Every Horse Needs a Herd
Charlie Needs a Friend - Part 2
Deborah Ann Lucas
Where we left off...
Last October, our Anglo-Arab Charlie lost the last of his family (See Losing Sonia). A herd that had once numbered seven had dwindled to one. Now alone, Charlie grieved deeply. Every horse needs a herd. One horse can’t be a herd.
Finding Gracie
Twenty-five years ago, Charlie was born with crooked legs because his tendons were too tight. I healed his legs with massage and named him after my brother who died a year later. I’d do anything to ensure my horses’ health and happiness, but the older I get, the harder it is for me to care for them. With my bad knees and arthritic hands, making hay, cleaning stalls daily, even just walking on uneven ground in the pasture can be treacherous and painful. I worried about taking on another horse, but more than that, I feared grief would take Charlie from me. I’m not ready to live without horses. Finding a senior to rescue would be the perfect remedy.
When we learned of some off-track thoroughbreds needing homes, we went looking for one to adopt as a friend for Charlie to ease the pain of his losing the last of his family, a mare who would be Charlie’s saving grace. I would name her Gracie. (Read Part 1 of Charlie needs a friend here.)
A Bonded Pair
When we arrived at the farm in Franklin Grove, we found many horses needing a new home and my heart ached for them. We’d been given very little information about the horses, not their age nor medical history. The vet who told us about horses needing rescue had said they were seniors, most likely OTTBs, most nearly 500 pounds underweight from neglect.
We were met at the gate by a gray gelding who led us to a big bay mare in the barn down the hill. A third horse who ate hay during our entire visit ignored us as did a larger bunch of horses who we could see living separate in an upper barn. The bay and the gray, a bonded pair, both were eager to accept treats, easy to handle and to halter.
Greg and I had planned to take on only one new horse, so we agreed on the mare—Gracie. But I did worry about the gray gelding. Leaving him behind might make it more difficult to get the bay mare into a trailer. Even if she did load, she might still do serious damage to the trailer and to herself. A horse who feels trapped can be terrifying.
That evening, we talked about how much trouble we were facing if we took Gracie away from her best friend. The only solution would be to take on two new horses. But did we have enough hay to get three through to Spring? And could I manage the extra work of caring for three when Greg was away at work?
I kept bringing up the sweet gray gelding, how he’d been the first to walk straight up to us to nuzzle our hands for treats. When we left, he’d even followed us up the muddy hill to where we’d parked our car just outside the gate. I wanted to take him, but Greg’s scowl told me to hold my tongue, bide my time, and give him time to think.
A Change of Heart
We came back a few days later with a friend and her trailer to bring Gracie home. As Ann opened the trailer for loading, Greg and I gathered halters, lead ropes, and treats from the trunk of our car. Before reaching for a second halter I’d brought just in case, I asked Greg the question that had been stealing my sleep. Are we taking one…or two?
He looked at me, paused, then held up two fingers. I let out a deep sigh of relief. We would take them both.
Waiting at the Top of the Hill
I had fallen the week before and had seriously bruised and inflamed my rib cage. So, I stood at the gate as Greg had ordered, staying clear of the horses and the muddy hill. Greg and Ann (who owned the trailer) went down to get the horses. They disappeared into the barn.
I paced, stepping around the ice. What was taking so long? Breathe, Deborah, I told myself.
Finally, I saw them coming up the hill. Gracie had stopped halfway. After Ann took the lead with the gray, Gracie let Greg lead her forward. I stepped through the mud to hold the gate open for them. When I saw the other horses in the distance still waiting to be claimed, I forced myself to turn away.
Loading the Horses
Ann told me she’d load the gray first. She’d already dropped the tailgate, lined with a rubber mat to give the horses traction stepping into the trailer. Before leading him forward, Ann asked me if I was up to lifting butt bars into place (what holds the horses inside the trailer until we get the tailgate closed).
Fortunately, Greg was out of earshot holding Gracie a few yards away, or he would have told me no. My ribs were still sore, but I knew I could do it, and I wanted to help. I nodded confidently.
She suggested I practiced the mechanism to be sure. After latching & unlatching the bar, I nodded again and Ann led the gray gelding up the ramp.
Gracie, fearing she was losing sight of him, started dancing nervously around Greg. The gray stepped into the trailer anyway and I snapped the bar into place across the lower part of his butt. One loaded, one to go.
Ann escaped out a forward door on the right, then circled back around to load the bay mare. Greg walked her up and handed Ann the lead. She stroked the mare’s nose to put her at ease then led her forward toward the trailer.
