Wednesday, April 30, 2014

A Herd Divided

I tried to let all the horses out together yesterday.

It did not work out so well.   Killian treated Princess MellyPalouza like she was poor white trash....or a spy....or some sort of forbidden interloper who must be driven away.

She gave him a pretty good double barrel shot right in the chest and then moved away.  She was happy to mind her own business and graze away from Killian and Sassy.  I had not even had time to get Trax yet.

 But he went after her again and he was not playing around either.

I stepped between his charge and my Princess.  He altered course and made a big circle back to Sassy and kept his distance while I grabbed Melly and put her back in her pen.

These are the times when I am really glad that we work on ground manners.  There are not many things that Killian is truly afraid of....I'm glad that I am one of them!

So for now we are back on rotation, which is probably for the best. My grass when weeks with no water and needs fertilized badly.  I don't know that it can handle more than 2 at a time right now.

Eventually I will try again, but first I'll try putting them next to each other so they can become friends over the fence.



7 comments:

  1. I've heard of geldings killing mares. There is an Arabian breeder who lost her best mare to a gelding attack. I guess sometimes they just go crazy for no apparent (to us) reason. If you don't need to house them together, you might want to keep them apart.

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  2. The joys of herd dynamics.....

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  3. Wouldn't be surprised if Killian views her as a rival herd member. Sassy is his, Melly belongs to Trax and that's the way it is in his world. Sometimes their personalities just don't mesh either. It's like putting together a blended family. We chose the herd members, they didn't and not everyone gets along.

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  4. Hm, maybe after a couple weeks when they are in pens next to each other they'll get along when you put them in the same pasture. I wasn't there but it doesn't sound to awfully bad, just like they need more time to get used to each other. When I added 2 mares to my little herd of 2, they were separated and kicking at the gate and fence for about 3 weeks before I finally let them all out together. Then it was about 5 minutes of rearing, squealing and kicks and everyone settled down. Wish I got it on video.

    That comment above about a gelding killing a mare sounds pretty frightening.

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  5. Our herd is so close-knit, it usually takes months before we try it with everybody together. Glad nobody got hurt.

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  6. Yep, we have 2 we can't turn out together.

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  7. glad you were able to step in and no one was hurt. Being the "boss mare" is a pretty important thing with your herd.

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