Mystery orange smear - blood?

Since the wind we have been unable to get BG back into the good habit of being caught in the field. She almost doesn’t seem sure that she is allowed to eat from her bowl in her field. So we have a dilemma; do we let her eat in her field so she learns it’s okay and not to be nervous, or do we bring her across to the shelter so she still has to have the head collar on before every meal? We are leaning towards the latter, although she has so far been as good as gold in her field every day. We’ll start feeding her in the penned off area again soon and then move back out to the field.

For now we are letting her across to the field shelter and she charges over (sometimes we even get a canter). Last night she ran across in the dark once the fence was opened up for her and had her head collar on as good as gold and then I picked out her hooves. She was being a bit funny about this; shifting around her stall so she wasn’t balanced right for picking them up, holding her hind legs under her rather than stretching them back and stomping and pawing with her front right leg. It was almost like she was desperate to get back out or not happy about something. Then I noticed an orange tinge on the white coat above her front right hoof, like blood smeared in the coat. I searched and searched to see if I could find where it came from but couldn’t find anything. I checked all her legs both for blood and heat, and her nose too. I couldn’t find anything. The only other theory could be that her nose still had the colour of some of the paddock lick on it and maybe she rubbed that on her leg, but that wouldn’t tie in with why she was stomping (unless she was just in a bad mood). Although she ran across perfectly happily so can’t be feeling too sore.

This morning as we arrived she trotted up and down her fence line tossing her head at us, and when I went to let her through I got a hello (a neigh) which is always nice from a not very vocal pony. We got a canter across to the shelter too, and then she stood there sticking her head over the door whilst I caught up with her to let her in.

Head collar on no problem, and I went and cleaned her water bucket out whilst she ate her breakfast. Then I took another look at her leg and her nose but still couldn’t see anything. I used a wipe to clear up the remaining orange on her leg but there was nothing else there, it’s a complete mystery. When I asked her to lift her hoof up she did so very suddenly and almost knocked herself on her belly though, which isn’t like her.

Turned her back out and felt very guilty as we left for work and she stood watching us. I think this weekend we might need to move her onto another section of the field so she has some newer grass to keep her busy.