Stable Relations

The new herd dynamics are still sorting themselves out.  As always, I find the study of herd dynamics to be fascinating.  The big difference that I see between introducing new horses and introducing new donkeys is a difference in speed, velocity and drama.  Horses are all about galloping around, flying hooves, blowing, snorting, squealing and posturing.  Hierarchy is paramount and must be established.  There is much drama when introducing new horses.

Things are muuuch slower and more cerebral with donkeys.  They look at each other, maybe get close enough to sniff, then they back off, pretend the other doesn't exist and go their separate ways to think about the situation.  They come back later and repeat, getting a bit closer each time, but still backing off to think things through.

The only place this does not work well is in the barn where things can get crowded.  Emma and Ramsey are still very intimidated by Ben and he is a bit pushy about food.  He is not mean about it, but they get scared and want to escape, which can be problematic in the an enclosed space.

So, I got out the power tools and made some minor changes.

This is what the back of the barn has looked like for the past several years (minus the big donkey).....

That back, left corner is Emma's favorite spot.  It is where she chose to give birth to Ramsey.

Emma and Ramsey can duck under the center board and put a barrier between themselves and Tessa if they want to.  She is good to them, but they hate feeling crowded, especially Emma, and this partial wall gives them a space of their own to feel safe.

It still works great if I lock Ben in that stall, but that is not a viable long-term option.

I took the stall partition down....

...and replaced it with a single long board that little donkeys can pass under easily and big donkeys cannot.

If I have to, I can add another board down the center and create a space that is accessible to little donkeys only.  We will see how this works for now though.  Hopefully, they will all keep thinking about things and eventually decide, in their own donkey way and in their own donkey time, to get along.  For now, I just want everyone to be safe and not feel threatened.

The key to having a happy herd is to make sure that everyone feels safe, well fed, and not crowded.  If any one of those three things is lacking, there will be problems.  Which is true for all animals, including humans.  It is too bad we so often forget, or choose to ignore that.

A profusion of Spots

A friend of mine read my post about maybe being ready to add a new riding animal to my herd since Tessa is officially out of commission.  She sent me an email last week asking if I would like to have a big, young gelding that she had raised, sold and bought back because he wasn't being treated right.  I rode this horse in a big group ride a couple of months ago so I knew that he is sweet natured, kind, willing and level-headed.  We talked about it and, well here he is... 

He even came complete with a red ribbon and bows in his mane.  Now that's what I call a Christmas present!

He had to spend his first night in the round pen because I wanted to make sure everybody would be safe and see how they might get along.  (By the way, he may not have the long ears I was thinking of but, he does have these endearingly cute, mismatched ears.  If you look close you can see that the one on the right is short and round while the one on the left has a nicely curved point.  And no, the short ear wasn't damaged or cut off he was born that way.) 

After he had settled in for a while and there were no signs of aggression from either side, I let him and Tessa out together for a while.  I made Emma stay in the round pen during this introduction for her own safety and boy was she MAD about it.  Safe though, so I told her she was just going to have to cope.  He and Tessa ran around like loons for a few minutes but there was no kicking or fighting (and, of course, my camera choose that moment to freeze up!)....

within a few minutes, they had calmed down and started practicing to be bookends.  It's funny that until I bought Tessa, I had never owned a paint.  In fact, I have always preferred solid colored horses and now I find myself with two super flashy paints whose markings are remarkably similar.  Go figure.

Since they all seemed to be happy together, I let the girls hang out with him so they could all get further acquainted...

This morning, after no signs of fighting, squealing, kicking or other obnoxious behavior, I let them all out together.  My biggest concern was for Emma.  Some horses are mean to donkeys but he has been very nice to her and Tessa is very protective of her.  Emma is very intrigued by him but also wants to stay close to Momma Tess.

Within half an hour, they were all sharing the same food and water and getting along amazingly well.  How many noses can fit at one time?  All three actually...

 They spent the rest of the day doing what horses do, peacefully and happily....

My friend Bill (who was visiting for the weekend) and I, spent the day doing what humans who own horses do....