COVID 19 - The Coronavirus: Pony Express

Carrie gave our new boarder a 48 hour ultimatum: the pony had to go. 

He was overly attached to Lorelai. He acted like her lackey or goon (or Scrappy Doo!) and would chase off any horse that came too close to her. When separated, he'd become anxious and agitated. He charged past Carrie out of his stall once when Lorelai was let out before him (She had to dodge). Another time, he started to rear in his stall when Lorelai was away from him (Thankfully, his owner was there to see his behavior. Carrie was worried his feet are small enough he'd get a hoof stuck in in the cattle mesh between stalls).

Carrie said it wasn't safe. The pony had to go.

Aquilla only came on Saturday, but he'd already started to affect our other boarders, too. 

Madeleine came to ride Kitty, but pony intervened. Lorelai and Aquilla were between Kitty and her owner. Any time Kitty started to head towards Madeline it was too close to Lorelai for pony's liking. He'd chase Kitty off and Madeleine would be back to square one catching her. Carrie saw it from a window and had to go out and grab Aquilla's halter to help.

"This will not do," Carrie said.

The pony had to go.

Ironically, Kitty got her courage up to fight back the Wednesday night. Aquilla kept trying to dodge around Lorelai and nip and kick at Kitty, but Kitty gave it back in equal measure. It went on a lot longer than we liked, but no one was hurt and pony was forced to accept a field demotion. 

If we had a larger set of fields, we would have separated the pony from Lorelai. Anywhere we did put him, he'd be able to see her and there was a chance he'd risk charging through the fence lines to get back to her. Aquilla's possessiveness of Lorelai seemed to be the root of his problem, but we weren't the right place to treat it. A larger barn with multiple herds could do that and find a herd with the right alpha to put pony in his place. 

It turned out Carrie had a friend willing to help. 

Sonya was willing to take on pony as a project. They've got space galore and she was connected with many possible homes. If the behavior could be fixed, Aquilla might be able to go back to being a lesson horse for some 4-H or young rider who couldn't afford a pony of their own. 

Aquilla's owner relinquished her rights to him on Wednesday. Carrie was checking tire pressure in the truck and ready to haul Thursday.

Aquilla was only 13 hands, so Carrie removed the center partition from the trailer. She was worried he might somehow wiggle underneath it during transport and hurt himself (The pony had to go, but Carrie is all about helping a horse rather than getting rid of one).

Physically, the equipment was ready to go before all of the boys were fed their breakfast. The girls were fed early to help with the next step: Carrie introduced Maddie to the herd.

Carrie was concerned about Lorelai's reaction when Aquilla was removed. Horses need familiarity and he was the horse she was most familiar with. Kitty was the other horse she liked, but Kitty's owner was getting ready to move back home with her! Maddie would be the only mare left! She and Lorelai hadn't been introduced yet, because Maddie had been in the tough-love fat camp instead of in the field.

The girls got their food early and Maddie was turned loose with the rest of the field.

The horses all ran around like banshees for the next fifteen minutes or so. Maddie was the first one to put her head down and say, "Grass! Time to eat!" The others eventually calmed down enough to coexist.

This picture is pretty telling.

If you look at Maddie, she's at full stride. Kitty and Lorelai are following, but their ears are up.

Do you see the pony's ears?

Probably not, because they're flattened. He was coming in aggression and not offering a "How do you do?" Aquilla would not let Maddie stick with the herd or approach Kitty and Lorelai. He'd break off and swoop at her.

Whether by her choice or his design, Maddie was off on her own to graze. Maddie's not a total pushover, so she didn't get bit or kicked. She'd threaten to kick if him whenever he got too close her!

However, that's not a healthy herd dynamic.

The pony had to go.

So Carrie had me lure Lorelai over to the fence with the promise of grain. Pony followed. That let Carrie grab him while I forked over the bait to keep her occupied..

She was right by the trailer to help him not worry about her being far away. Carrie stuck a bucket of feed under his snout and Aquilla walked on hesitation free.

I felt a little bad for him, because I don't think Lorelai noticed or cared. She went on eating and didn't move or even look for him when the trailer walked away.

No, I think she's gay for Kitty.

She was squirting out in the field while Kitty sniffed at her. They've been shoulder buddies every since.

Madeleine came to ride Kitty and Lorelai stayed by her stall looking in. When Kitty went to the arena, Lorelai trotted to the fence and kept eyes on her (and was winking according to Carrie!).

But back to the pony at 13 hands.

Carrie rolled off our property before 10 AM to journey south to Sonya's. It was a two hour drive and she hauled Aquilla on our dime.  

He transported well and behaved like a gentle pony for offloading. Carrie really believes that the separation from Lorelai will be the best thing for him.

Sonya's a professional photographer, so she had some fun snapping pictures of the little guy before throwing him into quarantine.

Jeff wasn't as impressed. He wanted to know why there was a new little bugger on the property (Sonya has a tendency to 'collect' fuzzies).

Carrie pulled out a bottle of hand sanitizer and told him she was delivering it to Sonya (they're all out around where they are!). The pony was a prize that came with it!

Which explains Sonya's post that night.

Aquilla's in a good place. Carrie trusts Sonya's ability to find homes for horses and he's off our property.

It would have been nice to have him around generating some extra income, but there will be a less crap in the fields for now (literally and figuratively).

Bonus video:

This didn't really fit in the earlier flow of the post, so I figured I'd post it here.

Carrie wanted to make sure Lorelai and Kitty had some time to bond. Pony made that impossible, so we started to let Lorelai and Kitty out together to see how they'd interact without Aquilla in the mix.

They hit it off the moment he was out of the picture. Lorelai led Kitty off into the far fields and didn't look back for her little friend (I couldn't help but feel a little bad for the badly behaved guy!).

We weren't about to leave Pony up all day and going bat crap crazy in his stall, so we had to turn him loose. Here's what it looked like.

They were too far over the hill to see it well, but after Aquilla made it to Lorelai he started to charge and chase off Kitty. This was in the dark times before she put him in his place and things calmed down (right before he left!).