Hi Howard,
Congrats on the new guy in town. I have five and if you
aren't careful you will find yourself at that number, too. Just seems to
happen. I suspect that you have already tried this but here goes
anyway.
I have five large grazing lanes in my pasture which I
rotate. One of them is quite large. All are at least 350 feet by 50 feet. When I
have a visiting horse or bring a new horse in, I separate them by at least two
lanes. If I find that there is one of the old hands who is more mellow and might
get along, I may eventually (a few days) turn them out together. When they are
brought in, the interloper is placed in a stall and paddock which is locked. The
others can roam in and out of the other three stalls and paddocks. There is a
lot of squealing and lunging going on but no one gets hurt. So far, this seems
to work and after a week or so, they all seem to accept the new one.
I made the mistake the first time I brought home a new
horse to the other three. I just turned her into the pasture with them. My most
docile little gelding bared his teeth and went for her at a fast gallop. He
looked as though he would kill her if he caught her. She was squealing and
running for dear life and I was racing around trying to chase him off of her.
(not a smart thing to do on my part but I had not shown a high degree of
intelligence to begin with so why stop then?) Luckily, I was able to get her
headed into a paddock where she could be isolated and we began the sane approach
to introducing a new horse to the herd.
Anyway.....I hope that things will settle down at your
place and you will end up with a happy, healthy family of horses who can all see
and walk when it is all said and done.....
Pat Super----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2001 3:31
PM
Subject: RC: Mohammed meets the Three
Stooges
I now own 4 horses. For some reason, 3 didn't seem to be a bad
number. But, man, 4, I think, is the critical digit where fun suddenly
transforms into work. And it's because the new guy, Mohammed (I
love that name for my new Arab horse), is having difficulty fitting into the
scheme of things. My herd is attacking this interloper, and I'm
hoping we haven't started a renewal of the Crusades here, Muslim vs.
Christian. Mohammed is outnumbered 3 to one. And he's also the
smallest of all four.
I think it's all the mare's fault. My sweet adorable mare,
Moonlight Princess, the horse I've loved and owned since she was 6 months
old. I've never seen her go after another horse before; never even seen
her agitated at one. That was until I bought Mohammed to the barn.
Now things have drastically changed.
I've done this before, bring a new horse into the yard. For some
reason my 3 horses, Rebel, Dance Line, and Moonlight Princess, have bonded
beyond the point of anything comparable in the annals of threesome
history. They have gone past the Three Musketeers or the Three Stooges
or even the Marx Brothers, in being united and one for all and all for
one, although they are just as funny and just as dangerous together.
When I did try leasing a new horse, another Saddlebred, two years ago, they
excluded him so much from everything, that the poor horse started losing
weight (and this was on a frame that could not afford to lose anything)
to the point where I had to return the horse to it's owner, with my sincere
apologies. They intentionally wanted to kill the new horse and almost
succeeded in doing so.
Now, Mohammed, he's doing better than that Saddlebred. He's a
scrapper, and for his small frame, I'm quite impressed. He's already
giving Rebel a black eye, completely swollen shut, and Rebel has a couple of
cuts on his back legs, definitely from hitting a fence or running into
something because of the new guy in town. And Rebel is my Groucho;
he's the preferred leader of the threesome (OK, maybe, there were actually 4
Marx Brothers). Princess isn't doing much better. One of her eyes
was also swollen shut. And her sweet, innocent demeanor seems to have
changed completely into the Bitch from Hell, who is taking no prisoners.
Yesterday, when I let her out of her stall, she immediately charged towards
Mohammed, in a flat out gallop, as if she was in a riderless jousting
match. And it was a joust to the Death. This has all become way
too much for me to handle.
I've nicknamed Mohammed: Scrapper. Because he is. Even though
he weighs less than any of them, he doesn't have one cut or scratch
anywhere. And no swollen eyes. Now, Dance Line has become "The
Mediator." I'm not sure who he's protecting, but what he does is he puts
his awesome frame (he looks like a horse and a half next to the other two)
between Princess and Mohammed. Maybe I should call him "Bubba" (I'll
never insult Dance Line enough to call him "DUHHHHHHbeya") since he seems to
be attempting to negotiate peace in the Middle EAst, all in
my backyard.
Anyway, lots of excitement going on lately. How it will end is any
ones guess. I just know I'm making more trips to Home Depot lately
replacing all those fence boards and posts that have become casualties of
war. The Crusades are alive and well in Central Florida. I hope it
all ends soon.
cya,
Howard (is this all due to me naming him "Mohammed?" Why can't we
all just get along? What the heck is going to happen when we all get to the
Biltmore?)