Gracie Slips
Going up the ramp, Gracie’s foot slipped on the snow tracked there by the gray gelding’s hooves. My adrenaline surged. Ann remained calm, straightened her out and then led her into place next to the gray. Once she was in, I popped the second butt bar into place. Gracie used her teeth to pull a hank of hay from the net hanging near her head, and began munching, calming herself and me.
After escaping out the right side escape door, Ann came around the back and asked for help lifting the tailgate. The springs in our older horse trailer had worn out too. Greg, waiting beside me, stepped up to help Ann close the heavy ramp. Hinged metal bars latched it into place.
Before departing, we thanked the volunteers, there to say goodbye to the horses they’d cared for, and we invited them to visit the bay and gray at our place.
Greg drove out first, leading the way, and I road in the truck with Ann, regularly checking the side mirror for any disturbance in the trailer.
The thirty-minute trip home was uneventful. Once there, Greg and Ann unloaded the two horses and walked them into our barn where fresh hay and water were waiting in a big stall. Charlie stood at the far end staring, anxious to say hello.
The first time Charlie sees his new family.
Introductions
It’s important to know that you can’t just throw strange horses in together—at least not safely. They need time to get a good look and a sniff or two to size each other up. Gracie and Mikey (Greg helped pick his name) needed to get a feel for their new home, to feel less anxious. And Charlie needed to build some trust with them before we could turn them out as a herd.
Horses establish dominance by flattening ears, baring teeth, and spinning around threatening to kick. When hooves fly, they tear into the flesh of the intended target and anyone else who gets in the way, or at least leave a bruise. If the horse doesn’t see it coming and moves into the kick, the force is magnified and that’s when I need to call a vet.
Makng it Safe
For these new horses, we planned ahead, readying a 12’ x 50’ long stall with a big water tank and bulging hay nets. Charlie stood with neck stretched over the steel-tube gate panel from his adjacent stall at the far end from where we led the horses in. Across from him a sliding door opened to a 25’ x 25’ pipe corral. From there, they could see the expansive pasture of still green grass and a stand of old growth hickory and oak.
Mikey and Gracie check out their new pasture but aren’t ready yet to meet Charlie
Green Pastures Call to the Horses
The next day, Greg went back to work, and I went out to feed the horses. As they finished their grain, I refilled their hay nets then opened the north door to let Charlie out to graze in the pasture. I slid the south door open for the new horses but there wasn’t much grass in the small pen to entice them outside. Charlie looped around the barn and stood next to their corral, beckoning his new family to come out.
Gracie and Mikey stared out from the doorway, yearning to graze in the long grass, but I didn’t dare let them out yet. However, a round pen with tall grass about 50’ to the east presented a possible solution. How would I get them over there with Charlie loose? I’d need to lead them across one at a time. Potential hazards danced around the edges of my vision, but I decided to risk it.
I mistakenly chose to take Mikey first. He remained calm as I haltered him and led him through the gate, but before I could close the gate behind us, Charlie appeared in my periphery. I turned but could only watch the speed and severity of Mikey’s reaction. Like lightning, Mikey’s rear hooves shot into the air just missing Charlie’s head. In turn, Charlie flattened his ears and bared his teeth, reaching past me to the gray. I waved my arms with the lead in my hand, moving Charlie off, then hustled Mikey back into the corral. Gracie remained at the barn door wondering what all the fuss was about.
Once I closed the gate between the boys, I caught my breath and re-evaluated. Should I just give up? Wait two days until Greg could help? But that would keep the rescue horses away from the pasture. I pondered, feeding each horse another treat.
What the heck. I’ll try it with Gracie. I removed the halter from Mikey and carried it up the cement ramp to where Gracie stood in the barn doorway.
Taking Gracie to the Round Pen
I fared better with Gracie, easily tying on the halter and leading her the 50’ across the flat to the round pen. It was tricky keeping Mikey from following us out the gate, getting the chain looped around and locked while holding Gracie, and keeping an eye on Charlie who was only a few steps away.
Luckily, Charlie hung out with Mikey and didn’t get in the way of moving Gracie. We made it across to the round pen. I lead her in, closed the gate behind us, and took off her halter. As Gracie dropped her head to graze, I sighed, then left her to eat.
Mikey screams for Gracie from his corral as Charlie watches unsure of what to do
Then, Charlie trotted over to the round pen and Gracie. After sniffing each other at both ends, they returned to grazing on opposite sides of the fence.
