Love is in the air

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Equuisize

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I consider myself a pretty pragmatic person, sensible, logical, user of common sense.

My qualifer is, except when it comes to my critters. I'm just loopy about them
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I am notorious for wanting to attribute human emotions and characteristics to them.

I'd love to know what they are thinking and feeling, for real, not just what I think they

are feeling.

So as this is Valentine's Day and Love is in the Air I am wondering, again today, do

these guys LOVE each other? Do you ever wonder if they love one pasture mate

more than another or have an affinity to one, more than another?

Maybe I just have to much time on my hands LOL but I can spend hours leaning on

the top fence rail watching these wonderful critters move amongst each other.

My observation is our little stallion, BabyZee LOVES Zoe, his first 'wife'. She loves him.

When he whinnys she comes racing from where ever she has wandered off to to graze,

every time. Much of the time she grazes close to his fenceline. They are happiest

pastured together.

He likes Lady, at 'certain' times
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, rest of the time he could care less about her.

He is surrounded by girls, except for Zoe and Lady they are his daughters. He has no

interest in them - he charges the fence as if to drive them away from his area.

The two sisters, born a year apart, are constant companions, always together. They groom each

other, they eat from the same spot. They stand next to their common stall wall at night.

The other girls hang out together, groom each other but are seem more independent of each other.

So how about you? Do you notice any of yours having a special connection to another in

your herd?

Happy Valentine's Day to you, your's and your critters
 
Of course they do!
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I don't know why on earth people think it is such a crime to believe animals have emotions.
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Leia
 
I do have to agree with you. It does seem as though some horses form a special bond with each other. Some are inseparable, others could care less if they are together or not.

I even had an Arabian gelding who seemed to have a special bond with anther Arabian gelding (owned by someone else). Every time we were at the same show they seemed to be inseparable. They stood nose to nose and whinnied and danced when one left.

I also see that they do show some human characteristics as I have seen a horse cry.
 
My mini mule, Betsy, used to belong to a friend of mine. She had put Betsy in with Sydney, a then 3-month-old filly, when Syd was weaned. I think Betsy appointed herself Syd's surrogate mom at that time. A few months later, Betsy was given to me. She had goats, chickens, and whatnot for company, but I could tell she was lonely. After I'd had her for a couple of months, it was decided to move Syd here. My friend's place is about a half-mile from here, and we figured to just walk Syd over. She had been handled very little, and didn't even know how to lead. My daughter and I walked Betsy down to my friend's barn, thinking that it would make Syd easier to handle if she had some company. When Betsy realized where she had been led to, she got very excited. She nearly flipped over while I was opening the gate! I figured she'd need to work off some of that excitement before we took the return trip, so I turned her loose in the fenced yard. I then got Syd from the pasture, and turned her loose in the yard as well. The two of them came together in the middle of the yard, and immediately began grooming each other. With their necks curved around each other like that, it looked for all the world like a horsey hug
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:wub Yeah, I'd say those two love each other!

When my friend took Syd back in August of this past year, Betsy was distraught. She wore a groove in the pasture, pacing, and was downright clingy with me. I imagine that there have been a lot of goodbyes in her 11 or so years, and she .eventually adjusted. A few weeks later, my friend sold Syd to me. The other horses had given Syd a hard time, and she arrived in rough shape. She didn't want Betsy within 10 feet of her! Betsy was a bit snotty with her, too, we think she was mad at Syd for leaving her! It took a couple of weeks before everybody was comfortable with each other again, but they are as tight as ever.
 
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Most definitely!

Our two colts from last foaling season are inseparable, they love to play and wrestle with each other, take one from the barn the other goes nuts, whinnying for the other.. My sister's gelding has nothing to do with the two younger boys but loves to rough-house with our appy colt his age.. Misty and Trixie, our now 3 year old fillies, are inseparable and best buds.. We have a mother/daughter broodmare pair and they have a special connection between them, always by each other's side..

I think one of the most special bonds I've witnessed with our horses is that of my first mini mare Star and my big AQHA gelding Zip.. Size didn't matter to these two, I could trust him in the same lot with her, too funny to see this tiny 36" mare grooming this big ole quarter horse and vice versa.. When she had a foal at her side he would stand at the fence watching over them, would nicker to the baby and would play with them by running up and down the fence row with them.. Unfortunately we lost Star to colic in 2007, so more of those special moments.. He's changed too, he does not like any of the other minis, always pinning his ears at them (and no he does not go into the same lot as any of them).. He and Star had one of those VERY special bonds, below is a picture that clearly shows that, and one I will cherish forever:

Zipstar.jpg
 
My girls definitly have special bonds with the others. I have a 32" mare, Mars, that is constantly with my 28.5" mare, Foxy that is heavy in foal. It looks like she is watching and protecting her. If it is windy I have even seen her block the wind with her own body and snuggle up close to Foxy. When Foxy was lying down next to a tree one day Mars went over and laid right down next to her so they could sleep together.

My two yearling fillies are also best friends when I take them out to the pasture each day to let them run they nicker for eachother constantly until I bring the other one and they love to play with eachother and they even have a favorite tree they chew on together, I even caught them one day chewing on eachother around the tree, it was adorable and I wish I would have had my camera on me!

My stallion, Spot is about the only horse that his full sister, Pearl gets along with. She is kind of like the queen $&@*&$ of the herd but she is very well behaved with him and I actually have to trailer them together and put them in the same stalls at shows because he is the only horse she gets along well enough to stay in close quarters.

One thing I have actually noticed that is kind of strange but in my parents larger herd is that a lot of the horses that are the same color seem to stay together. Our sorrel mares hang with eachother and the blacks and so on. If I look out I will just see little color clusters out there and it just is weird how they do that.
 

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