Just Being a Horse

 

It seems that Baby Doll’s got a new boyfriend. It’s my neighbor’s gelding who is 12 years younger than my mare.

Yep, she’s robbing the cradle.

She looks rather smug about it, too.

For almost two months I’ve been keeping my mare on some leased pasture land owned by a neighbor who lives on the other side of the ridge beside our small neighborhood. He leases it out for cattle grazing in the Spring and for horses the rest of the year. Several of my neighbors lease this land from him, too, so currently there are six horses grazing together and forming a small herd on the several hundred fenced acres.

I can actually see them from my house and from my barn most of the time.

What? You can’t see them? Look above and to the left of the metal pole.

No? How about now?

I have a tendency to use my little camera like a pair of binoculars so I can see things that my naked eyes can’t see as well.

I’ll zoom in a little closer for you.

My mare is close enough that I can still check on her every day by just walking or driving over. I’m usually over there every day to refill the 500 gallon stock tank, feed her a little extra food since the grass isn’t all that great, or to groom and just hang out with her.

I usually try to bring something for Baby Doll, some carrots, horse cookies, grain, some loose minerals and her vitamins, or a flake of hay. I want her to be happy to see me and to also come when I call her. And no matter where she is now, I can just call out to her and she comes running to me.

I love that she is free to live like a horse, moving freely and comfortably on all that acreage with other horses. It’s also interesting to watch her behavior and see how much of an alpha horse she is, or at least, thinks she is.

I must admit when I first started entering into the pasture with six horses it was a little bit intimidating, especially when I came bearing food. Baby Doll would try to take over and act as the alpha, claiming me and the food as her own, chasing off any other horse that came near, threatening to kick them. I didn’t like that behavior and I certainly didn’t feel safe. So, I took control and became the alpha instead. I got big, real big, stood up to and chased away the other horses. I claimed my space, and my horse. And it didn’t take long before the other horses kept their distance while I spent time with my mare.

When I first brought Baby Doll over to this leased pasture, she was nervous, worried and basically ignored me while she kept calling for other horses.

But, ever since I’ve proven myself to her as a source to be reckoned with, as an alpha mare that she can trust to watch her back as she eats, and as an alpha that the other horses respect, too, she doesn’t ignore me anymore. In fact, Baby Doll will stand beside me, un-haltered, in a several hundred acre field, even when the other horses move away out of her sight.

She won’t even call to them. She will stand still and patient as I groom her, get the knots out of her tail, pick up her feet, and spray her with fly spray. If I walk in the opposite direction of the other horses, she follows me, un-haltered, at liberty. Licking and chewing.

I don’t know where this will lead. I’m just taking it one day at a time. It’s all a learning process, for my mare, and for me.

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On another note: Has anyone else been enjoying the Perseid Meteor Showers this past week? My kidlets and I have been staying up late and into the early morning the last two nights to watch the exciting night show of bright white meteors trailing across the sky like rockets. Last night we lost count after 40 meteors! If you haven’t done it yet, and you have some nice dark skies, sit or lay down outside, face to the sky…and enjoy the celestial show!

From the Tower of,