Their is something i have been pondering for a long time now..something i have noticed between the wild horses and my own. Independence. They can be alone or in a herd and it doesn't bother them. Even in a herd i can sometimes find Fern and her foal Sonny, way out of sight of the other horses. Where as our own domesticated horses panic at being left, and would never wander off alone. Why is this??
You would think that the wild ones, raised in a herd environment, would least like the to be separated from other horses. But this isn't the case, in fact they seem to seek solitude more than the others. They are independent, Fern, especially is least inclined to follow group, if she has found a better patch of grass, water or shade and the rest of the group are meandering aimleslly across the paddock, she will stay behind. Our paddock are huge a couple of acres in size each, and Fern will be at the opposite end and well out of site of the other horses, no worries at all. Why is this? being out of sight of the others would put my big Strong warm bloods into a panicking mess...
Yet she interacts with the other horses and is just as happy and content with them there, as when she is by herself, she's not bullied or chased, and little Sonny spends hours playing with the other foal and being babysat and fussed over by his 'aunties' in the group. What is it that allows them this herd behaviour but also the Independence that the domestic horse seems to lack.
Is it just they don't bond tightly with the other horses as they did with their wild herd? Or are accustomed to more space, from being free in the wild? Do we not realise how independent horses truly are, and do we have a misconceived idea about how horses actually live in a herd?
Is it just that we have bred out and raised our domestic horses in such a way that they have lost all Independence?
I would like to know the answer, its something that i spend a lot of time thinking about. One day i would actually love to spend the time studying horses in the wild to see how they really behave and interact.
Does anyone else have any experiences with this? Has anyone studied or observed horses in the wild and can shed some light?
Does anyone else have horse from the wild that exhibit this Independence??
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What I've noticed with the Bankers, 1st generation born into captivity, is that they look to themselves first, before humans, no matter how long they've been with us or which humans they're with. Intellectual independence I guess.
ReplyDeleteIf Ginger didn't want to go somewhere or do something, you'd better heed her. She was always right... and usually the humans were very slow on the uptake. :)
Hello! I just found your blog.
ReplyDeleteThought I would share with you two recent incidents with our domestic horses. Yesterday, at 4 a.m. in minus 8 degree Fahrenheit weather, wind chill minus 16, I chose to walk almost a half mile out into our pasture to get our one horse who chose not to come up with the other five horses to feed. He was happy, alone in the trees, where I feed at night. It was the same thing several days ago. Two horses chose to stay separate from the herd for the morning feed.
Also, when our domestic colt was only eight months old he didn't know about winter feeding and stayed a half mile away from the rest of the herd doing his own thing oblivious to being separated and not following me when I went out in knee deep snow to encourage him to come up to eat. I had to walk the half mile back to the gate to get a halter and lead rope.
In all of these examples it was necessary for me to get the lone horse so they would get something to eat! Otherwise, the rest of the herd would have it all devoured before the lone horse(s) would arrive at feeding time!
Other times of the year, our domestic horses spread out away from each other in distances I would have thought to be a bit "abnormal." I learn something new every day observing our herd. Several things are contrary to what I have read and/or have been given advice on. For instance, my horses, in the heat of the day will choose to stand in the sun! While I envision them standing under the tress in the shade with long lush grass to feed on next to a running creek (yes, this is available to them), they eat the dried up weeds IN THE SUN during the heat of the day! Not just on occasion but day after day.
This is very interesting to me.
Also, I noticed, regardless of how many water troughs we put out, our horses have a routine when our creek dries up for the irrigators in our valley. They drink in the morning, occasionally mid-day, then again at night. So, their normal pattern is to drink at 7 a.m. then again at 6 or 7 p.m. They seem to be on a dawn to dusk type schedule. Many times heading East on our property in the morning and heading West on our property at night. All of our horses are domesticated. All have been stalled for long periods of time or lived on small acreages prior to them being in our care.
We are on 440 acres in Central Idaho and I LOVE observing our herd, noting the habits, documenting with photos and video the fun things they get to do. In general, I love watching horses (or any animal and human) do what they were born to do. For horses, to me, that is being free! We’re very fortunate to have what we have and experience horses in a natural environment. We want to share what we have with more people than just friends and family. We’ve been given something extremely special now we just need to try and make a living at it!
Your post caught my attention because you too are making observations. I love that and I love learning about horses.
Cheerio! LeeAnn
p.s. I tried blogging two years ago. I’m returning but am new so I have a few things to learn. I’m “a work in progress” as the saying goes.
Hey thank for your observations!! love getting other peoples feed back. It is soo fascinating oberving your horses in the paddock. you do learn so much. so thankyou for sharing so i can compare observations
ReplyDeletewe to have a stream runing through our property, and the group free ranges through the paddock which are a mix of grass and bush/forest
they also follow a routine of stream in the morning and stream to drink again in the evening around 6-7pm. Even though they are domestic they function as a good little herd.
But the wild mare is especially independant. wile they do spread out of sight. Fern sometimes chooses to go off on her own little errands around the paddock if she is not in agreement with the herd.
I have always found that Kaimanawas, while happy to interact with domestic horses, never seem to fully accept them as horses so don't really care too much whether they're there or not.
ReplyDeleteIf you have several Kaimanawas together (as I do), they tend to behave more as a herd. I've spent some time out in the ranges camping with the wild horses & they certainly exhibit all of the expected herd behaviour in that situation.
It has been interesting introducing Mojo (wild stallion from last muster) into my Kaimanawa gelding herd. Even though my boys were all once wild & were stallions for many years (the oldest was gelded at 8 yrs), Mojo treats them similarly to what you've described with Fern.
Although he's happy to interact with them, he's certainly aloof & more often than not, prefers the company of the ewes to the horses, even though they're Kaimanawas. He even prefers to sleep with the sheep!
He has NO interest in my other domestic horses whatsoever either.
I wonder how he would be if his Kaimanawa buddies weren't gelded? I think he just finds them difficult to relate to & prefers the 'girls' (sheep) 'cause at least he knows for sure what they are. He's more or less adopted them as his 'herd' & will beat up the Kai geldings if they glance to long at HIS girls.