Pat usually feeds the horses every morning, but with her gone, I did it. They were already in the corral that we feed them in, which makes feeding much more difficult. Usually, I lock them out of that corral right before I'm getting ready to feed, but since it was morning, they were already all in there. But, everyone got fed, and they were all happy.
Sometime after that, I walked outside and noticed that Skeeter was laying down in his stall. I've never seen him do that before, so I was a little concerned. I walked over to his stall and he still didn't get up. I hit the fence to make a little noise and he still wouldn't get up! I walked into stall and kind of made a half circle around him, and he just looked at me. I was getting worried now. I went back outside and got the "petting" stick. As soon as he saw me bring it in, he got up! He was fine . . . just resting. But, the incident shows that he's getting used to me being around him.
Back into my safety gear, and back into young Skeeter's stall I went. I did the whole stick thing again, and this time he let me touch his face a lot more. He still shys away, but then comes back for more. He's looking for more horse cookies! He's still not as comfortable with his left side, but he will let me touch his face. That's kind of weird! But, he still lets me do the left side much more than yesterday.
While he was eating lunch, I stuck my hands through the bars and touched his face. I tried to touch his ears, but he pulled away most of the time. I did get in some good gentle touches, though, and he didn't pull away so much after awhile.
I've talked about herd dynamics before . . . the way the horses treat each other . . . who is the leader. I thought Chaco was third, with JD first and Cisco second. Lately, I thought that Chaco might be making play for second. But, a few days ago, I saw Cracker the mule, chase Chaco away. I was so embarrassed for him! Pat said that she knew that Chaco was third when it came to food . . . Chaco loves food. But, today, I saw Cracker chase Chaco away from food! I felt so bad for Chaco! And embarrassed for him! Chased away by a mule!
The equines here . . . horses, mules, donkeys . . . are always at it with each other, and most of them have bites and scars and marks from their various fights. I feel bad for them when they chase each other and bite each other and kick each other. But that's what they do. They're equines and that's what they do to each others. That's how they act. I tell Chester how rude he is all the time to Skeeter, trying to bite him and kick him. But that's what they do. The other day Chica, the dog, was chasing a lizard. I yelled at her and tried to get her to stop. She sat down and looked at me, and 'said', "I'm a dog. That's what we do." I guess I can't judge dogs or horses by human standards. It's just hard to watch sometimes.
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