Peace Keeper

As I've stated before, Dusty is the boss of all. But as the boss of all, he establishes his ownership of his herd and then allows the herd to dwell. As long as they know he's the boss, he doesn't feel he needs to push others around on a daily basis.

Shiloh does. I really can't blame her. She hasn't been lead mare. Ever. And now she is. And as a lead mare, she has to re-establish her dominance everyday. This is how horses have been doing things for thousands of years. I can't hold it against her.

Today it was cold and rainy. The rain froze overnight or something...I don't know. Even though its still cold out, its not freezing. This morning I got a call from Trent's mom.

"I'm not going in to work today. The roads are too bad. Will you be coming up to feed?"

I told her yes, I come up everyday around 9am to feed. She said to call her if I get in the car and decide it's too dangerous.

Sigh.

So I get in the car and drive to the barn. No problem. She also said that I should feed all the horses in the run-in shed since it was raining. Ok, it wasn't raining. It was drizzling. And she's just being over dramatic.

I hop out of the car and the horses are at the fence to greet me. Not huddled in the shed like they would be if they truly were cold and shivering.

So I get everyones feed ready. I give the filly hers outside again since I figure it'll be hard enough haying all of them inside the shed without them having to fight over grain. Once she's done with the grain, I throw hay inside the run-in. I kinda space it out so everyone gets their fill. Dusty has his under his grain bucket. Shiloh has hers in the same spot. The filly? I toss hers in the middle.

She's hesitant to come in, so I have to trump out in shin-deep mud and give her a few pets. I have a whip in my hand, but I hold it submissively as if it was just my arm. Nothing big. I turn and head back into the shed. She follows me. Shiloh peeks up from her grain and peers over at the filly, and I raise my whip at her. We had an earlier encounter when I was dumping Shiloh's grain. Shiloh dove her head into the bucket and threw my hand out. I retaliated and punched her in the face for it. I wouldn't let her near it unless I wanted her near it, and I think she remembered that when she saw me raise the whip in warning. This food was not for her. It was for the filly. Back off.

So for a while she minded her own business and let the filly eat her hay.

The moment she was done though...look out. Shiloh chased the filly right out of the shelter. I cracked Shiloh on the ass for it and sent her out of the shelter as well. If the filly isn't inside the shelter, no one was going to be inside the shelter.

I whistled and the filly came back very cautiously. Only when she was inside did I let Shiloh come in and eat as well. A few moments of peace and then we had another tense one. Shiloh lifts her head from her hay and doesn't even get a chance to pin her ears before the filly shys away and exits the shelter. I make Shiloh move after her, kicking her out as well.

The third time was perfect. It took the filly a little while longer to come back in, and I had to push Shiloh and block her entrance when she tried to come in without the filly. So finally the filly came in and I directed her to her own pile. Lowered my defensive position and Shiloh came back in. The moment Shiloh appeared, the filly went to dodge out again, but I reached up and grabbed a hold of the muscle of the filly's chest and squeezed slightly. This stopped her in her tracks. I was the dominant horse and I wanted her to stay...and she understood that. So, after taking a deep breath, she lowered her head back down to eat again.

Through all of this drama, Dust was minding his own business at the other end of the shed...eating his hay happily. He loves sharing his food with the filly so theres not problem stemming from him. He just watched and ate. No problem.

After about 5 minutes of happy munching, I exit the barn and start to clean things up and put things away. Still no uneasy motions. Everything was relaxed. I head out, close the barn up and walk to my car. I give them one last look...I don't see any horses. They're all in the shed, eating away.

I'm not sure what happened when I left. I can hope that Shiloh didn't push the filly back out, but I can't know for sure. I had moved the filly's hay deeper into the shed though and closer to Dusty so Shiloh could have her room. So I'm hoping everything went well. If they didn't...then oh well. They'll figure it out sooner or later. I'm just glad I could assist with the filly's first time inside the shed.