New Horses

We lucked out with the weather today and had temperatures above zero for once. I got to the barn before everyone else arrived so I did some chores while I waited. Trailers pulled up pretty quickly after I started cleaning out the barn. They actually ended having to take 2 trips to get all 5 horses moved over. We kept the two herds separate for a while at first to see how things would go. Everything was fairly calm at first. There was the usual squealing but lots of happy and interested ears. Unfortunately Kiko decided she liked the new boys and went into season instantly. This did not make Cody happy and that's when he started getting really possessive about Kiko. He started to charge at Red through the fence and Cody is one to stay yards away from a fence whether it's hot or not, so he meant business.

When things calmed down a bit we turned out Kalani with the new herd. He was really calm about everything so we thought he'd be a good one to start with. He went straight for red and they stood and ate hay together nose to nose. We turned Axel out next and he just found a hay pile to eat by himself. Not much was happening and Cody finally stopped getting himself worked up into a sweat so we opened the gate so they could all meet if they wanted. It took a while for Cody and Kiko to figure out the gate was open. Things were a little hairy at first but everyone was able to keep their distance appropriately.

Cody made it his job to place himself between Kiko and any other horse at all costs. Kiko was very fond of Red and kept trying to hang out with him but Cody would come running and chase Red off. Red never made any attempts to get to Kiko so it was all her trying to visit the new horses. Cody doesn't seem really interested in randomly beating up new horses, he just wanted to make sure Kiko didn't leave him so we figured they would be fine all together right away. We waited around a while to see if anything would happen. The two herds kept themselves pretty separated and occasionally would switch positions in the pastures. It will be interesting to see how things play out in the next few weeks. Patti is going to have her hands full feeding 9 horses twice a day. I think I am going to have my hands full working with Cody. We might have taken several steps back in our manners. I predict Cody being quite unhappy when I try to work him in the barn away from his herd and especially his woman. Stay tuned.