feeding fighting horses

[RhndLev@cs.com]

In a message dated 3/19/01 7:40:36 PM Pacific Standard Time, tos@htcomp.net 
writes:

<<  If you elevate someone above their stations for an hour
 twice a day, it causes confusion and conflict within the herd. -the higher
 ranking horses that were feed down the line are likely to reinforce their
 dominance on the hapless souls that were fed at the front of the line as
 soon as they can get their teeth on them. >>

We've fought this for the last several years.  We brought home a friend's 
elderly mare to care for while the friend was sick.  My herd of fatties DO 
NOT require grain -- just hay and pasture.  However, Isa (the elderly mare) 
definitely needs a complete feed and Weight Builder and probiotics and . . .  
So, we put her in a stall to feed her twice a day.  Then we'd turn her out 
and the others would beat the heck out of her.  We've ended up fencing our 
yard, and bringing her into the yard each day to eat out of sight of the 
others.  I've had more calls and more people stopping by going, "You have a 
horse out in your yard."  Me, "I'm aware of that, thank you."  Them, Curious 
stare and/or long silence.  Me, "I mean for her to be there."  Them, Curious 
stare and/or long silence.  Me, "She's 31.  She's a pet."  Them, Curious 
stare and/or long silence.  Me, "Thanks again.  Good-bye,"  close door and/or 
hang up phone.

It's funny though, my friend gave us the mare and I know she thought she was 
doing us a favor.  I took the mare and thought I was doing my friend a favor. 
 I have spent more on that mare in the last two years than I have on the rest 
of the herd of 10 horses combined.  And yet, in the end, my friend was right. 
 She was doing me the favor.  Isa has brought great joy to me and to my 
daughter who is convinced that Isa, with her gleaming white coat and huge 
dark eyes, is a unicorn in disguise.

Rhonda