Just when you thought...

your horse was starting to warm up to you, something happens.
Last night I spent some time out in the pasture with the horses, reading, hanging out, brushing off shed hair, etc. It was early evening, nice out, I was starting to get blissed out. Standing in the grass, reading a book about writing.
Reina (my problem child horse) slowly creeped closer to me, nibbling on small shoots of grass, and ended up standing right next to me. I made the mistake of becoming excited about this, she is usually more standoffish. I turned to look at her and say hello. She didn't want to be acknowledged, pinned her ears back, and swirled her butt towards me.
Instinctively, I step back, not wanting to be kicked, and start to trip on a hole in the grass. This is where you wish you had a video. I did one of those things where you try to catch your balance, and it just gets worse. Finally, I landed in the grass and the book I was holding hit me in the eye. It hurt. I lay in the grass, holding my eye and wondering how this went so wrong.
Now, my eye physically hurts, inside I'm feeling hurt because my horse turned on me, and I'm still laying in the grass. Does the horse care? No, she's grazing, thinking she won that round.
I felt like crying, but that doesn't come easy for me. So, I got up, shook off and tried to go on from there. But, after years of spiritual training, I know it's not good to leave things buried. I needed to get this out. So, I sat back down in the grass until I could muster up a good cry and got it done with.
Now, what about the horse? I got back up, now back in my center, and took her territory from her, three times. Then I waited a bit and went back in a big circle to say hello to her. Imagine my surprise when she pivoted to face me all along the circle. Respect granted, I said hello and left for the stable.
Today, I have red bruises on my eye, but not a full black out, thank you.
The continuing saga of Reina, and I still love her.