Herd Dynamics - The New Horse

I wrote a post a few weeks ago about herd dynamics during introductions.  In that post I described the typical personality types we see from members of the existing herd.  We can't forget about the newcomers though and how they respond to being part of a new group. 

Some horses make the whole transition so easy it is like they haven't had a transition at all.  These horses can live with almost any group of horses and instantly make friends and become one of the gang.  The chargers don't intimidate and fluster them, they easily and quickly defer to the boss horse, and become instant BFF's with the greeters.  It is like they go out in the pasture, high five everybody, and they are an instant member of the group.  Introductions are officially over.  If only it could always be that easy! Horses with dominant personalities are usually easy as well.  They simply take charge of things and the others accept it with no issues.  However many horses fall in a more gray area. 

The horses that really give you the sleepless nights are the ones that are submissive to an extreme when finding their place in a group.  This often is because they lack social skills as they have not been turned out at all, or have only had solo turnout.  Sometimes it is because they simply need to be allowed to take whatever time they need to find their place in the group.  Even the greeters can intimidate these horses at first.  They are being so submissive that just having another horse who is being nothing but friendly trying to constantly be close to them and in their personal space worries them.  The chargers send them over the edge.  The most common response we see from the super submissive types is they go into stimulus overload and find a place in the pasture where they can hide from everyone.  

Several years ago this response would drive Jason and I around the bend.  We would freak out, start second guessing ourselves and generally have a meltdown.  We would pull the horse from the group.  Finally we got smart and noticed a pattern.  When we would go fetch the horse that was hiding in the pasture well away from the other horses and take them in the barn, the horse didn't act any happier in the barn than they did out in the pasture.  We thought we were "rescuing" them because they were clearly not happy (or so we thought) but we were totally misreading the situation. 

The horses did not want to be taken away, they would pace and call in the barn.  This made no sense to us that they would be hiding in the pasture, but when we took them away and put them in s "safe place" in a  stall to rescue them they were even more miserable.  Often they would call repeatedly to the very horses they were just hiding from.  These horses were not wanting to be separated, but what they did need was time to acclimate to the group at their own pace.  Sometimes we will put these horses in a paddock for awhile with a horse or two from their group, but most of the time leaving them with the group works best. 

Amazingly we found that if we just let things alone, usually within a few days the whole situation was completely different.  As in completely, totally different.  These horses would start integrating themselves into the herd dynamics at a pace they were comfortable with.  They would stay close to the group for awhile and then retreat for awhile.  The time they spent near the group would increase while the time they spent away decreased.  They learned that if they ignored the chargers then they stopped charging.

Often within 2-3 days they are totally past any group separation at all which is a pretty amazing change. Sometimes it has taken a couple of weeks to reach this point. Within a month or two they act like they have been part of the gang forever.  That is quite a dramatic change from hiding off in a corner of the pasture as far away as they can get from the other horses.  Often after they have been in the group for about six months they begin to move up dramatically in the pecking order and can actually become quite bossy. These horses, without fail, become the most herdbound horses.

It still amazes me that a horse that would skitter away from the hay or the water trough if another horse even looked in their direction, or better yet the horses that would not even approach the hay or water if another horse was nearby, can wind up being one of the bossier horses in the group.  However we've seen it happen many times.  Twice we have seen it where horses that were described to us as always being the bottom of the pecking order wind up being the boss horse in their group.  Of course they didn't start there, but six months or a year later there they are telling everyone what to do.  You have to allow these personalities the time to integrate at their own pace. 

Too many people want to react like Jason and I used to react:

"Get him out of there!!"
"He can't handle being with other horses, he is just too submissive."
"He's going to lose too much weight and I won't torture him like this."

In reality most of these horses aren't submissive at all, and even though we interpret their responses as being miserable they want to stay out with the others.  They do need to be allowed to take their time becoming part of the herd dynamics.  Have I mentioned they need to be allowed some time??

I'm glad Jason and I watched and learned.  It has helped us read these situations a lot more accurately.  I also need to mention two very important things:  One is we have very large pastures relative to the number of horses in them so a horse never has to feel - or be - trapped.  Point two is that our pastures have excellent grazing the majority of the year so the horses can eat to their heart's content without having to be in the middle of the group. I can't emphasize enough how important these two points are to the process.  Taking either of them out of the equation would present challenges that would be hard to overcome.

