04.24.08
Herd-bound behavior observations
HorseGal will shortly be blogging her observations and interactions with the Herd during the month of April. Our 3 horses all went to visit a barn very close to her (WOOOOO HOOOOO!) and not far from where Emmie lives, so she and Em are playing with them frequently (and also shedding them out, yaaahay!)
FYI, our herd-bound Herd behaves a bit differently in a strange environment than they do around home, as poor HorseGal soon found out! Even momma mare, normally very well-behaved, was NOT her usual self, especially for the first week or two. They all suffer from separation anxiety and the mare is the worst, so she gets the boys all anxi ous too. Don’t miss HorseGal’s stories, pics and movies on the Herd’s less-than-well-broke behavior (embarrassing), occasional fits of pique (scary), Emmie’s handling and schooling of each one (expert), HorseGal’s own riding (she’ll have to describe that), and other issues as the horses adjust to being relocated.
One note of interest… when any single horse, even one of ours, is taken to a new barn to live, it is generally able to adapt very quickly by making new horse friends and settling into new routines. I find my Herd to be at their worst when they are first all moved into a strange barn, because they get so anxious when one is taken apart from the others.
Eventually they get over it mostly, but it takes much longer than for a solo horse. Their anxiety levels feed off of each other. All the horses I have ever owned have pitched a fit when one or two of them is loaded on or off a horse trailer and the other one(s) are not. They are plenty smart enough to realize immediately that they’re being separated– and they just HATE that!
As well, since my mare is much worse about it, and other mares I have had were also horrible about being separated from each other in unfamiliar situations, I assume it is a “mare” thing. Does anyone else care to comment on mares vs. geldings and their “herd-bound” attachments to each other?
Tina Y said,
April 27, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Sorry, I can’t help you. The geldings I’ve had were “only children” and therefore were never given the opportunity to get attached to anyone else. The mares we have now were attached at the hip when we got them, but through groundwork and perseverance, they can now be worked independently of one another. It helped that Jill was out of commission with an abscess for about 6 weeks last summer and we worked Dolly without her. However, we don’t have a lot of reason to separate them, so we don’t push the issue.
Q said,
May 1, 2008 at 12:31 pm
What I’ve observed is mares run the show in a herd no matter how big. Any new environment or separation is a challenge to their survival and that of their family unit in their instinct driven world.