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[RC] Question on Herd Positioning? - Lacy JaeThis isn't about endurance or anything, so if it's off topic I'm sorry and please disregard.. this is the best place I know of so far in my horse experience to ask though. I have three horses, and they were kept with other horses in a pasture before we got them, as far as we know. So when we got them (around Dec 23rd?) they were kept in a paddock to get used to the new setting and everything.. and recently, this month, they were transferred to the mare pasture. The way the pasture is set up is.. there's a paddock in the main yard, which connects to a field surrounded by trees, with a 3-sided barn in it, and on the other side that connects with a huge pasture, with another 3-sided barn in it. Anyway, my horses have been jostling for position in their new herd (I think 5 other horses? there was another new one when they came in, so I'm not positive on the numbers) for like a week or so.. and they seem to still be doing it. My young 4-year-old untrained girl Mocha has a cut on her leg from a fight, and she apparently hurt the other horse (the one who attacked her, she didn't start it) so badly that it had to be taken out of the pasture. I was haltering my other girl Crystal in the tree field to bring her out to try a saddle and get some lovings today, and two of the other horses came up so close they were almost touching us, and did something that made Crystal rear, and I was afraid I'd be in the middle of a horse fight. What I'm wondering is how long I can expect them to be jostling for position.. roughly anyway. It seems quite dangerous to wander around in there with them while they're fighting it out, but I have no other way to see my horses, as they don't come into the paddock portion much as it is feeling like -41 C here (-41 F too!) the past few days. Also, if anyone has any suggestions on how I can tell who is on top... and how to deal with the horses who keep crowding me when I'm trying to halter my girls to get them where we can take care of them? So far I've been staring at them, shoving myself forward at them.. or telling them over, and clapping.. but those attempts don't seem to work much and it's really frustrating and unnerving to have all these horses crowding me when they are still figuring out who goes where. Any hep would be awesome. Thank you so much. :) -Lacy Jae in cold, cold, COLD Calgary, Alberta -- "Loyalty to a petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul." - Mark Twain http://www.goveg.com/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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