As the barn turns

Oh the drama!

Buckerooni does not like to be in the triangle (the name of one of our pastures) while the other horses are across the driveway so we've been putting the other horses in their stall/paddocks at night and bringing him up to the barn pasture. This worked when he first came home and everything seemed to be fine. Granted, it was raining when we first tried it so he snuggled in under a tree and rode out the storm, but all seemed to be ok with no shenanigans.

Well. Things have changed.

Buck was out there last night and I don't know what he and Paddy were doing over the fence, but they brought the fence line down (electric tape fence). Colin feeds breakfast so he fixed it, but then they did it twice more in a couple of hours. Buck had gotten himself INTO the paddock where Paddy had been and Paddy was out, running around. Then after the next time Colin fixed it, Buck was chasing Paddy around the small pasture. This was not good. Paddy was not feeling well yesterday and I don't want him to get stressed or hurt. Colin had to go out and somehow get two amped-up horses separated and bring Buck back across the driveway where he probably doesn't want to be but too effin' bad for him.

Last night I came home from a horse show and since Buck and Paddy have shared a fence line without trouble I thought they could get introduced and go in the pasture together. I put them out and it didn't seem to be a problem until I went to go and get food. Then Buck pinned his ears at Paddy and backed up and tried to double-barrel him. There was squealing and kicking and running and so I separated them right away. Clearly it is now ON and Buck wishes to take what he sees as his rightful place in the herd.

I understand that horses (like dogs) have to figure out their heirarchy and work the details out themselves. I am perplexed, though, why this seems to have come up recently because Buck seemed to be so mellow and it seemed like he got along with everyone.

We don't really turn the horses out together anyway - Tomato goes out by himself and Paddy goes out by himself - because I don't want fighting like this. I guess I naively thought that between these two easy-going guys that it would be easy and they would just get along. I suppose it is hard because if they were out in a herd, like where Buck came from, then there would be more room to run and escape (vs. getting cornered by fence lines or stalls) and surely Paddy could out-run Buck if he had to. But here they are in a more enclosed area and it would be easy for someone to run into/through a fence (knocking wood here that that doesn't happen) or get caught in a corner and get hurt. It also probably doesn't help that Buck grew up in a herd situation so this is de rigueur for him, but for Paddy it isn't.

So now they are all separated again and it is raining and Buck is standing outside because he doesn't want to go into the scary haunted house that all the horses seem to hate for some reason.

Kudos to Colin for managing the situation so well and remaining calm, I'm thankful that he was here and he handled it so well.

I must admit that I am worried now about how they'll get along in their separate-but-shared-by-a-fence pastures and of course I want them to be able to be on the horse trailer together so that we can hit the trails IF the weather ever clears up!