Noble is definitely taking advantage of Joe's absence to make his dominance known - I saw them playing the "circle game" around one of the round bales this morning - Noble moved Fritz who moved Fred who moved Scout, who's the baby and is always at the bottom. And then when Scout got too close, Noble warned him off - poor Scout! Noble will actually charge at the others with his ears pinned, and is back to insisting that he come in first in the evening. Not too bad for an old gelding who will be 29 in May!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Mr. "I'm In Charge Here"
Noble seems to have recaptured his alpha spot in the gelding herd. Noble was briefly the alpha before Joe came, and then was bumped to #2. Everything got shaken up by the arrival of Fred and Fritz - for a while things were sort of circular - Joe would move Fritz and Noble but Noble would also move Fritz. Joe seems to have tired of all this - although he's a few years younger than Noble, he's pretty stiff and seems older, and now he's inclined to stay out of the tussle. He even seemed a little depressed, and, to add insult to injury, he seems to have pulled a muscle in his shoulder while playing with Scout yesterday and is stuck in a small paddock until he feels better.
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Wow brave ole man that Noble! Sounds like he's glad to be on top again! Funny how this pecking order thing is huh!?LOL! I cannot wait to turn Romeo (yearling) out with the lower ones on the totem pole this spring....should be a show to watch.....one at a time first of course. His full brother (next to youngest) is a coming 3 yr. old. The next is a coming four year old mare that is either third or fourth out of six horses (her and her full brother who is a coming five year old) change back and forth in dominance). Then we have a nine year old mare (Romeo's mom) and a sixteen year old mare who is "the dominant" mare of all of them. He's already been out with out five year gelding, buddies from the start. We call him our social director. Everyone misses him when he goes to the trainer.....humans and horse buddies alike. They work it out for sure! Beautiful day here today.....57 degrees and sunny. I'm riding!
ReplyDeleteHerd dynamics as I have noted are always fascinating to me. Dominant horses seem to be able to make themselves understood really quickly about who's boss. An surprisingly, there usually isn't a lot of violence.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we humans could learn a few things from the equines.