Like most things with horses it is impossible to predict exactly how any horse will react in a given situation.  We've learned to be patient and to do our best to interpret situations based on horse language and behavior and not human responses.  This is much easier said than done, especially for us!  However I think the results speak for themselves, and anyone who visits the farm finds nothing but happy, content and well adjusted horses.  Even the ones that gave us some sleepless nights at first.

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Lucky, O'Reilly and Noble

Johnny watching me from the woods (Wiz behind him)

Homer and Levendi

Lotus, Faune, Winston and Titan

Asterik and George

Renny and Fuzzy

Darby, B-Rad and Lighty

Tiny, Johnny and Rampal

Horses in Moscow

Jason and I both like to travel although we have different ideas about what defines a great trip. I like to get off the continent of North America and Jason likes to be within a day's drive of home and he hates changing time zones. He complains loudly about driving to Lexington, KY and having to switch to eastern time. Flying also would not make his list of favorite things although he usually tolerates it without complaining (much).

Jason found himself being towed through JFK airport by me a couple of weeks ago to board a flight to Moscow, Russia. This trip did not meet anything on his list of things he enjoys about travel. We definitely were not within a day's drive of home, we crossed ten time zones and he had to do a 10 hour flight. It helped that the Aeroflot flight had individual entertainment centers at each seat and Jason and I amused ourselves for quite awhile playing Pac Man.

We visited all of the usual attractions one associates with the city of Moscow including the Kremlin, Red Square and the Bolshoi Theatre. Having never been anywhere in eastern Europe I was quite excited about the trip. I was expecting the language barrier to be big and it was huge. The Cyrillic alphabet might as well be hieroglyphics as far as I am concerned.

In addition to the typical tourist attractions we also visited a riding club and a tack shop. As always I manage to locate horses no matter where in the world I find myself. Suffice it to say the buildings were a bit more, hmmm how should I say this, upscale than our farm. The horses all looked very well cared for, they were groomed within an inch of their lives, and the stalls were so clean if there hadn't been horses standing in all of them you would have been able to convince me they were never used. I don't think I saw a single manure pile in a stall as we walked down the barn aisle.

This facility was in the heart of the city, not in the suburbs or in the outskirts. There was an outdoor riding arena, a couple of tiny turnout paddocks and a couple of eurosizers. The facility also adjoined a racetrack with several rows of barns and it looked like you could hack around the rows of barns as well, but that was pretty much it as far as any outdoor facilities. Everything else was inside. The impressive clubroom, the changing rooms, the restaurant, the indoor and the barn were all part of the same building. The indoor and the barns were both heated to about 65-70 degrees. All of the horses were body clipped but not blanketed as there was no need for blanketing when inside.

The horses were fed hay 5 times per day and grain 3 times per day. We saw a pallet of what looked like excellent quality timothy hay as we were touring the barn. I have no idea what they were feeding for grain. Of course I tried to ask but all of the conversation was taking place through a very non-horsey translator. I just converted the board amount from rubles to dollars and it came out to about $2,200/month which was lower than I was expecting. Moscow is an expensive city and as I said this facility was IN the city.

Being able to include horses in some away always makes any trip better. Then we had the long 10 hour flight back to JFK. We and our fellow passengers had the pleasure of sharing that flight with a drunk Russian guy at the back of the plane that kept hitting the flight attendant call button over and over and over. This resulting in the dinging bell noise over and over and over. He also spent some time wandering up and down the aisles being overly friendly and even tried to pick up one couple's baby. Needless to say that did not go over well. He finally passed out/went to sleep after a few hours. As one of the flight attendants said "at least he is a happy drunk. The mean drunks are the worst." I was just glad that our seats were in row 5 and his seat was almost at the very back of the plane. If we had been too much closer I am pretty sure Jason would have told him exactly where he could put the call button and he would not have been friendly about it!!

the main building and entrance to the combined riding club/racetrack facility

another view

the red carpet leading to the main door

the barn aisle

The indoor riding arena had a large viewing deck that wrapped all the way around the arena. There was also a bar/restaurant that overlooked the indoor (behind the yellow wall on the left)

the indoor arena and the barn were heated to about 65-70 degrees

dragging the arena

a few more random pictures from around Moscow; The Bolshoi Theatre

me in front of St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square (note this picture was taken at 9:30am and it is still dark outside)

Russian Orthodox cathedral

Jason and I liked the Russian exit signs. Make like the stick figure and run for your life in this direction!!

