Dear Lord we are at it again.! Horse sitting for a friend while she is laid up....here are the antics when I introduced them!
So, I told you all about the new draft mare Syrah and my TB mare Rose....war for pasture domination.....it was about 2.5 weeks before Rose conceded that Syrah was the leader....or so I thought? They are best buds now, and I don't see Rose ever being able to move Syrah, and she does move out of Syrah's way....but I don't really see Syrah leading her anywhere. they just seem to go places together, but when push comes to shove....it is Rose who moves....
So now enters Hoss.....other pasture mates are Chacote the RBI mustang and Spirit the RBI(with humans)/LBE(with horses) shetland....whom is very VERY loving and playful with new horses! Everyone scatters about the pasture, Rose seems to be the dominant protector of the herd. the one to try to keep Hoss from the others, and the one to drive him away, and from what I could see, was 'herding' Syrah. there were times when Syrah was moving him, but mostly it was Rose. It didn't take long, and Rose n Syrah where at one end of the pasture, Hoss n Spirit at the other, and poor chacote in the middle. Spirit n Hoss were play biting each other for about 20 or so minutes, like geldings like to do, taging each others face, chest, neck n leggs to see who can take it the longest without moving. Too cute! I figured all is well for now and proceed out to help my son with his homework. I came out to feed later....and this is where things got ugly.....
Normally feed half the hay respectively in each upper corner, about 100ft apart, with a blind curve in fence so they really can't see most of what the other side is up to. girls eat at one end, boys eat at the other. i always feed girls first, they never come over to boys side, until they are nearly done. Just as when I put Syrah in there, both Rose and Syrah came over to boys hay and stole it. I though this was Rose, tagging along with Syrah, but when I couldn't find Hoss I started to look around....got a flash light, and found him in the lower furthest corner from everyone and all the food. Hmmm.....I called him, from the girls side as it was closer and the girls were at the boys side, he started to come, traveled about 5ft.....and Rose came tearing out of the darkness, she only had to go about 1/4-1/3 away from the boys hay, to effectively dominate both territories. Quite impressive IMO, to be able to dominate over half of that pasture while staying in a relatively small area herself. she went back to boys food, i called him, he tried again, took 2 steps, she went half the distance she did the time before....and was again...impressively effective. I tried one more time calling him, after she had turned back to the hay...he started to take a step, i heard movement from boys corner, but this time she must have gone only a few feet as she never appeard out from the dark corner....and was yet again effective. Sooooooooo....I had to go get a lead rope, CS/string and go get him and do some effective chasing of my own..........
I chased them from the boys hay, spirit stayed at girls hay, chacote was grateful to have evil girls away from his sacred corner, left Hoss with chacote, and then Rose and I had stare down. All the other horses were eating but her. Hoss was behind me in the corner, I stood with the body language that said....this is MINE....MY teritory, MY horse, I would not walk this way if I were you. She stared at me, in 'gear' 'foot waiting to let off the clutch' ....it was a SHOW DOWN....for 5...FIVE...minutes.......the second she lowered her 'posturing'....I lowered mine and stood in a neutral but still in a facing her position. As soon as she turned away, I did so as well...that took about 3 min......I then hid where she couldn't see me, i fiddle with the gate to make the noise so maybe she would think i left, to see if she was going to charge him if I wasn't there. she did not. i waited 5 minutes. I know later she did chase him....but the poor guy stood no chance of eating at all, at least he got a little before she chased him off.
This morning, i awoke to him and spirit, eating scraps of hay from the night before, and when I fed, I thru a few flakes farther down the hill so if he got chased off, he would stand a better chance of eating......I had to go in again and get him. even though they were not chasing him....he learned his lesson well last night and was afraid to pass them by himself....
anyways, i made a video for his Mommy to watch while she is laid up. he is like her baby and she misses him terribly. at least she can see pics of how he is getting along while she is in the hospital.
I got some good footage of the Rose and Syrah "herding" and "taking territory-ish' behavior, and was wondering if anyone else could see who they would choose as the 'leader' Rose or Syrah....cuz now I am confused....or maybe the dynamics changed when the new horse was introduced, and gave Rose the chance to be leader again...or maybe she was all along and I got it wrong.....
Savvy On
Michelle
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In your own point of view, did Syrah do well in leading? Well, even leaders are bound to make errors. What they should do is learn from it. The twist is how to turn that negative into a positive in a spontaneous way. That's tough to do, and it takes practice to master the craft.
ReplyDeleteAlexander Tiedeman