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!).

COVD 19 - The Coronavirus: Full Barn!

A lorrie pulled up at 7:48 AM. It was slated to be a busy Saturday. 

Loki wanted to eschew all social distancing and run outside! I barked a laugh when I saw he jumped up onto a stack to get a better view.

Then I shooed him down, because he was on my laptop!

Two horses arrived after driving overnight from Massachusetts. Lorelai poked her head out, but refused to come down the ramp.

Her friend, Aquilla came down when she wouldn't budge.

Aquilla and Lorelai belong to Emily. Her parents brought them from their farm by driving 11.5 hours overnight.

Shane was in the same boat as Loki. He really wanted to run outside and greet everyone!

It was busy enough out there without throwing more into the mix.

Emily, her boyfriend Brian, her parents, their dogs, and Carrie let the horses out, took them for a walk, and helped them get situated.

Loki had to stay inside, but I did bring Shane out when the horses were stalled and people were spread amongst the barn. I told him "No shaking hands," but that he could say hi.

So we did. I wanted to say, "Hello," myself. I haven't got many chances to be social lately!

Not that I wasn't being cautious. I was hanging out with Maddy while people were in the aisle!

Here's the one selfie I took to prove I was present at any of these pictures!

Shane and I stayed on the fringe of things, but he got to meet the new boarders. The pony seemed high spirited (and maybe in a bad way). I thought it was funny when he wanted to share Lorelai's hay instead of eat his own. He's remarkable flexible, too. He could pick up his front hooves over his head. It would have been funnier if he wasn't swinging them aggressively at Kitty in the next stall over.

Shane didn't have any problem finding 4 leaf clovers in our yard! He found a bunch!

He was looking around as people packed up to head out. Emily's parents were doing a crazy turn around! They drove through the night and they were ready to drive 11.5 hours back to Massachusetts? That's hardcore!

When they left, they took their dogs with them and Loki got to come out and help Shane look for clovers.

Aquilla and Lorelai went out to the mare's pasture. Aquilla immediately become very possessive of Lorelai and would flatten his ears and charge at Kitty to keep her as far away as possible.

Poor Kitty spent much of her time running around or pushed into a corner of the dry lot. The little pony bullied her around.

We had to close the pasture off, because Aquilla and Lorelai have not been on grass yet. They needed to be weaned onto it and Carrie had wanted some proximity to help them acclimate to each other faster (Preferably without anyone running full speed into a corner).

It was funny to see all of the horses try to crowd together and get to know each other over the fencelines.

It almost looked like Maddy was holding court. She made a motion and everyone shooed!

You tell 'em, Pony!

The day wasn't over yet, though. Ellie met Carrie brought Magic to the barn a little after noon.

When Magic stepped through the door we were 'Magically' made full!

It turned out that Heidi knew Ellie!

The reunion wasn't strict social distancing, but it was heartfelt!

Apparently, Ellie's daughter loves Heidi's horse!

Magic was antsy in his stall. We brought Eddy in to chill next to him since they already knew each other. Of course, Sam butted in (Really, he was probably curious if there was going to be food served).

Aquilla and Lorelai poked their heads in, too. Most horses are nosy about newcomers (even when they're new themselves!).

Loki was a pain. He wouldn't keep his nose out of Buddha's privates. "He's turning his p____ into a pacifier," Shane said.

Conversation and topics I really don't want to deal with at this age in a barn full of women. Darn pervert dog.

I was able to switch topics and put Shane to work getting water for the dogs. He loves to play with almost anything water related and as long as the bucket fills I'm happy.

I took Shane and Loki inside to let things calm down for Magic.

Laura and Amy showed up to love on Eddy while we were at the house. With all the gelding owners gabbing together, they decided it was time to introduce Magic to the herd. All the boys were stalled and then Magic and Eddy were turned out together (it was a known success). Once those two were re-acclimated, Ernie was put out into the mix (We thought he'd be calmer than Sam).

Ernie and Magic went side by side and were huffing each other as everyone watched and commented. They weren't fast friends, but they weren't exactly enemies either. There were some half-hearted kicks and posturing and we had to shoo them off into the field so they won't crowd us or get trapped under the lean-to.

It was a lot of watching, waiting, and hoping. There's not too much you can do once they horses are on their own. At around 0:20 is where Ernie comes running in from the field and they start huffing in each other's scents again. Should be some funny noises by 0:30.

There may have been one factor in all this we didn't account for: Maddy. Carrie said she was in heat. She was flirting it at all, but the boys (Especially Ernie) kept along her fenceline rather than going off to eat.

Things took an exciting turn and we lost a fencepost. 

Our fenceposts are pressurized wood and sturdy, but it snapped in a moment. I clearly saw it go down, but I still said "Did it go down?" out of pure shock in the video! You'll have to watch if you want to know which horse was the culprit (looked like it hurt him a little, too).

The horses were all worked up and Eddie even launched a kick in Carrie's direction. It was shoulder to head height and thankfully not truly aimed at her (It still came within a couple feet! I didn't get it on camera, but it was an explicit reminder to be careful around big animals!).

Carrie had the post fitted back together well....until I pulled it up for a picture. It didn't fit back quite right afterward.

We stalled all the boys and hammered a t-post into the ground to brace the broken post on.

Then duct tape.

We let the boys all out again including Sam. Sam didn't even realize there was a new horse, at first. He shoved his head back into his stall and asked for more grain!

When he did notice Magic he ran right over. The joke is Sam has two words in his vocabulary: Friend and Food.

"Friend?" Sam asked.

"Friend!" Magic replied.

"Food!" Sam said.

"Friend and food!"

And that was that. We never imagined that adding Sam to the mix would calm things down! We're lucky he's a kind (and oblivious) alpha.

The boys paired up and became a happy herd off grazing before too much time had passed.

If you watched the video, you're aware Shane came trotting down while all this was going on. He wanted me to play lacrosse with him.

It was a busy day! We got what we wished for: A full barn! We'll see how it all plays out. Carrie had some small food breaks, but she was busy from roughly 8 AM to 8 PM. I was out for at least half the day, but I had to go back and forth to be on Shane duty, as well.