As an update, just to let everyone know, I did have 3 participants who wanted to sign on for the Pay It Forward challenge. They are:
- Anne of Knitting Under Water
- Birdsong of A View from Sierra County
- Chris of Woolybuns
I think this is a lovely idea, and I'm looking forward to picking some handmade gifts for these 3 ladies. I already have a few ideas, but I have a whole year to decide!
In other news, my pony boys are giving me a twitch. Diggs has always been a bit of an aggressive horse. He isn't with him mom, because... well, he's not stupid enough to want to have a royal arse-kicking, but he can be with other horses. Before we got him, he was pastured in the "wild boys" group with 2 other geldings (both bigger and older than him) plus an intact stallion (also bigger and older than him) and he routinely kicked their butts. He also went through a hot electric fence to get to a mare that was in heat the year he had just turned 4. I have had him tested for testosterone levels, thinking maybe something was missed when he was snipped, but no. It's just him and his ways.
So, while Bhen is not a pushover, I worried about the boys. About 2 weeks ago, Diggs spent the day working on a 6-foot high metal gate that separated him and his mom from Bhen's section of the pasture, and then finally broke the damn thing and then spent an hour kicking and biting the crap outta Bhen before I looked out the window and went out to separate them. Bhen had a 6-inch x 2-inch gash in his flank that is just now finally healing up. Diggs routinely will try to rear and strike at Bhen through the new gate panel I put up in the barn to keep them apart, when it is feeding time. Generally, after breakfast, I will watch the 2 boys standing out at the 3-strand hot wire fence playing "bite my face" in the small space between the strands of electric fence (where they aren't getting zapped, but ARE nipping at each other). But then the dorks will stand as close to the fence as they can without touching it and take a nap next to each other.
Hap has given up on them. She just ignores their boyish antics or whatever the hell this behavior is, and goes off to nap by herself. Usually with her back to them. With great annoyance if they wake her up.
I'm not entirely sure she doesn't have the right idea. What a buncha dorks.
All for now.......
I have little gelding experience. Beyond 'face fighting' -- dork boys for sure. don't they give up once the pecking order is established? Poor Bhen. Holley is way up at the top of the mare gang, so she usually does the ass kicking if there is a new girl in school.
Posted by: Mary Lou | December 07, 2007 at 10:30 AM
Bad! Bad Diggs! Play nice!
Posted by: Cheryl S. | December 07, 2007 at 10:32 AM
Do horses actually allow the dominant one to go so far as to cause permanent hurt? I don't know much about horses but I wonder if it's not like dogs where once pecking order is established, nothing more is needed than the occasional reminder.
Posted by: Kit | December 07, 2007 at 02:19 PM
Oh, those dominant dorks! Jazz is a female version of that, which is why she isn't mine anymore. I'm thrilled with CC's sense of order. She doesn't dish it out but she doesn't take it, either. She prefers to self inflict her own damage.
Posted by: Chris | December 07, 2007 at 03:23 PM
I've always thought that girls were harder to raise than boys...
Posted by: Sheepish Annie | December 08, 2007 at 07:04 AM
Wow, it sounds like Diggs wants to be an only child!
Posted by: Margaret | December 09, 2007 at 10:34 AM
Jeez, poor Bhen. You have to wonder about testosterone.
Posted by: Laurie | December 09, 2007 at 04:50 PM
I feel badly for poor Bhen! The story reminds me of one about bison, which I read in an old Spin-Off (I think; maybe it was IK.) The punch line of the story was something like "There is no fence strong enough to protect you from a bison if he is sufficiently pissed off. Two fences won't do the job either."
Posted by: Beth S. | December 09, 2007 at 06:31 PM
My two boys like each other, but they still fight. The "I can bite your face but you can't bite mine" game is one of their favorites, as well. I'd keep an eye on your boys, but wouldn't be too worried. It sounds like they're on their way to getting along, with the occasional fight to keep the pecking order. Also, I find that they're often braver going after one another when there's a fence separating them--it's mostly bluff (although it does sound like Digger sometimes carries through on his bluff).
Posted by: Nicole | December 09, 2007 at 07:34 PM
they sound like my teenage boys! t hey're 13 & 15, and i swear t hey do the same i can bite your face type stuff! sigh, even in the animal world!
Posted by: minnie | December 09, 2007 at 08:32 PM