High School Drama

I thought when I walked across the graduation stage I’d be done with petty high school behavior. It’s ridiculous how some can act. And yet, I’m smack dab in the middle of it. Lucky for me, I’m the “principle” in the matter and not one of the high schoolers. I’m sure you’re all scratching your heads trying to figure out what or who I’m talking about.

It’s those mares! I swear they are more like teenage girls than old mares. I don’t know who said what to who and when but all hell broke loose last night. I still am having problems figuring out who is mad at who but I know for one thing Queen is the one taking the brunt of the disagreement. I’m glad I’m not in the middle of it but I am going to have to figure out a resolution fast.

Before Savanna went to Gentle Spirits, Rabbit was with her. When Savanna left, I put Flower, Queen, and Mayhem together. Let me tell you, those people who say that the “mother/daughter” combo needs to stay together are wrong. There is absolutely no love lost between Rabbit and Mayhem. In fact, Rabbit was downright hard on Mayhem for a little while. Unfortunately, that bad attitude has rubbed off on Mayhem to some degree.

Rabbit is now in charge of that little herd of mares and it’s taking its toll. When we brought in Flower, she stuck to Queen like glue. I couldn’t pull Queen out of the pasture/pen because Flower would freak and trot on her bad leg making her limp even more. They’ve been best friends ever since Flower arrived, eating out of the same grain dishes, eating from the same hay pile, etc.

Until last night.

I have no idea who started it but Queen has been pushed from the herd. I realized lately that Rabbit has been a bit harder on the other mares but she has made it her job to keep Queen away from the hay these last few days (don’t worry I put out additional piles). Apparently, that bad attitude has rubbed off on Flower. Now when I went to grain Queen and Flower, Queen squealed and spun away (well, spun as fast as a 33 year old mare can spin). I’m furious. I threw hay out and even Mayhem came over and pushed Queen out of the way. Actually, I think Mayhem wanted to eat with Queen but by that time Queen was skittish of everyone.

I’m furious at both Flower and Rabbit. I have always believed in respecting your elders, be it two-legged or four-legged. I don’t care. You give Queen the respect that she deserves or your ass is getting booted out of the pasture.

I had thought of just pulling Queen out and putting her in with Babe and Thor (once Prince leaves for Gentle Spirits) but didn’t really like that idea. It’s that much farther away to lead Queen to the barn where she will have to be stalled during the super cold months. She doesn’t have the ability to stay warm and can’t warm up/dry off once wet. So I want her in the barn where it’s about five degrees warmer at night. The pasture that she’s in is just that much more protected too.

I don’t really like where I’ve had to leave the ponies. I’d rather that they had more room so I’m devising a plan. I had thought of dividing the blind pen to give Babe some relief from Prince. But now that Prince will be leaving us very shortly, I didn’t think I needed to divide the pen. But it does leave me space to do some maneuvering. So I think I’m going to divide the blind pen (although it’s going to be tricky trying to get the round bale in to the blind pen only (Rabbit can’t be on a round bale because of her heaves and the ponies should never be on a round bale). But Babe and Thor don’t need a gigantic drylot. They prefer to hang on the round bale most of the day anyway or soak up the sun. I think for the winter months, I’m going to put up a temporary fence and put Babe and Thor on one side and Rabbit, Tommy, and Skippy on the other. Then all the horses will be in close proximity. Rabbit stayed with the ponies all last winter and it seemed to work out just fine. She keeps those naughty little ponies in check. I’ll still have to do some wrangling to get everything figured out to work properly but I think that’ll be the best solution.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Flower will go back to her sweet self if the problem “teenager” is removed from the situation. Perhaps in the spring/summer they can all go back together but for the winter months, I am not going to risk Queen’s safety and happiness over a trivial little squabble. Now, if the squabbling continues between Queen and Flower, I’ll have to simply open up the blind pen and put Queen in with Babe again, put Rabbit in with Flower and Mayhem, and stuff the ponies back in their protected winter pen and leave it at that. But we’ll see. I at least have a couple different options to work with.

I can never figure out why I’m so exhausted at the end of the day. I think just keeping everyone happy and healthy is a full time job at Borderlands. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that my plan will work. I hope that I can get all the switching done by the end of Friday. I thought I heard another nasty rumor that we are to get icky weather again on Saturday. Yeah, that’s right, I said icky.

Here’s to hoping the high school drama will be resolved soon!