10.15.2011

life in the pen

It's been one week since we brought Koda & Nemo home. We continue putting them in the arena, separate from the resident equine. Since our boys were gone we never worked it up this year, turns out to be a good thing. Sometimes our horses are in there for the afternoon, sometimes the working day, or not at all - just depends. Being on someone else's random schedule makes me very uneasy.

No one is particularly thrilled with the situation. It's more of a hassle for everyone, equine included. Among other things, it's unfortunate the resident girls can no longer freely use our arena with both of their mounts together (only because it's either occupied, or they would have to lead an unpredictable Old Man through our herd). I am sure the fact that the resident horses are no longer getting fed with ours, has also crossed some minds. They want us to put Nemo and Old Man in the arena and let them at it. We won't allow that to happen. I don't see it much different then setting up a dog fight, where you know one (or both) of them gets injured - in this case Nemo. Letting a mixed herd work things out when you have lots of acreage for separation is one thing, this is another. Not to mention we didn't just send Nemo to training for nine plus months to set him up for injury. Maybe someday we'll try a better approach, but not anytime soon.

We are looking at other boarding options, and have had an offer at a friends private location. It's always a trade-off. We really just wanted to have our boys home. Not sure what we'll end up doing about this predicament...

Here are some view's of life in the pen:

harmony_cierra
(L-R) Harmony & Cierra, never far apart

nemo
Nemo

muddykoda
Crabby, muddy Koda
(pretty sure he wishes he was still being pampered at the trainers)

cierra
Cierra
(Old Man in the background)

5 comments:

Shirley said...

Not sure I'm clear on the situation- you live there but don't own the pasture?
Definitely not a good idea to let the two horses "fight it out" . Perhaps more cross fencing can be done to keep the two sets of horses separate?

Sherry Sikstrom said...

I am confused as well. Your arena right? It is unfortunate and frustrating I know for all but I would not "just let them fight it out " either, someone is going to get hurt .To me the fastest fix would be to take "old man" out let the rest adjust and bring him back in a little lower in the pecking order or not at all but I am not really clear on the dynamics there .Hope it gets resolved for all

aurora said...

Sorry for the confusion! I should have referenced past posts, or better yet just explained the horse situation.

Our horses live in the pasture (with a walk in shelter) on my husbands family farm. We do not own the farm, or the pasture and house pictured in some photos.

We purchased a parcel of the farm, and built a house many years ago. The farm surrounds us, we call it home. Our horses are just across the field.

The resident horse & pony live in stalls they recently built in a farm shed, and get turned out with our horses.

We own the portable panel arena, and take care of the pasture & woods for our horses sake.

All the horses & pony know each other and get along well, except for Old Man. They got him about 6 months ago. Our girls are okay with him. Hope this helps clarify things.

Sherry Sikstrom said...

OK makes sense , sorry to pry, I was just a little confuzzled . I do hoep things resolve .I sucks to have a issues like that,no one wants to see their horse injured

aurora said...

No apology needed, I'm glad you asked.

One of the options we are considering is splitting the pasture again. We used to have it split, not for separation but for grass rotation. However we would rather keep it open for several reasons, among them having to invest in more paneling since wire tape wouldn't work this time.