What A Night-Mare

Okay, I have this too cute little miniature mare I bought back in February... Until today she has been either in with the goats or staked out in various grassy patches in unfenced fields. For the past two mornings I have found my sister's miniature stud horse off his line, so I made a quick decision to put them in a "real" field, with the "real" horses and pray they (being the bigger horses) don't kill the little ones.

I put Dakota, the mini stud, in with my Quarter Horse stud. Knowing Lucky Joe, I was 98% sure he'd be okay with it. I brought Dakota up and poured him a bit of food, outside Lucky Joe's pature. I fed Lucky Joe, then slowly led Dakota in, by allowing him to follow his feed bowl.

(Pictures on my phone...will get them posted within the next few days)

Since Lucky Joe "has" to have drinks every couple of bites, I stayed to watch and make sure they were a good match. Lucky Joe, between eating and drinking, went over to Dakota and they sniffed noses and went their seperate ways... they switched bowls... they sniffed each other again... and then they went off together and grazed.

On the other end... Dusty! Oh my Dusty! This morning I put her in the corral which leads into the mare's pastures. I left her in there all morning and around 3pm went to put her in the pasture with Aurora and Pearl, my super spoiled, weird, obnoxious, particular 6 yr old mares.

I opened the gate from the corral into the pasture and all was well. I played a bit of basketball with Jarom and went back to check on them. They were getting along...in the corral. I had Jarom help me get them out and they all ran out. In doing so Dusty, with her bum leg, tripped in the soft soil where we feed hay to them during the winter. #1 small incident.

In the commotion, I forgot to close the corral gate. Went back an hour or so later and they were back in the corral. Jarom kind of threw up his arms to get them out quickly and Dusty got stuck between the corral wall and Aurora. Next thing you know, Dusty goes literally flying against the corral wall. Aurora kicked her right, square on her right side. She popped right back up and off she ran. #2 bigger incident.

For Dusty's sake, Aurora and Pearl need to mellow with the new horses that come...and go and Dusty really needs that extra, free grazing because she keeps getting WWWWWAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY tangled in her ropes.

I hope I don't have to pull her out.