Bite Me Once, Shame On You

Bite me twice, shame on me.


I don't know how many of you remember my post from May of 2009 about Trixie the colt filly but you can go to it here and see photos of her. What I did not know at the time is that Trixie would bond with me in a way that was a threat to my safety. By the time she was about six months old she started treating me like another colt filly and would prance up to me the second she saw me to get face rubs. At first this was fine but then she would trot along side me and push against me hard enough to make me stumble. She would also press against my face with the side of her head. One day she did this so many times I told my husband to distract her so I could slip behind a tree as he led her away from me. This only upset her and she trotted around looking for me not letting my husband get near here. I finally stepped out from behind the tree and when she saw me she rushed up to me so quickly that for a second I thought she was going to knock me down. That is when I knew I had to leave so I started walking down the trail back to the truck. Trixie stayed by my side, bumping into every once in awhile, so I decided to take a short cut that got me away from her faster. This shortcut led to her stable. She followed me the whole way and when I got to the fence she decided it would be fun to set the bottom of her jaw on top of my head and press down. I ducked away and quickly climbed over the fence. I felt afraid ,angry, and sad. I was frightened because I knew she could have accidentally hurt me with her playful behavior, I was angry because she had frightened me, and I was sad because I knew I would not be able to walk the river until she had outgrown her behavior.

Flash forward to the beginning of November of 2010. It had been such a long time since we had been down to the river by then we decided to give it a another try. When we got there I was surprised to see how much Trixie and grown and then delighted to see she now had her own baby. We started walking and Trixie looked up at us and then ignored us as we passed by. I was relieved. Each time we went down on the river from that day until yesterday she ignored us. I don't know why yesterday was different but when she heard me calling the dogs she looked over at us from where she was grazing and, when she saw me, she quickly trotted over with her young colt  filly right behind her. I loudly told her to go away and she paused. I started walking and she started following me. I again told her to go away but she kept coming and then stopped right in front of me. I rubbed her nose and turned to walk away. At the same moment my husband yelled at me to look out I felt Trixie's teeth on my upper left arm and I cried out in pain and shock. The winter clothes and parka I was wearing kept her from really getting a hold of me so her bite did not break the skin or even bruise me. My husband grabbed Trixie's hackamore and pulled her away from me. I asked him to hold on to her as I again took the shortcut across the field and over the fence. When I got to the dirt road I shouted to my husband and he let Trixie go. In less than 15 seconds she came running up to the fence that I now stood on the other side of and stared at me as if expecting something exciting or good to happen. I stared sadly back at her because I knew she wasn't going to outgrown her behavior and that she would always think of me as another colt filly. It was never going to be safe for me to be down there with her and I sure wasn't going let her bite me twice. The little dope.