Monday Wrangling

I spent most of today adding dirt and sand to the horse pens and clearing out the weeds around my office--trying to create a snake-free zone. I was so completely covered by weed debris that I worried briefly about being eaten by a horse because I smelled like fresh grass. Around about 3 pm I decided to bring in Duke who was hanging around near the feeders in the pasture, seemingly alone. As soon as I pulled his halter out of the shed and started toward the pasture gate about eight more horses appeared from the tree line--all looking directly at me. Duke saw me and started toward me as did Sabre and Kidd. Duke was suddenly flanked by both the other horses, which is bad news for a low ranking horse like Duke, but he held still until I got the halter on his nose, then he shot out from between them like a cannon ball. The other two horses followed us to the gate which is a bad scene because sometimes they try to squeeze out with you. As I was contemplating how I was going to complete this delicate operation, Duke shoved the gate wide open with his nose. He didn't care about the situation, he just wanted to get out and get to his pen. Fortunately, the other horses did not try to run through the gate. Once I had Duke groomed and put away I turned and saw the majority of the herd waiting at the gate. I was hoping to just get my two out of the pasture but it was looking like I would have to bring the whole herd in. I began pulling them out one at a time in rank-order. If you try to violate the pecking order, it causes problems. The horses know the order and expect you to also. Sometimes they will make allowances if they know the low-ranking horse you pulled out of order is your own but otherwise they expect compliance with the protocol. After I got all the gate crowd put away in their pens, I went searching for the Wonder Horse. I found him grazing with the other "bad boy" horses down on the grassy flats. He initially started to walk away but his "cookie sensors" went off and he meekly ambled over to be haltered. All in all, it only took me an hour to get my two horses in.