Bar settles in

Bar pauses between bites to survey the driveway action

It's been about two weeks since we moved Bar and he seems to have settled in. He isn't even any harder to catch, meeting me at his gate every time, ready to see what we're up to next. He gets a little anxious when his neighbor Forrest is out, and Forrest gets a little anxious when Calabar is out, which is a little new for the two of them. Calabar (with a few exceptions) wasn't worried when Lena was out and Forrest never cared if someone took one of his earlier neighbors out. Somehow, it seems they know they are part of our weird little herd.

When we do work, Calabar is giving me more of his attention and seems to be trying extra hard to be good and listen and do what I ask. I can't tell yet if this is a side-effect from the move or if the nicer, warmer weather is mellowing him. It doesn't really matter--I'll take it however it comes.

One of the things that followed us, however, is his preference to face inward in the cross-ties. I thought he preferred it in the upper barn because there is a mare up there that kicks and makes ugly faces and he likes to face her rather than having her behind him. So I tied him facing out towards the driveway the first time I tacked him up in the lower barn. He fidgeted, which he hasn't done in a very long time. We got through it, but the next time, I faced him towards the long middle aisle, looking out towards the far off end of the barn and he cocked a back foot and sighed contentedly. Maybe he just doesn't like not seeing all those horses behind him and he knows what's in the driveway?

Weird big brown horse teaches me something new every day. Love him.

Calabar--Alpha Mare or disgruntled stallion?

Calabar is very concerned about his herd. Very. Concerned. He is also jealous. Does this make him a stallion--at least in his own mind since he is lacking certain stallion parts--or an alpha mare? My horse psychology is in need of a tune-up in the area of herd-dynamics so I'm not entirely sure.

Calabar in babysitting mode

He watches my every move when it I am with other horses. Other horses besides Lena, that is. When I am with Lena, his ENTIRE focus is on Lena. This is also crossing over a little bit to Dixie, though he wavers between concern for Dixie and jealousy over Dixie when it comes to me--all depending on who is holding Dixie's lead rope.

We saw some of this with his concern over who was riding and handling Lena after the bad person did both badly and the next person came along and had to prove herself worthy before the big brown horse would relax.

I frequently get stared at when handling Dixie or Cash and not his royal Calabar-highness, eyes leveled down between the pipe panel observing with annoyance as I took one or the other out to graze, work or groom.

But last week, when someone else took Dixie out and walked her around--BTM, before the move-- Calabar became over-protective watchful horse. Totally still, totally focused on what this new person might be doing with his little bay mare.

After the recent changes, Calabar is not between his two mares and has only Forrest to watch over and Forrest is often too busy hanging out with the mules behind him, enjoying his wide open, woodsy paddock. Forrest is also pretty sure he does not need supervision from bossy-pants-Calabar.

Last night, I had Clyde in the lower barn pointed out towards Calabar's new paddock. I was picking Clyde's feet and anointing them with iodine when I peered out upside down between my own knees. There was my horse, white crescent moon spot glowing at me as the light outside began to fade because he was facing me, watching me. Every. Move. I. Made.

I had no choice after I put Clyde away but to take Calabar out and work him, play with him, rub his brown head and tell him how much I loved him and that his is still my most favorite big brown ex-racehorse in the entire world. He mostly believed me. It helped that today he did not see ME holding Clyde's lead rope. Nope. Not me. This is not my favorite big brown ex-racehorse, Calabar. YOU are. See? Someone else is leading him around, not me.

Allison and Clyde discussing "the bubble"

It may have helped slightly that Clyde was very interested in what Calabar might have to say about the two ladies up top, but we didn't let them have that conversation.

So, Calabar.. what are Lena's favorite flowers?

Tonight, after adventures with Clyde and Dixie, I took Lena out to let her blow off some steam in the round pen. (Calabar and I romped last night.) Then, thinking it would be nice for them, I took her over to say hello. He whinnied and was very excited. She sniffed noses with him and they said hello before I took her back up top. I had a conversation with someone, gathered up my camera and a few other odds and ends, and went back down to say goodbye to Calabar. Who was a little hot and sweaty. Like he'd run around upset over something. Or some big spotted someone.

It may be only minor consolation to Calabar that Dixie does not like Clyde very much--there is much ear pinning and posturing between them--and made goo-goo eyes at Calabar when she saw him. He saw her and watched us, but did not get quite as excited as when he saw Lena. This of course makes sense since Lena and Calabar have been together for over five years and Dixie is only the newest female addition to the herd.

Hey! I know him! Why is he way down here?

Clyde has yet to be accepted, says Calabar. And if I were to allow an introduction, I'm pretty sure it would look something like this photo below of my big, brown, possessive horse.

Yes, that is Calabar on the left telling Romeo these are his mares. (Manna and me, or at least me.)

So my guess is Calabar is more of a stallion, despite the apparent worry and watchful nature that seem to me to be more alpha mare traits.

Calabar says that he is supposed to be master of the herd and all of these changes have left him quite upset. On the plus side, the changes have also left him more focused and reliant on me, making our training sessions a wee bit more productive.