Mikey, still 50’ away in the corral alone, went nuts. He paced back and forth along the fence panels, screaming at Gracie and Charlie. I gathered the lead and halter in my hand, preparing to move Gracie back to the corral when I heard a thunder of hooves. Charlie took off running toward the north pasture. As I turned to watch him, I saw a flash of white.
Mikey broke out!
The First Escape
Charlie was running after Mikey who was cantering into the north pasture. He had somehow escaped. I looked back at the corral and saw a gap between its two panels. The connectors had been twisted some years earlier. Mikey leaned on the fence until he broke the twine I’d used as a temporary fix, then pushed until he’d popping off the functional steel connector.
The boys circled around heading back, then blew past me and Gracie. Charlie circled back to us, but Mikey kept going until he’d reached the far south end of the flat. Shit. What if he runs through the perimeter fence and takes off? What if he starts fighting with Charlie? One of them could get hurt. More vet bills. Just what we need. We’d spent the last four years trying to heal one sick horse after another. Now, when I thought I had a break to write and create art, I might end up spending all my time in the barn nursing injured horses back to health. I shuddered at the thought.
Gracie Gets Upset
Mikey circled around a few more times then stopped close to Charlie and Gracie, and dropped his head, tearing luscious green blades off with his teeth. I exhaled my relief and snapped some pictures, feeling hopeful this was all going to work out. That is, until Gracie stopped eating.
She watched the boys wander away in search of sweeter grass. (I guess that’s why they call it grazing. LOL) Gracie whinnied for them to come back. When they didn’t, she began pacing the fence line. The greater the distance, the faster Gracie paced inside her enclosure. How could I blame her? Even though they all had access to grass, she wasn’t free.
I didn’t think she could break through the pipe corral panels the way Mikey had because the connectors weren’t damaged. However, this pacing was adding to her stress from being moved to our farm. I didn’t want her to colic. When horses get worried and stop eating, their guts can twist from a gas colic. Sometimes they won’t drink water, so their guts get compacted. Either way, they can die. In my mind, it would be better to chance injury from a fight for dominance.
The Fence Problem
Another problem gnawing at me was our fencing. We have hot wire, but the power wasn’t turned on. The signal had been disrupted by undergrowth—choke cherry trees and wild raspberry bramble, all with thorns. The fence line needed to be cleared before the hot wire would work.
We had put it off to take care of more urgent repairs. The not-hot fencing hadn’t been a problem with our horses. They were old and they’d lived here for 25 years. Why would they leave when they had everything they needed? When a small herd of deer passed through and knocked down the top wire, the horses would sometimes wander but never far. Even then, I didn’t worry because our farm sat nearly a mile in any direction from any moving vehicles.
We hadn’t expected to take on any new horses, so we told ourselves it could wait until the next Spring. But with Charlie’s grief over losing Maggie and Sonia, we couldn’t wait to get him a friend.
Clearing the fence line would take days and it was just too cold. We decided to sort it out once we got the horses home. I just didn’t expect to be doing in on my own.
So, there I stood, trying to figure it out. If I let Gracie out, I had no leverage to keep them from breaking through a fence. Would they follow Charlie’s lead and stay within the bounds of the pasture? I could only hope. Mares often rule the herd. If she didn’t leave, they’d all stay put. Gracie looked so miserable. I had to let her out.
Letting Gracie Run with the Boys
The boys watched me as I approached Gracie’s gate. She stood on the other side with her head held high, sniffing the wind. Easy now, girl, I said. I swung the gate open wide and she raced past me. Now that she was out, all three horses—Gracie in the lead, then Mikey, with Charlie following—headed to the north pasture, circled once, then settled down to graze. I sighed. All was well. That evening, I shook some grain in a bucket at the door to the barn and they all came running. It took some shuffling, but I finally got them into three separate stalls to monitor how much each was eating. We were mixing vitamins and minerals into their grain to help them gain weight and I wanted to be sure each got their share. |
Charlie, Mikey and Gracie together at last.
Day Two
The next morning, I reversed the ritual, feeding grain, filling hay nets, checking the water tanks, and giving them treats. The weather was nice so, when they’d finished breakfast, I let them all into the pasture together.
Once again, Gracie led the way with Charlie bringing up the rear. Mikey kept between Charlie and Gracie, still jealous.
This was going to take time, but I believed eventually both Charlie and I would build enough trust with the new horses and they would become a family. Charlie looked so happy.
I watched as I cleaned out their stalls, checking to see where in the pasture they had moved, making sure no one got ornery and started a tiff.
Everything seemed fine…until it wasn’t…
* * *
What happened next?
Stay tuned for Part 3 of CHARLIE NEEDS A FRIEND!
A Note from Deborah:
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