Herd of One

Horses are herd animals. They don’t like being alone. Even if they don’t like and bully a pasture mate they get really upset if the pasture mate is ever removed or out of sight. It’s a lot like an abusive relationship. This is the case with most horses. They have a pecking order, too.

Though it is rare, some horses do bond positively with one another from time to time. I recall bringing a horse home that belonged to a woman that was the sister of the woman that sold us another horse earlier. These two horses hadn’t seen one another for five or six years, but when we put them together there was a love fest and they were never apart the entire time we had them both at our place. They were long lost friends that were reunited.

My horse is about to become an “only horse” again for the next week in preparation for the arrival of our new horse. He’s been through this before. We’ve had horses here on a trial basis. He bonds with them and when the horses go back he will call for then for the first day. He will be anxious for another day, but then he resigns to being an only horse again. Then when we bring in a new horse he gets all puffy to show this is his place and he is the king. The funny thing was that he was the low horse in the pecking order at the farm where I got him. Pairing any two horses is always a crap shoot. I wonder how it will all work out.