Poor Brego -- Poor Little Hay Wagon

Poor Brego. He just can’t seem to catch a break. I’d planned on working with Brego and Chaos to load in the trailer. But that didn’t happen. The best laid plans never seem to work for me.

Instead, I decided that Brego had had enough of Chaos and that it was time to introduce him to someone else in the herd. Originally I thought about pulling Chaos out and putting Rain in. Problem is, Rain and Bob are best friends and Chaos harasses Bob to no end. So I’d rather keep Rain with Bob and keep Chaos away from Bob (at least for a little while). I don’t want Brego in with Dude yet since Dude is so mean. I was thinking that I wanted Brego and Bob to meet. Those two seem like the best likely pair. They both eat slow and are pretty mild mannered. The problem is, I don’t want to pull Bob out of his normal pen and put him in the smaller pen. I don’t have decent shelter and then how do I separate Bob and Brego for feeding time, especially since Bob has to have his alfalfa.

So I decided to do some major rearranging. I haltered up King and then Dude and tied them to the smaller pen. I then haltered up Brego and took him through the hay barn into the bigger pen. I was pretty impressed. Going through the hay barn is pretty scary, even for the other horses. King hates to go through the hay barn. Chaos is leery of it but Dude could care less. It took just a bit of coaxing to get Brego to walk through the hay barn. He was my good boy and walked through without too much huff and stood like a gentleman for the most part. I let him go and he trotted off. I’m a bit worried I won’t be able to catch him.

I then went back and put Dude and King in the small pen with Chaos. Dude started bucking jumping all across the pen. It’s like he’d been tied up to that fence for HOURS and that he’d never been in that pen before. It was odd. And of course because Dude got excited and roared across the pen, King and Chaos had to join in, but not to the same degree. Dude is just weird. He was acting like he was three instead of twelve. Go figure, I guess that’s the Impressive blood in him.

Because Dude was roaring across the small pen, kicking and bucking, that got Rain into a tizzy too. So Rain came galloping through the bigger pen with his head held high and his tail straight up in the air. That gave Brego the idea that he should do the same thing. There’s no Arabian in Brego but he had his tail straight out and his head held high. Every time a quarter horse sees an Arabian, they have to mimic the Arabian and run like them with their tails held straight out and head held high. It’s a pretty impressive sight but I don’t think that’s Brego’s normal style for loping/galloping.

I was a bit worried that Rain would beat Brego up. But instead they both seemed to ignore each other and were pretty content to share the same pen but stay away from each other.
That wasn’t the case when I let Bob out. Bob tried to attached Brego. Not really attach, but he sure did put Brego in his place. I know it’s the whole pecking order thing but I hate to watch the horse fight. On the bright side, it will give Bob an ego boost. Not all of the herd (Chaos mainly) will listen to Bob so he can’t push them around. But Bob can push Brego around. I’m hoping at some point that Bob and Brego will buddy up but it might take a few months.

This morning when I went out to do chores, poor Brego was standing by himself. Bob and Rain were in the leanto staying out of the rain. Brego whinnied to me. I felt so bad. All he wants is a buddy and neither Rain or Bob are willing to befriend him. I threw some hay out but Brego wouldn’t come near Bob or Rain. So I had to make an extra couple of piles near Brego so that he would actually eat. I may have to pull him out in the winter time and feed him separate. He doesn’t seem to get upset when he’s by himself. So he and Bob may go in to the barn (in separate and far away stalls) and eat during the winter. Poor Brego, always getting the short end of everything.

Since it was raining this morning, right as I was walking out to do chores, I decided to throw Bob’s blanket on. I know it’s too heavy for him but I don’t want him to get chilled. I need to find a waterproof sheet and start using that instead of his medium weight blanket. I don’t want him to shed out just yet but I also don’t want him to have to expend all his energy in staying warm. As it is, he’s too darn skinny. I need to get him out on grass a bit more so maybe he can pick up some of that weight. I’m afraid I may have to start considering the alternatives.

We also had a bit of a mishap the other night with my little hay wagon. Normally when I feed the big herd, I throw the hay on my little hay wagon. The problem is, to get the hay barn door shut, I have to make sure it stays on the tracks. To do that, I really need two hands. Sometimes I can get by with just one but most times I can’t get the door shut all the way. Well, the other night I decided I would let go of the little hay wagon. It normally doesn’t roll too far away, but it does roll away from me (and sometimes tips over if I’m not fast enough). So I let go and shut the door but the horses were in the way. Some have learned to get out of the way of the little hay wagon otherwise they’ll get run over. But others haven’t, including King. So the little hay wagon hit him in the leg and he freaked out (he’s been nutzo lately). When he freaked out, he spun around and knocked my little hay wagon arse over teakettle spilling the entire contents. No biggie really just a pain to clean up the hay. But when I went to do chores last night, I realized that in “wreck” one tire rim got bent so now it doesn’t turn as well as it used to. It still works just fine but it looks goofy and isn’t as easy to maneuver. I’m a bit disappointed in myself for letting go of the wagon. Poor little hay wagon gets the brunt of so much. It’s helped me out so much this past winter hauling hay to the horses. It’s saved me so much time and aggravation, and what does it get, a bum rim. Poor little hay wagon.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Bob and Rain will at least try to make an attempt at being friends with Brego. If not, I’m hoping to bring Sam home this weekend and maybe Sam and Brego can buddy up. Rain and Bob are best friends. Hopefully Brego and Sam can be best friends too.