A new horse has been turned out in my boys' field for a week, as he became a danger to those working the barn at feed time in another field. They're hoping that he'll forget that he was grained and stop being a terror.
The main players:
Peanut: the best horse ever
Gene: my red-headed stepchild
Diego: young appy, new to the field, has been turned out with them before, but not in a long time
JJ: chestnut TB, Diego's bff from when he was in the field before
Last night I went to visit the boys, and Rick stayed home. I called Peanut, and both Gene and Peanut picked up their heads. Peanut started his usual slow walk towards me from the other end of the field, and Gene started trotting to me, also from the other end of the field. That's unusual; normally Gene will come up to me, but almost like he has nothing else to do.
As they approached, they passed roughly where Diego was. Gene kept trucking but Peanut made a 90 degree turn and started charging Diego. Diego didn't budge. Peanut eventually stopped (it was either that or run into the solid, qh-type appy), turned, and continued walking towards me.
Gene was more attentive than usual, and he received several cookies for his efforts. After all, I was instructed to give him a couple by his daddy. Peanut eventually reached us, I haltered him, and took him out of the field.
Gene was none too happy about this development. He glared in my direction, turned around, and started looking for a place to roll. His old owner used to get upset when he rolled, so if he's mad he'll often wander off, roll, and come back and glare at you. At this point Peanut and I went to greet Anne-Marie who had arrived to work the barn and, by the time I looked back, there was a muddy Gene looking in our direction. I wanted to groom Peanut, as he is almost tan now (whoo!) but there is still some white clinging to his belly, but Gene started pacing. He was trotting and cantering back and forth in front of the gate/along the fence line, only stopping to cry out. I was worried that the old man would slip in the mud, so I decided to take Peanut back and he grazed while I stood in arm's reach of the fence.
Gene happily stood on the other side of the fence, lifting his front legs and receiving cookies for doing his "happy dance".
Eventually, Diego wandered up. Gene was quite annoyed and started challenging him, but Diego ignored it. Peanut stopped grazing and was glaring the spots off of Diego. The nerve, he was touching Peanut's property! Peanut got so upset that I decided to put him back in immediately, and while I was fiddling with the chain on the fence Gene started cantering in small circles around Diego, occasionally throwing a kick at him or bucking. Diego just stood there.
By the time I was able to get in, get the fence secured behind me, and get Peanut's halter off, Diego had wandered away. I gave my boys the rest of my cookies and left.
The two of them started walking off to the rest of the horses, side by side. Peanut made sure to stay between Gene and Diego, even though to other horses Gene is a more dominant animal than Peanut - for some reason Gene lets Peanut be boss. It leads to some strange triangular hierarchies. Anyway, it started raining on all of us.
After a couple of minutes Peanut pulls away from Gene and starts charging Diego again. The two of them start rearing, screaming, and kicking at each other. Before it could get really nasty, JJ started charging Peanut and chased him away from Diego.
A few of them, Peanut included, started trotting back and forth in front of each other until things settled down and they all grazed with Peanut and Gene together at one end of the herd, JJ and Diego at the other end.
2 comments:
Awww, I miss seeing that kind of interaction.
After I rode Dixie yesterday, I let her eat the grass along the edge of the arena and watched the geldings watching her. There's a scruffy fugly young rescue who was playing a bit with his buddy, but nothing really dramatic like that.
Why on earth would his old owner get mad when he rolled? Just because he'd get dirty? That's what horses do, silly human.
Ever since the horse there had its hock broken and had to be put down after a night of rowdiness, I get nervous when they play like that. I know more often than not they're fine... but still....
Put Dixie in with those geldings and I'm sure you'll get drama ;)
His old owner told Rick that Gene "will break your heart." She would clean and ride him, and he'd go out and immediately roll. Since he's so white, she'd get angry. Can a horse be malicious? I don't know, but if Rick's slow compared to me in getting him out of the field, he'll often find a freshly rolled Gene looking very full of himself.
Rick's just happy to see the ol' boy rolling around. Other horse people around here tend to side with his old owner, though. I mean, that's why you blanket! It keeps them clean and you don't have to deal with so much icky shedding fur!
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