Robyn Hood wrote: > > I am just a bit unclear. Did he observe that once the horses were fed hay > they just stopped moving the formed their food hierarchies? I wonder how > large the space was. Hi Robyn,
He said the particular area he was watching was a large pasture that was "3/4 mile deep and as wide". There were "hundreds of horses and burros" in that space. I'm just going to quote bits from the book here: "As the hay hit the ground, one group of horses stopped to feed. Further along, another group claimed its bale, and so forth until all the horses, spread all over the field, were busy munching... Under these circumstances, there was enough competition among horses, that to get one's share and fill, everyone had better stay put and eat. ...as soon as they arrive in the outer pasture behind the corrals, whatever allegiances they had to the old way are abandoned. The first notable difference was the almost immediately upon being released from the processing corrals, they began to disperse and, through relative dominance, became absorbed into existing hierarchies among the horses already present. Track behavior, as we know it in the wild, no longer occurs and movement becomes relatively stationary and, notwithstanding competition for feed and defendings one's sphere of intolerance, unmotivated." He also wrote about a 20,000 acre rescue ranch with over 100 horses. The manager had asked him to come trim the horses and he expected their feet to be in pretty good shape (arid and dry land, hay fed) but found the hooves weren't in good shape. He called their lifestyle "lazy" (horses browsed about, mingled with the cattle now and then, waited for hay to be thrown to them). He doesn't claim that any of this is "earth-shattering" but that it took him a while to put the pieces of the puzzle together. > It is interesting because we have about 60 geldings in > one area and 40 mares in another and we feed hay off of a truck during the > winter. Who eats where varies and you couldn't say it had anything to do > with a herd hierarchy because it changes and our horses move around quite a > bit while they eat and sometimes just race around at feeding time and then > find different piles. Having not read the book I can only ask questions but > I wonder if the area was quite small that the horses were kept in if it was > a feed lot situation so there wasn't a lot of place too move and not much to > do. Sounds like your guys move around quite a bit! I've only read bits and pieces of the book so don't know if he has other examples. > I think that maybe the less room you give animals and the smaller the > group the more of a hierarchy that develops.....? In one chapter he say you don't need a large property that several acres will do! Well, this just would not have happened where I boarded in southern CA. You were very lucky to have a run in the back of your stall. So, I would be disappointed if I bought this book thinking I could implement "natural boarding". It's really for those who own their own land or who have landlords who would be willing to set up the type of fencing he talks about. Trish "The greatest enemy of the truth very often is not the lie- deliberate, contrived and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic." "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer [] The video every Icelandic Horse owner should have: http://IceHorses.net/video.html [] Lee Ziegler http://leeziegler.com [] Liz Graves http://lizgraves.com [] