Today's blog isn't about Artemis but about Jimmy and an issue we were faced with recently. Jimmy is kind of our problem child, he's currently undergoing some major desensitization training. He's a very sensitive horse and any little thing sets him back. The issue I wanted to talk about is paddock buddies and when is enough, enough?I fully believe that horses should not be isolated. They are herd animals and we should respect that. When we first moved down to the stable, Socks and Jimmy were put in a paddock together (it's two horses to a paddock to avoid overcrowding). With the surprise birth of Artemis, Socks and Artemis were seperated just to be safe, to reduce chances of her being stepped on. Initially Jimmy remained in their original paddock, with Socks and Artemis in the paddock right next to him. But more horses have come so they needed that paddock. That meant that Jimmy had to be moved in with somebody new. We told our barn owners that Jimmy is always the low man in the herd and they chose a horse they thought would be a good fit. Devon, the horse they chose, was, like Jimmy, always on the bottom of the pecking order. We hoped they would work out.
It was the first day that they were together that we noticed the bite marks on Jimmy. He had about five or six, none were bad but hair was missing. Over the next few days we noticed more bites. Our problem was this, how long should we give the horses to work things out before we requested that Jimmy be moved in with another horse? None of the scrapes were bad but we didn't want it to continue and escalate. Another issue was that Devon would eat all the food. Usually you can take one horse out and the horse that stays doesn't eat all the food, but if we took Jimmy out, there would be absolutly no hay when we put him back. So we started pushing a bunch of the hay out when we took him, and pushing it back in when we put him back.
For us, the food was the final straw. Jimmy needs to lose a few pounds but that's not how we want him too. Luckily, we didn't even have to approach our barn owners about it. Right before we were going to, Devon's owners moved him to another stable. Jimmy's in with another gelding, Eli now and things couldn't be better. No new scrapes on either of them, they share their food and they get along really well. The only issue is that they get into trouble together, like pulling down one strand of the electric tape. Other than that, there is no problems.
But it was a little difficult. We didn't want to be the overprotective horse owners, horses get scrapes, it happens, but we also didn't want to let Jimmy get beat up. I asked for advice from several people, and some said at the first scrape they would have requested, other said they give up to a week to see if the horses sort it out. It was interesting to see the different opinions though.
On another note, Blogger still isn't letting me post comments...
1 comment:
Gem was kept on his own with his previous owner. When he was transported to a riding stable before I purchased him, they tried turning him out with the other horses but he became very protective of "his" mares and had to be separated. We tried to introduce him to the herd where we are now. After 3 days, the result was the same and we had to separate him. He just didn't know how to play nice. So, now he has his own little field that he shares with a gelding or two. It's large enough that they are not in close proximity to each other if they don't want to be. Electrical tape provides a barrier to the herd, but they still get to see and feel like they are part of it. It's worked out very well.
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