Horses, Ponies and Pecking Orders
I was at a friends place and they were having problems keeping their pony confined.
As we were talking the pony trotted up the full of high expectations, just like it was his birthday and he was about to receive his presents.
With a big smile on his face he turned away from us, trotted up to the fence and in mid-trot he put his head down to the place he escaped from the day before to push his way through.
WHACK!!! He connected with the new electric fence!
He dropped to hs knees, snorted, picked himself up and spun away, indignantly kicking out towards the fence. Then he looked at the spot he came from for a long minute as though he was searching for a trick that just wouldn’t reveal itself!
Finally he tossed his head as if to say “I will show you” and trotted off down further where the fence hadn’t yet been electrified. (Isn’t it funny how they can sense these things).
Down his knees and nose he went until he could just get his head under the bottom strand of wire. He pushed and pushed, placing his whole weight on the wire with his neck becaming so distorted from the tight wire that you would almost think he was crossed with a camel and had two humps growing on his neck.
Eventually, the wire slipped over his wither and back and the little Houdini escaped to visit the horse next door.
“See what I mean, the fences were fine and kept all the horses in until he learned this new trick” said the frustrated owner
Just then there was a huge squeal and a noise nightmares are made of followed by thundering of horses hooves. The pony came racing down the hill to go under the fence in the exact spot he escaped from minus a few bits of flesh from his rump that some-how looked about the size of the teeth from the horse next door.
The pony’s owner looked at me, speechless. Eventually she caught her breath and through the laughter told me that the neighbors had a new horse.
The pony stood back from the fence to meet the new horse, just far enough away so the horse’s teeth couldn’t do any more damage. Humble. Blinking eyes. Lowering his head and moving his jaw to let the horse know that he wouldn’t visit again and he was respecting his place in the pecking order
Don’t you just love ponies!
