Herd Dynamics

One of the things I have always been fascinated with is how horses behave in a herd situation.  Because I've almost always had to board my horses, I've had a lot of opportunities to see different herd set-ups and watch my horses adapt to new situations. Most recently, I've been watching Freya settle in to her new herd.  Her previous owner had mentioned that Freya tended to be bossy, to the point that she suggested I consider using Regu-Mate.

I have to admit that I didn't take the suggestion seriously.  I've very rarely seen mares in herds that would need such significant intervention.  And Freya had given me no reason to think that her behavior would be so intense.  But I have been keeping my eye on her in the herd and watching for signs that she was causing problems or behaving aggressively.

One thing that I think can lead to resource guarding and aggression is limited food and/or not enough space.  Luckily, the barn I board at has good-sized paddocks and while the grass isn't that great, there are round bales out for most of the year, so the horses always have something to eat.  I think those two factors help create an environment where horses are less likely to engage in undesirable behavior.

When I first turned Freya out with a couple of horses from the herd - Star and Butters - there was pretty minimal drama.  Star and Butters are low drama horses to begin with and aside from wanting a certain amount of personal space, they aren't too picky about who their herd mates are.  Those three mares continue to get along so well that I feel comfortable letting Gemma bring either Star or Freya in from the field by herself.

Freya did initially have some concerns about the only gelding in the herd.  I suspect it was because as an off-the-track-thoroughbred, he lacked some social skills.  I have noticed that sometimes horses without good social skills are treated more roughly by the herd when they are first introduced and sometimes they continue to struggle to find acceptance.  In this case, I think Freya continues to keep the gelding away from her, but otherwise leaves him alone.

When I added Donut to the herd, there was initially not much excitement.  But as time went on, Freya and Donut butted heads quite a bit.  Donut had been used to asserting herself without much pushback from the other horses.  But at two years old, that level of assertiveness is probably not attractive to an older mare with her own assertive personality.  So every day when I turned Donut out with the herd, she and Freya would engage in some posturing by running around and kicking at each other.  Nothing serious, but they definitely were engaged in a significant discussion.

I decided that it might not be the worst thing for Donut to have an older mare educate her a little about herd social structure.  I suspect that in the wild, it would be very uncommon for a young mare to engage in leadership activities in a herd.  So I think it is a good thing that Freya has a more assertive personality and has been helping Donut understand that sometimes she needs to back off based on another horse's signals.

And interestingly, the two mares have been getting along better and better.  Just yesterday, I found them eating together at the round bale and later, both of them came up to me at the fence for a special treat.  They didn't fight over the treats and were respectful of my space and each other, as well as little Butters, who came over to investigate, as well.  So I'll be interested to see how the relationship between the two continues to evolve.