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Maisie and MyLight

Ivan

Silver and Romeo playing

Toledo (Rocky and Kennedy in the background)

Clayton and Largo hanging out together

Tiny and Kennedy

Silky

Walden on the run

Fabrizzio on the run

Life with Jason and Tortured Eggs

As I was sitting here uploading pictures and wondering what I would write for this blog post, my thoughts wandered in a very non-horse related direction. I started musing about life with Jason, and I came to the conclusion that life would be very boring without him. This afternoon I found him happily sitting in his water trough again. He was very content. I can't help but compare this to how I spent my "me time" today, riding my two horses. Why can't sitting in a water trough make me happy? It would be so much cheaper in both money and time!

We just finished eating dinner and one of our vegetables was fresh corn on the cob. We always pitch the eaten corn cobs behind our house because the Don (the rooster) and the goats like to nibble on the cobs. Jason came back in from disposing of the corn cobs and announced "we're down a plate." Apparently when he went to fling the cobs off the deck he forgot to hold onto the plate. We had a good laugh while we combed through the grass picking up the pieces of the plate.

Yesterday we made our weekly trip to the grocery store. As always Jason made his truck noises while he pushed the cart through the store. He "accelerates" and shifts gears, and then does the same thing when he slows down. Of course whenever he puts the cart in reverse he has to make beeping noises.

As we made our rounds of the store Jason and I had to have our ongoing conversation about buying eggs. We try to buy any meat and dairy products locally. Sometimes I also buy local eggs. The problem is we don't consume very many eggs, only about a half dozen per month. Thus I usually just buy eggs at the grocery store.

We always have a major discussion at the egg section. We go out of our way to purchase, and are happier to pay more, for products raised with high standards of animal welfare. So I always reach for a half dozen of the "cage free" eggs. Jason always objects. His argument is that there are so many loopholes now for the packaging and that cage free means nothing. He tells me how the chickens don't have any happier of a life than their caged friends. He always describes in detail how many chickens there are per square foot in a big "cage free" poultry house. Given his years in the ag industry and his first hand visits to many poultry houses he's seen it all first hand. Thus he refuses to pay more for the cage free eggs in the grocery store.

My argument back to him is always that I would rather pay more and delude myself into thinking that I'm doing a good thing. One week as we were hashing through our usual discussion at the egg section I said to him in a very loud voice "but I don't want to buy the tortured eggs. I want to buy the happy eggs." This was complete with large hand gestures as I pointed at the 'tortured eggs' and the 'happy eggs.'

Jason replied in an equally loud voice that all of the eggs were tortured eggs. He spread his hands wide to indicate the entire egg section. You can imagine we had more than our fair share of onlookers at this point. Like I said, life without Jason would simply not be the same.

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Thomas and Trigger

Tony, Levendi, Homer and Baby

Apollo, Hemi, Elfin

Silky


Maisie

Johnny and Rampal having a grooming session

George was giving Clayton a very thorough grooming over the fence

Gus, Winston, Romeo, Faune, Asterik, Fonzi

Lily and Cuffie looked very peaceful grazing in the early morning sun

Chimano and Silver often like to "horse around" while they wait for breakfast

Tractor Repairs, Jason Blogs and Roadside Attractions

As we mentioned in this post Jason decided to undertake the project of removing the fuel tank from the Kubota tractor. The tank needed to be professionally cleaned and re-sealed. Of course removing the tank meant almost the entire tractor had to be dismantled - the cap, the steering wheel, a large chunk of the engine . . . it has all been scattered around in parts for the last week.

