Let's see. At the beginning of the season I thought they would pasture five horses. They showed up with two. With plans for four more. That would make six. Okay, I can handle one extra horse. Instead I have four. If they bring more, that would be eight. Minus one would be seven. What happened to five?
I've been wanting the five as two horses are taking a long time to eat down the tall grass in my yard. Thinking the other horses would be arriving soon I had the two horses in just the corral and back yard. Once that was eaten down I let them into the yard the end of last week.
Here is a case for "the grass is greener". Look at "Cowboy". Grass is up to her belly but she wants to eat the grass on the other side of the fence. Why? I guess it is just because she can.
This was the first ride in a trailer for these two fillies. I am used to cattle. When you open the trailer door get out of their way as they rush out of the trailer. These two fillies didn't want to come out. They stood and looked and sniffed the air but would not come out.
Cheryl put a rope on them and tried to lead them out but they wouldn't come out of the trailer. She tried enticing them with a cookie treat. Nope. With hay. Nope. She tugged on the rope. Nope. Her husband and I just stood around and chatted and watched.
Finally the grey horse tentatively stepped out of the trailer. The brown horse wanted to come out but just didn't feel confident in stepping down from the trailer. She would look and put a foot down but as soon as her foot dropped below the trailer she pulled it back in. She would walk to the other side of the trailer and try and fail again. Back and forth and back and forth. "Stepping into air" scared her.
Finally she stepped a little farther, and with Cheryl now holding a rope on her, went past the point of being able to get her foot back into the trailer - though she tried to get her foot back in the trailer. She kind of stepped and fell out of the trailer, and once her feet were all on the ground, ran over to her grey friend.
I've seen people load horses into a trailer quicker than these two came out of the trailer.
Cheryl wanted these two fillies to get to know "Cowboy" and "Fancy" over a fence as she felt Cowboy would chase the two fillies around until they got acquainted, and that the fillies knew their place in the pecking order. So I put Cowboy and Fancy into the NE pasture until this evening.
The two fillies were initially skittish with their new surroundings. By the time I came out in the evening to work more on moving my head gate, the two fillies were quite comfortable with me and often would come over and sniff me and check out what I was doing.
Cowboy and Fancy spent most of their time by the hay shed and seemed to be ignoring the two fillies. At the end of the evening, when the two fillies were on the other side of the barn, Cowboy and Fancy were ready to come back into the corral.
But when they went over to the water trough and came close to the two fillies, it hit the fan. Like Cheryl predicted, Cowboy chased the two fillies around the corral. Fancy got worked up too and sometimes would help with the chase.
I guess old lady Cowboy and grandma Fancy didn't care to share the corral with these two teenage girls. The girls wanted to be friends but the old women were not in the mood. The fillies would approach the older horses a number of times only to be run off.
I was putting an electric cord away in the barn and Cowboy ran right up to me and got in my face. Later when I admonished her for chasing the fillies she looked back at me and gave me a dirty look. She looked to be blaming me for bringing these fillies into her area.
For the night I left all of them in the corral. I didn't want them running around the yard all night sorting their differences out. Tomorrow I will let them into the yard to continue eating the grass down.
The grey filly is called: Shufflebeans. The brown filly is called Fire- something. I forgot her correct name.
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