Guess that makes me the alpha mare, Calabar. I'll take care of you and everyone else, just don't bite anyone. Especially me.

Lena and Bar: Observing personalities

We have always described Lena as our alpha mare--confident and exhibiting "let me handle this" behavior.

We assumed Bar accepted Lena as his alpha as well. He would usually defer to her on the trail if there was something he didn't want to try, look to her when he was afraid or needed reassurance, and stay close to her in new situations.

In fact, we had always worried about putting them out together, mainly over food issues. Lena is very food-focused, and Bar will wander off and leave his food because food is not an issue for racehorses. It's here when they need it and you don't have to fight for it. We were concerned that with her alpha tendencies and his mellow attitude, she'd eat it all, get fat, and Bar would get less and drop weight.

However, we discovered a new dynamic up at Slide.

We turned them out together the last night we were there, just to see how it would go. The first feeding, I was able to spread out the hay piles to keep them apart. When I went out to check on them later, Bar was nibbling on Lena's pile and she was watching him from a few feet off, looking forlorn--even though his bigger pile of hay was sitting uneaten behind her. She did eventually go finish it off, but in the meantime kept a very definite sphere of space between Bar and herself. If he moved, she moved away.

Hmmmm.

The next morning, as I walked up with two flakes of hay, I was faced with both of them coming towards the same corner. As I was trying to figure out how to split them up, Bar pinned his ears and bared his teeth and chased Lena uphill away from where she had been fed for the last four days. And she went.

And the other interesting piece was that Lena--the feeding time stress queen--was calmer with him in there.

There is surely more to this story.

Random thoughts about life with horses

In working on a marketing project for some friends of ours, I found myself drifting back in time through my blog posts and reliving the last few years of our horse journey. We've gone from one, to two, and now three horses. All of them are fun to ride and somewhat bound together by that similarity, yet are also as different as they can be in fundamental ways


Lena is a well-bred, albeit too tall, cutting horse. She had basic breaking and training in the cow-horse tradition and is smart, confident, sensitive, inquisitive--most definitely an alpha. No question, she is in charge, and as long as the other horses accept that, things are good. It doesn't work that way with her humans, but she's always going to try just to be sure you haven't changed your mind and decided to let her run the show after all. Keeping Lena entertained is the biggest challenge for her rider, and that obstacle that she went over yesterday could be a monster today just because she's bored and feels like it.


Bar is also very well-bred, but did not get the same generalized training Lena did--certainly not ranch horse work. He was made and trained to do one thing--run as hard and as fast as he could. He is also smart and curious, but much more prone to look to his human for guidance. That is part of what has been so important about the work we've done with him--he knows now he can trust me to take care of him in a situation and he doesn't have to take over. As long as I can stay calm and confident, he defers to me. It's why he's such a good horse for me--he is making me a better horse-woman simply because he trusts me to be that for him. I expect that eventually his confidence level will increase even more than it already has, but that he will never be the alpha Lena is. That's okay, there are enough of us in the family as it is.


It's also been interesting to watch Katie work with Sammy--a wholly different horse personality-wise from either of our other two. Sammy takes a lot of convincing sometimes, but will usually finally go along with you. And she seems to tolerate a lot of different stimulus without either Lena or Bar's penchant for reacting--or over-reacting some might say.

The journey, it seems, doesn't really end--it just winds out and offers new trails to explore.

Herd dynamics

I had an interesting lesson in herd dynamics this week when my friend Karen (yes, Lena's favorite masseuse) moved a mare to our barn.

Ellie is a four-year old thoroughbred mare who didn't race (I don't think). Pictures are coming, but I keep forgetting to grab my camera and since she's out in pasture, sometimes she's too far away. Karen is training her to sell and says she's a great trail horse.

Monday night, we picked Ellie up and moved her into the big pasture at our place with two Belgian mares - mother and daughter - and two geldings that are also new to the barn. Karen said Ellie was pretty dominant, but I was a little concerned because Ellie isn't very big and, well, I've seen those two mares be awfully nasty to some of the other horses in there.

I needn't have worried.

First of all, she out-ran all them -- trotting big, bouncy circles around them as they chased her, galloping with her tail up in the air while they watched her as if they had no idea what hit them.

Lena was watching me as well as all the commotion with great interest.

I left, telling Karen I'd be sure to check on Ellie when I got there in the morning, and telling Lena to keep her eye on Ellie, but still feeling vaguely worried.

The next morning, I got to the barn and saw the pasture bunch by the gate of their pasture. One of the mares pinned her ears and ran at Ellie, who pinned her ears back, but didn't budge one inch. Not one. She just swung her rear end in that direction slightly and the other mare veered off. Meanwhile, the two geldings were not only following Ellie like lost puppies, they were ready to defend her, too.

Today, they were all in relatively close proximity and mostly getting along.

The way I understand herd dynamics, that's about right. The alpha mare organizes the herd and keeps them together, though when a stallion is present he "technically" runs things. That probably defaults leadership to an alpha mare in a non-stallion environment, or so it would seem in this case.

I can't help but wonder what would happen if we had Lena and Ellie in the same pasture. Hmmm.