the many faces of shyloh

Shyloh has the most expressive face in a horse I've ever seen. . .in my opinion. She has many different faces that she shows to convey how she is feeling.

• There is the whoa, you just scared the living sh!t out of me! face. This face usually appears when she is absorbed in eating her hay and someone walks up to her and startles her. Shy will jerk her head up real quick and show the whites of her eyes before she realizes that it is safe and goes back to eating. Often this is repeated a few times per feeding.

• There is the famous I just ate something new! face. Whenever Shy eats a new food, she lifts her lips and they quiver open and she shows her pearly whites while swinging her head in the air. It is quite hilarious.

• There is the ahhh, I love what you are doing to me right now face. This face involves Shy dropping her head and hanging her lower lip. Sometimes, her eyes close. She will do this when I brush her tail, scratch where her forelock meets her head, or (as I discovered today) when I do some "routine maintenance" on her lady parts.

• There is the I am checking you out and investigating you before I proceed face. This is the face Shy gives when she is approaching a person or thing. She will walk towards you and swing her head one way and look out of you with one eye. Then she will swing her head the other way and stare you down with the other eye. If you have passed both eye inspections, Shy will proceed to you. For a while, I though she might have eye problems or be able to see better out of one eye than the other, but no, she looks out of both sides equally.

• There is the sweet bliss of wind in her face/eating delicious grass face. Shy will close her eyes and completely enjoy the moment. This face is often interrupted by the whoa, you just scared the living sh!t out of me face, as Shy seems to get lost in her thoughts.

• There is her beggar eyes face. Shy will look at you, with her head slightly tilted, then raise her hoof and "wave." She really uses the wave as a way to ask for treats. But her face is so sweet and innocent looking when she does this begging.

• There is the hmmm. . .what IS that? face. This is the face that has curious, big eyes, large nostrils, and is usually accompanied by the "thinking" noise. Anything new is subject to this face.

• There is the I am sooo bored with all of this face. Shy will stand there and yawn and yawn and yawn (because I didn't get the message after the first yawn). She does this in the cross ties frequently because she does not like to just stand there.

• There is the look at me, I'm trotting! face. It's the cute face Shy has when she is trotting around the arena, and she passes me, forelock and mane just a-waving, looking as proud as can be. She will round the corner and keep her eyes on me so happy with herself, it melts my heart.

• And there is the b!tch please, I rarely pee in my stall so who do you think you are? face. Our barn has no twenty bathrooms stalls where us two leggers can relieve ourselves. I generally chose an empty stall, but one particular day there were no empty stalls. So, I went in Shy's stall. She looked at me with THAT face, then turned her butt to me. I was thinking, please don't kick me, how will I explain to anyone that I got kicked by a horse while peeing in the stall? But as soon as I finished, she turned around, so I like to think that she was giving me some privacy. 

Laser beam eyes!