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| Discussion on Strange Herd Dynamics AGAIN | |
| Author | Message |
| Member: mitma |
Posted on Friday, Apr 4, 2008 - 1:45 am: Hey Everyone,Well, I haven't been online here much lately, as I've been VERY busy actually working with my herd... Now, I have had my two rescue weanlings and one ex-PMU mare at one location and a gelding and two other mares at another place (25 miles away!) and a few other horses still located at training facilities. Since I planned to bring the rest of the herd home, I couldn't stand the thought of adding yet a third barn to my commute (and the barn I had the three horses at was already full), so, I located a nice, new barn that had great turnout and several vacant stalls that would allow me the opportunity to have my entire herd there... YEAH, or so I thought... Well, eight days ago, I moved my 4 yo BLM mustang mare and my 3 yo draft cross gelding to the new barn from the training facility they had been at... they were a bit excited, but were stalled the first night, then turned out into a lovely pasture the next day, and seemed to adjust pretty well; the barn manager had no problems turning them out during the next few days and bringing them in at night for feedings; the new barn is a renovated dairy barn with two separate aisles, each faced by 12' x 12' stalls which are closed in on three sides, but have very open grillwork on the front/aisle side (and the doors are sliding, not dutch style). The bedding is that pelleted stuff (that looks like the pine fresh kitty litter...) on a matted surface... the barn ceiling is high and there are individual fans attached at the ceiling. Then, six days ago, I moved my 5 yo Appy gelding and two other ex-PMU mares there (a 15 yo appendix QH and an 11 yo QH/Percheron cross); since these horses had all been together last year for several months, I immediately turned the three new ones out with the first two horses; there was a bit of chasing and squealing, but no major fighting and things seemed to settle down nicely. Then, finally, 3 days ago, I moved my other ex-PMU mare there (you all will probably remember Mitzee, my 10 yo Appy mare who had the horrible osteomyelitis of her mandible and had two surgeries last year, etc...); since Mitzee had been with at least two of the five horses present, I decided to turn her out with them immediately. Everything went well and I thought I had finally reached NIRVANA, having SIX horses in one place... with only three weanlings elsewhere, I thought I had a great plan for being involved with all of these horses... Now, in case any of you are thinking, "does this woman have too many horses???"... realize that the answer is complex, but I guess the short version is "maybe"...  O.K., back to the problem at hand... the day that Mitzee arrived in the herd (this past Monday afternoon), I was still present when the evening feeding began... it was raining a little and windy a bit, so naturally, all the horses were in high spirits, plus there was the new mare in the herd... so, none of them wanted to come in for feeding and it took a bit of effort to hand walk all of them into the barn... lots of jigging and prancing. I thought "no big deal"... the next night, Tuesday, I wasn't around at feeding, but the barn manager said it still took a while to bring all of them in; then on Wednesday night, apparently, it took even longer (I had been there earlier in the day, and walked them all in, one at a time, for grooming with no real problems, though spirits still continued to be high); now, on Thursday night, I got a call from the barn manager (of course, while I happen to be working) and, basically, she was UNABLE to catch any of them!!! Part of me thinks, "well, then they won't get dinner, and when they're hungry, they'll come in", but on the other hand, this behavior is entirely NEW and rather aberrant for this group of food-motivated horses. Furthermore, the barn manager described really interesting behavior on behalf of my mustang mare, Riley... basically, when the barn manager approached the horses, Riley reared and pawed (but, did NOT charge her) and began "snakeing" and herding the rest of the horses away... Once feral, always feral??? Certainly, the pasture is in good shape, but, these horses genuinely love "grain" meal times and are certainly very fond of hay too... I am at a loss... what about this new barn is so negative to my herd??? The only other horses on the property (4 geldings and 1 pony mare) are in a completely different field, where they are not even able to be nose to nose... they do see these horses across the barn aisle way... And, certainly, all of my six horses have been through several transitions in the past several months... first at my parents place last summer, then spread throughout Virginia at different training facilities... This new barn is very quiet (only one of the other 5 horses is a boarder, the rest belong to the barn manager and her sister... there's just not alot of chaos there...) I'm stumped, what do you HA guys think? Right now, it's after 12MN and all of my horses are out in the pasture... which, I don't mind them being out 24/7... kind of prefer it, but I want them to come in to eat and be "checked out"... Martha |
| Member: ekaufman |
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| Member: annes |
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| Member: cgby1 |
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| Member: mitma |
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