It’s A Herd Thing

Awareness of the outside world. Vox: The Puppy Bowl, explained, Pai and Koski 2020.

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Rodney has had his feed ration reduced. It is an ongoing balance of keeping weight on without having the calories bubble out his ears.

He’s been due for a while, but you hate to cut feed going into winter. The good news is that he wasn’t stressed, as he has been in the past. He was a good mood. Perhaps a little to good. The shenanigans during the arctic blast were the last straw. Frozen mud is not a forgiving surface. Plus, we are – though it seems hard to believe – moving toward spring.

Rodney is now calmer. More able to think through a situation.

The weird part is that Milton is calmer as well.

Rodney is easier to live with?

Or is it something more pervasive?

We are starting to wonder how the herd dynamics play out.

For example, before Milton, Rodney had no interest in the salt block. We had one, because that’s what you do, but it was largely ignored. Milton loves salt. Milton has salt daily. Milton will stress lick the salt block after a hard day. Now, Rodney uses the salt block.

Humans don’t understand. Humans can’t understand.

We are social creatures. We are not herd creatures.

Horse A spooks at X. Horse B spooks at horse A spooking. Humans laugh. This happened as recently as the last show. I saw the bird fly into the arena. The horse in front of us spooked. Optimus didn’t care about the bird. He spooked at the other horse spooking.

This makes complete sense when you are lion kibble out on the savannah. You don’t have to see the lion for yourself. Trust that the other guy saw something. You spooking? Good enough for me. Let’s get out of here.

Run first. Ask questions later.

As a reaction to physical danger, it seems obvious. Does it go deeper? Does a horse take on the mood of their herdmate(s)? Is the herd an organism made up of individual horses? Do they model their behavior on each other more than we realize? Do the horses have to be living together as a herd or does it apply to horses stalled next to each other as well?

Research is ongoing.

Onwards!
Katherine