Monday 14 May 2012

One VERY angry pony!

Well, Saturday was a bit of a worrying day - I'd found one of the ponies had dodged the electric fence and having 'stuffed' herself silly was waiting, asking to return to the starvation paddock!!
When I tried to let her back into the paddock one of the other ponies kept coming over, preventing the over-indulged pony from coming back in, which was a bit strange.
When I finally got the pony back into the paddock the other one started attacking her - she was chasing her round, biting her bottom.
Now you do sometimes see this when you introduce a new pony to the group and you sometimes see older ponies attack younger ones - they'll chase one til it's exhausted - I have once seen the after effects and it's just not pleasant.
I didn't have time to figure out WHY this was happening - I just HAD to get the pony that was being attacked OUT.
I grabbed a headcollar, jumped into the field at which point the attacker stopped - the worry is that the one being chased will do ANYTHING to get away - even go through a seemingly impenetrable hedge onto a road (my concern).
Anyway I soon got the headcollar on and moved the pony under attack to another paddock.
By this point we were running late for my daughters opticians appointment so we rushed over and 'did' the eye appointment which gave me time to think about why the attack might have happened - I've never seen these 2 ponies be aggressive in any way to each other so it was a bit odd.
I came to the conclusion that
  • the attacker is the dominant female in that group and as such should 'lead' the group to food, water, out of danger etc
  • the attacker didn't like the fact that the other pony had found some really delicious, long grass, as they were all supposed to be on a diet on my starvation paddock!
  • because the escapee had found the grass, it was taken to be a sign of trying to take over as leader
  • hence the attack

Well that's my verdict anyway!

So much for trying to keep them trim!

I have to say I'm now giving them a tiny morcel of hay morning and night, they're all in together, I have kept watch over them and 2 days later all is still calm.

My verdict - the starvation paddock was a bit too restricted for them and they may have been a TINY bit hungry but also they were bored - and what does boredom create - problems (just like in kids!).

Solution - give them something to occupy them and a TINY bit of food - ie hay - it just seems to be enough to keep them and their tummy's happy.

Anyone got any other ideas??