I was witness to a seriously interesting behavioural interaction the other day...
I went to put Nutmeg back out in the field and one of her field mates was stood pretty much in the gateway - about 2m in - parallel to the gate
This field mate (I would say) is definitely more "dominant" (and much bigger) than Nutmeg but - now 7 year old - Nutmeg has found her "mare face" she does like to test her position within her little herd every now and again
It's a mares job to continuously test the herd hierarchy to be sure that the "leader" is worthy of making the correct decisions for the herds safety. This is why you may also find you need to re-establish some of your own boundaries periodically with your horse (not that I'm stereotypical, but especially if you have a mare! 🤣).
When she was younger, Nutmeg learnt her behavioural lessons from Franny and Maz who, although both very different, taught her IMO extremely well.
Anyway, Nutmeg had the opportunity to completely avoid confrontation and simply pass behind this horse (at a relatively fair distance that wouldn't have caused her to feel like she was in danger of being kicked) but decided instead to march straight up to her friend for a nose sniff - and therefore instigate what happened next 🤦♀️
I (thankfully!) know the horses in her group well and had sensed instantly that 💩 was about to go down before I'd even opened the gate to put her out in the first place so had quickly shut the gate behind her once I'd let her loose - to create a barrier between me
and whatever was gonna happen next. Thank god as I'd have definitely been hit with it or a hoof as her field mate proceeded to double barrel it with force!
Let me elaborate:
Nutmeg went to test the waters; posturing, muzzle sniffs... cue a high pitched squeal, front leg strike... and her field mate to turn her back end and tell Nutmeg - without question - that she was still "in charge", belting the metal gate twice with full force causing quite the commotion (so much so the people riding in the arena behind the trees shouted to ask if I was alright! Ps thank you for your concern 🤗). My god was I glad I'd got it shut prior and got the hell out of the way!
I wasn't worried about Nutmeg; she has very good analysis of body language and horse behaviour. She's also pretty swift on her feet and rapidly got out of the way without even the slightest worry of being kicked.
But this is the really interesting part...
At a "safe" distance, Nutmeg had wiped back round, still posturing away (she's only 15.2 and her field buddies are well over a hand higher than her! 🤣) and let off another fairly high pitched whinny/squeal/snort thing - I don't like to personify, but as if to say "that was exciting! But I'm annoyed I didn't get my way"
Her (less dominant) other field mate who absolutely LOVES her (much to Nutmegs annoyance 🤣) had in the meantime come running up to her - again, as if to say "oh my god what was that?! Are you alright?!"
To which Nutmeg defiantly struck out and squealed at her instead - I imagine, "don't touch me I'm mad and I'm still in charge of you OK even if not her!"
During this interaction ANOTHER one of her buddies which she loves in the field NEXT DOOR had also whinnied and come running over to the fence line to check the situation and her safety. Her buddy who had kicked 7 bells out of the gate hadn't made A SINGLE VOCALISATION throughout all of this.
THESE REACTIONS ARE FASCINATING TO ME
The horse's herd and friendships go so much further than the Equine friends WE DICTATE they have
I should say that her tiny trio of a herd is very harmonious and there is on the whole no quibbles at all, no one gets kicked or hurt and they all seem to know their places... unless Nutmeg decides to poke the bear 🤦♀️
As I said before, I do not wish to personify any of these reactions, vocalisations or behaviours but to say this all happened - all of this communication in multiple forms - in, I kid you not, less than 10 seconds really is mind blowing to me
It also cements in my mind that the "more dominant" horse isn't necessarily the most 🤔 respected? Is that the right word? Just because you have to get out of their way doesn't necessarily mean they're the best "herd leader". It might just mean they like to "be the boss" or "shout the loudest".
Wow how I could relate that to Humans 🤣🤣
No one got hurt, her friend that had belted the gate was absolutely fine, but A LOT of information was shared. On the whole, I'd say horse's generally don't communicate much
through vocalisations but this was a very good example of the emotional/behavioural message being shared when they do and just how accurately other horse's interpret the noises.
The sense that I intuitively knew something "big" was about to happen I can only attribute to knowing Nutmeg so well and noticing the TINIEST signals of other horses from years of experience.
All was well, after that everyone put their heads down and went to eating grass right where they were
Bloody mares hey! 🤦♀️
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