A Lesson in Herd Dynamics

Horses are capable of teaching you something new every day. My latest lesson is one in herd dynamics--especially between boy-horses!

On Sunday, we brought into the barn the yearling Appaloosa colt pictured in one of my recent posts. On Monday, The Tankmeister--our super-senior gelding (age 29), and the self-appointed guardian of Tiffany, the yearling filly--discovered the presence of the ungelded interloper. All it took was my leading him past the colt's stall. The colt let out one of those boy-to-boy throaty calls, and the normally half-comatose old fellow turned into a horse I didn't recognize.

Tank didn't just get upset. He got beside himself. Even back in his own pen, where he couldn't see the colt, he was frantic over the new, unexpected presence of a perceived threat to his domain. He didn't calm down until after I moved Tiffany to the farthest pen from the colt, which placed Tank between the younger horses' pieces of ranch real-estate. He still can't see the colt, mind you, but is quieter now that he's between the two--where (in his mind) he can protect Tiffany from the threat.

Yesterday, I snapped this picture of him standing guard over Tiffany while she was taking a sunny-day siesta. He's done this out in the pasture whenever we've had a foal out there with its dam. With Tiffany as the last of the foals, I should have known the old boy would still think of her as "his."

You know what they say about old men and smoke from the chimney: The fire still burns down below!