On Christmas morning I planned to put everyone back in together as the ground had dried up enough and the front paddock had taken a hammering. I honestly didn't think much of anything about it as they've all been switching about just fine. I figured I'd let Jess fill her belly on haylage first and give them a fresh strip of grass to minimize any excitement, and that plan worked great and they all settled to eat after a little trot about, until Hank just couldn't possibly contain himself any more ?
So there he is running and bouncing around, nipping at everyone until Dan took the bait. Off they charge, then Jess joins in and Niko followed, it was all good fun for a couple of circuits, then Jess got mad. I have no idea why, but she launched into an all out attack on anything that moved. After 10 minutes I managed to get a hold of Hank and that brought the energy down a notch but not entirely, she continued attacking anyone she could get close to. I managed to get Dan and chuck him in a side paddock with Hank, then she really lost her temper and went to have a go at me! I was quick enough through the fence to avoid it ? I eventually managed to switch Hank back with Niko and get her in with Dan and peace resumed, mostly, she's back to squealing and striking at Niko if he so much as looks at her. I decided to leave them either side of the fence for a few days to settle down.
Boxing day was relatively peaceful, but I thought I'd give them another day just to be sure, of course that was the night we got the flood warning. So now I really need to get Jess and Dan out of their paddock as it's likely to flood and it's always a muddy one, but I don't want to put them back away from each other after all the shenanigans of the day before and have to do it all again, so a quick leccy fence to split the front paddock and I put all 4 out there as it's the driest and furthest from the river. Given it was out of routine, in the dark, in 50mph winds, in a bit of a high pressure situation, they were all impeccably behaved to be caught, led and relocated, no silliness at all.
Yesterday I was desperate to get them off the now completely trashed front paddock, so without thinking twice I let Hank in with Jess and Dan so I could catch both little boys together. Hank just wandered around minding his own business and Jess exploded, launching at him biting and trying to pin him in a corner, she is obviously not happy with him for something! So I stuck the little boys in the main field together and left Jess and Niko split on the front paddock. Jess had a complete melt down at that, galloping about, squealing, striking, and screaming her head off, an hour later she's a sweaty mess. Eventually she settled down a bit, and this morning she was fine, so I'm really hoping by tomorrow she and Niko will be back to being friends and then maybe I can finally get them all back in one place....if we aren't totally underwater by then!
