Considering her behavior the latter was more likely. She absolutely avoided anything she thought was too ‘sappy’ meaning any overt display of emotion—which was ironic considering what she counted as ‘sappy.’ Activities like what you were doing now were generally an exception as long as you weren’t in public and as long as you never said anything about it. The moment you brought any undue attention to the shared affections they stopped. You genuinely enjoyed the mutually beneficial act, and you didn’t know enough about equine sociology to know if you could deny her without insulting her friendship in any way, so you went along with it. It was another aspect that made your relationship that much more unique.