Pony Wars . . . Continued

I wrote a blog post a couple of years ago about the pony wars that tend to happen around here. Apparently every mare that lives with us wants her own pony. Well, I take that back. Lily has never expressed interest in having her own pony but I blame that on Cuff Links. Cuffie, the bundle of personality that he is, is very much the boss of Lily. He likes to remind her of this from time to time just to make sure she does not forget, so I think Cuffie turned Lily off of the idea of having her own pony.

In anticipation of finalizing our move to the new farm (YAY!!) we did some slight rearranging of a couple of the groups over the last few days. The ponies Norman, Traveller and Cinnamon joined up with the other ponies and mares. The transition went very smoothly as we expected it would, and it has been very fun to watch the herd dynamics work themselves out. As Jason and I anticipated each of the mares, with the exception of Lily, are all jockeying for their own pony. I tried to document the pony wars of the last few days in pictures.

Traveller, Norman and Cinnamon exploring their new pasture together

Traveller checking things out

Cinnamon and Norman

One of my first predictions to Jason was that MyLight would take one look at Norman and immediately want to claim him as her own. She has claimed Missy as her own pony for quite some time now but I had a feeling she would think Norman was the cat's meow and so far she has proved me right.

MyLight says "OMG!! PONIES!! I'm coming!!"

The only wrench in MyLight's plan to claim Norman as her very own is Cinnamon. Cinnamon and Norman have lived together for a long time and Cinnamon definitely still sees Norman as HER pony. Cinnamon is a large and Norman is a medium so I guess in her mind she is still claiming a pony since he is smaller. Every now and then Cinnamon will let MyLight get close to Norman and she immediately tries to start grooming him. Norman happily reciprocates with the grooming. Cinnamon can't stand it after a minute or two and she gets in between them and tries to start herding MyLight away from Norman. For the time being it appears that MyLight has abandoned her claim on Missy as she attempts to claim Norman. Most of the time Cinnamon makes sure she is in between MyLight and Norman.

Maisie says "Look Lily, new ponies!" Lily says "who cares?"

Maisie going to introduce herself to the ponies

Johnny and Tiny have kept a close eye on the pony wars the last few days

Any of you who are thinking "poor Missy, abandoned by MyLight" can put your worries to rest. First of all Missy is perfectly happy to not be owned by anyone, thank you very much. However Maisie and Silky have both been following her around, expressing strong interest in staking a claim on her. I have no idea how this will play out. I don't know if either Maisie or Silky will give up or lose interest, or if Missy will even go along with "belonging" to one of them.

Silky, Missy and Maisie

Missy and Maisie

Traveller and Cuffie are currently doing their very best to not be owned by anyone. They are often paired off together, quietly grazing. This afternoon they were underneath a tree grazing nose to nose together in the shade. Silky and Maisie both made attempts at herding them around but neither of them were the least bit cooperative, so at least for the time being the mares gave up on claiming them.

Traveller (large pony) and Cuffie (medium pony) grazing together.

It will be interesting to see how things continue to unfold with the Pony Wars. Maybe someone will manage to stake a claim on Cuffie and/or Traveller. Maybe MyLight will go back to Missy and someone else will try to claim Norman or Cinnamon. Today MyLight seemed to be mulling over the idea of claiming both Cinnamon and Norman as a two-for-one deal on ponies. She may be underestimating how much work it will be to have TWO ponies of her own though. Maybe she has not yet head the joke that pony is a four letter word!

Norman and MyLight

Cinnamon in between MyLight and Norman