlook: if you aren't Egyptian, human rights aren't happening. In accordance with Bronze Age idealism, if you aren't Nicole, you better be a male and quite besotted, because otherwise, forget you have any right to be in her presence. And I mean, you had better be on the other side of the field unless you want a whole lotta siren whoop ass to be your punishment!
I'm actually surprised she's acting this cold to other mares; it's not really like her to be this independent. Nicole was a "follow the crowd" horse, and I'm interested to see if she integrates better into her new herd. Perhaps this is a sign that her mentality has evolved as a result of her extensive dressage education?