Yesterday my dad and Jason started the job of putting the newly cleaned and re-sealed fuel tank back in the tractor, and then re-assembling the tractor. They worked away for hours. I will say my dad spent a lot of time in a lawn chair supervising while Jason crawled around and shimmied all over the tractor like a monkey. At one point the fuel tank was in, everything was re-assembled, and the tractor supposedly even started. But then they realized they had forgotten a crucial step (something to do with a valve in the fuel tank??) and had to take it all apart again.

I came back by late in the day as they were getting ready to wrap things up for the day. I asked how things were going and was told of the assembly, success in starting, and then realizing they had to disassemble again to do something to the valve in the fuel tank.

Me: So you worked on this all day and started where you finished? Everything completely disassembled??

Dad: (in a somewhat defensive tone) Well we aren't exactly where we started this morning.

Me: So what exactly is different from this morning?

Jason: (also in a somewhat defensive tone) Well, we learned some stuff that will make it easier when we put it back together again.

Me: So one full day of labor later we can sum up the progress as you learned some stuff? Okaaaay. Oh, and by the way Jason why do you reek of diesel fuel.

Jason: I had to drain the fuel tank again.

Me: Again? Why?

Jason: (in a somewhat sheepish voice) When I was putting diesel fuel in it the spout from the diesel can fell into the tank. I had to drain the tank and then fish it out. (at this point my dad is laughing pretty hard while Jason tells me this)

Me: I still think it would have been easier to just take the tractor to a mechanic but as long as you two are happy . . .

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Jason has started his own blog in addition to being a "contributing blogger" on this blog. As many of you know Jason grew up on a working farm in Canada. He has a lot of thoughts on agriculture, and likes to talk a lot about conventional agriculture, sustainable agriculture, the treatment of animals, and generally anything to do with agriculture. If you are interested in our food supply and where it comes from you will probably enjoy reading his blog, Random Musings of a Farmer. There is a link to it in my blog roll to the right.

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In the same blog I mentioned at the beginning of this post Jason told you we were planning to stop by a roadside attraction in Cullman, Alabama on our way to look at a tractor. We've seen the signs for it for years, a Catholic grotto. It is a collection of miniature replicas built by a monk that was a resident of the monastery in Cullman. Most of them are replicas of Catholic churches, monasteries, and other spiritual scenes and some were just replicas of historical sites such as the Roman Aqueducts. Jason and I are not Catholic but we were very curious to see this after seeing the signs for many years. Although it was neat, and were both impressed by the fact that the monk who made all of these had no training whatsoever and just somehow taught himself how to do all of this, we were both a bit underwhelmed. On the other hand many of our fellow tourists seemed to almost be having a religious experience of sorts as they looked at all of the miniatures!

The Ave Maria Grotto has a website if you would like to learn more about it. Click here to visit the website.

Since I know everyone is anxious to see them (hah!) I posted a few pictures from the Grotto below. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Ever since I was a little kid every time we cross the state line into Alabama we stopped at the welcome center to see the rocket. I always make Jason stop and we walk over to see the rocket. I don't feel like I've really left Tennessee and entered Alabama without a visit to the rocket!

As the sign says this is a miniature replica of the ruins of the Roman Aqueducts

Some of them were pretty neat looking

There were 4 acres of miniatures

Jason's favorite part of the whole thing . . . the Chipmunk Crossing; somehow I think we missed the point of the Catholic Grotto if this was our favorite part.

Jason giving Chili a nice cool hosing one afternoon. Chili has anhydrosis (he doesn't sweat) so he has to be watched closely in the summer. Lately he's been coming in the barn to stand under a fan during the day. Some days he doesn't need to come in or even need to be sprayed down in the afternoon, he doesn't really have a solid pattern. We just have to watch him closely. Chili strongly prefers to NOT come in the barn if at all possible!

Chili looking satisfied after being sprayed off
Spike and Snappy grazing

Sebastian scratching his neck on the fence

Bonnie and Norman grazing while Sparky rested

Chance hanging out while Hemi and Elfin grazed

Bush sleeping in his favorite place - the laundry room

Buster the pet cow

Levendi

Baby, Homer, and Leo (Tony hiding in the back)