Social Animals

Whoever said animals are dumb apparently was never around animals, especially horses.


In fact, when people question if horses are social all I have to do is look at my herd and know they are social. In fact, Chaos provided that point just this week.


Since Christmas Eve, Chaos has been on either stall rest or pen rest. Initially he was stuck in a stall and I didn't put anyone else in with him. I'm not sure why because I normally make sure there's someone to keep another horse company. After the initial vet visit, I moved Chaos to a very small pen that would allow him to interact with his herd over the gate. It was the best I could do. You could tell that Chaos needed the interaction with his herd.


Later I moved Chaos in with the new horse (more on that in a different post). It was a matter of working out the pecking order but even that wasn't enough. Chaos broke the gate and got in with his herd earlier last week. He was still on pen rest and needed to keep that foot as clean as possible. So I fixed the gate and put him back.


But he needed to be with "his herd" and he made it known. When I went out to do chores yesterday morning, there Chaos was standing with his buddies. He'd figured out a way to squeeze through a week spot in the fence and get back with his best friends.


So horses aren't just social animals, they also need their normal pals around to keep them company. I decided that small stall rest was enough for Chaos. We were done with his medicine so now it's just a wait and see if he has an abscess or if anything flares up. We were lucky...damn lucky.