Horse talk

We are currently debating whether it is time to bring our horse back home from his summer grazing. He works very hard during the year and so needs time to recharge his batteries and to digest all that he has learnt during the year. It also gives us a break from the daily stable grind. He has been going to the same Swedish summer summer grazing for the past 5 years, and he just loves it there. He was raised in New Zealand as part of a large herd so he's well used to the company of other horses. I think he gets a bit bored with the same old paddock mate for the rest of the year. I have noticed that the majority of Swedish born horses I have met are not extremely comfortable or confident, in a herd environment. I suspect that's been the product of the horse community environment where horses are raised in small groups on relatively small properties. They don't get the opportunity to learn proper horse language. When we purchased our horse, him he was one of 70 horses grazing on a large rural horse property. So appropriate social skills were already a part of him.

 

At the summer grazing property, the mares go into one paddock and the geldings into another. There's usually about 15 horses in each paddock. He understands more about other horses than any other horse there, so he quickly picks up on a problem horse and can deal with them appropriately. He's not an aggressive horse but he knows what is right, and what is not appropriate behaviour. He doesn't thrust himself forward as a dominant leader but other horses do look to him for direction. I think he does get a little irritated by that at times. There is usually a tale or 2 to be told about him when we go to pick him up. A couple of years back there was a new horse who had no idea about group dynamics and started to get bullied by the others as a result. Our boy spent several weeks protecting the new horse while trying to show him how one should behave around other horses. One time there was a gelding who arrived with his stablemate mare. The mare went into the paddock containing all the other mares. Her lovesick stable mate ignored all of his new paddock friends and became very stressed over being separated from his mare. Our boy spent the best part of 2 weeks going backwards and forwards between the herd and this one horse, giving the horse a nudge everytime he went. As I said, it took 2 weeks, but eventually the other horse gave in and joined the herd. This year there is a horse, which is well known to our horse, who has arrived with an injured leg. Some how our horse picked up straight away that there was something wrong, and has stuck to the other horse like glue. Anyone who so much as glances sideways at the injured horse gets told to back off in no uncertain terms. I worry a bit that he spends so much time making sure that the other horses are ok, that he doesn't get any rest himself. But I think that he enjoys being back in a herd setting and he hasn't tried to follow us when we leave after a visit. It's usually a sign that he's ready to go home when he follows us back to the gate. It takes a lot for him to leave the herd.

 

It looks like he will be getting at least one more week's reprieve. As will we. We'll pop out for a visit this weekend to see how everything is going. If most of the other horses are starting to go home then we'll probably do the same. It won't be much fun for him alone.