Gene and Peanut were reunited yesterday. An appy who shared Peanut's field came back from training and, since he's now on grain, needs to be in the field next to the barn. This meant that one of those horses had to move out, and Gene was chosen to move to Peanut's field.
They haven't lived together in three months, not since they came out of quarantine. They used to be buddies (well, as buddy-buddy as Peanut will allow), and Joan termed them "up each other's butts." How things have changed in three short months!
A few weeks ago, Gene gave his first squeal and strike upon sniffing Peanut's nose. That surprised all of us. After turning him out in the new field, there were several more. At one point, they were sniffing noses, Gene gave out a tremendous squeal, Peanut looked startled and squealed softly then spun and kicked Gene. In all, I saw Peanut kick him twice.
Every now and then Peanut would walk out to Gene, showing his most friendly body language for such an anti-social horse. Well, not anti-social, really, just more ignorant than anything. Anyway, Gene would often just move away, preferring to explore on his own. Their friendship of the past 3 years through 3 barns seems to be gone. Kinda sad, I hope it improves this week.
When they were thrown hay, Gene didn't eat much. We only had him out there for probably half an hour before dinner, and all he wanted to do was look at his old field. At one point, he was off exploring far off on the other end of the pasture when the grained horses were whistled in for dinner. Gene suddenly tore back to the gate, galloping beautifully, and once he reached the gate he seemed panicked that he was stuck. Poor man.
He did stop at every poo pile he could find and he either pooped on top or went through the motions. Interesting, I've never seen that before.
Other than feeling bad for him, we awed at his new body. Gone was the stiff little trot, in its place was a gorgeous trot and a loose walk with a shimmy in the butt. Mon dieu, Adequan + hills and space + amazing horse professionals = magic in an arthritic horse. Even Hoppy was impressed! We in no way expected him to come so far. I wonder how much of it was due to his old pasture. It was much bigger (although the current one is still a very nice size), was dominated by a hill in the middle, and was full with young arabs that liked to run. Gene would fly around the pasture with those little shits sometimes, and I wonder if they kept him young. I doubt that the current pasture does much flying. I have to keep an eye on his weight and his joints, and make sure both can be maintained in his new digs.
He's now in with a thoroughbred, a full, QH-type appy, and Peanut. He can talk of racing ancestors JJ, he can talk of plains running ancestors Tequila, and he can talk of old barns with Peanut.
Can't have a post without Peanut, now can I?
While they were fussing over Gene, I saw Peanut do some liberty gaiting. This is very unusual for him, and he kept looking like he couldn't figure out what the hell to do. Sometimes he would give up and just canter.
Peanut did give me a scare on Saturday - the little shit. I was coming out of Gene's field to Peanut's field through a double gate which is elaborately chained. Peanut, seeing me, decided to paw at the gate opposite the one I was exiting (the two fields can be linked by opening the gates into a chute). Of course dumbass gets his foot caught in the gate, hooked at his pastern behind his heel, and he starts panicking. I'm desperately trying to latch the gate and he's pulling and pulling. With a mighty lurch, he frees himself... and rocks the fence enough to dislodge the top two boards beside the gate. The boards just slide in, great when they need to be replaced, but in cases like this they can also slide out.
Peanut stands behind the fallen rails, looking out, and I realize it's an easy step to freedom. And, shit, here come JJ and Tequila running behind him! Crap, the gate I'm at still isn't closed, and I have horses coming towards me in that field. With the fastest gate latching ever, I run to Peanut's field and manage to slide the top rail back in. Crisis averted. Dumbass.
3 comments:
That's awesome that Gene feels so good. I've never seen a horse poop on another horse's poop - weird!
The more I watch horses and read other people's stories, the more I am convinced that field board is the best. I really think horses are physiologically set up to function best when they constantly move around.
I'm working on a theory right now that horses don't actually have friends, just frenemies. You know, like those people you hang out with at work / school / the barn who aren't actually your friends, they're just more tolerable than the other jerks at that place? None of the horses I see ever do cute things like mutual grooming or swatting flies off of each other. They just hate their "buddies" less than the other scum standing in the field with them.
Or maybe I just have really grumpy horses. It's a mystery!
I don't know if I have grumpy horses or not. We're convinced that Peanut simply doesn't know how to be a horse. Even Joan has commented that he's lacking some pretty basic herd behavior.
Gene... oh Gene. I don't know if I've ever seen him mutually groom. He seems more the type to yell at the colts to get off his lawn and grouse at the price of hay these days. He really is a grouch and seems to just happen to be there when another horse is actively trying to hang out with him.
*shrug*
And then there are the horses that are put in a field together, you look five minutes later, and there's some serious mutual grooming going on.
I've also seen horses who call and come running when a certain other horse is returned to the field.
Meh, who the hell knows. Prey animals. Go figure.
When Gene and Peanut were first separated it was like a weaning that I once watched. I don't know what the hell is up with them.
But, yes, you know I agree with field board. I'd hate to think of what Gene would be like if we stalled him.
Champ is still Silky's abusive boyfriend. He won't groom her, he runs her away from the good food, yet he follows her around wherever she goes. When I get him untacked, he hangs out begging for cookies for a few minutes then remembers Silky and starts screaming his head off and takes off looking for her.
The other boarders told me that they've seen him "lose" her and charge around the field for 10 or 15 minutes, screaming and looking for her. She just stands wherever she was standing the whole time, watching him dash around, kinda like "What's wrong with him?"
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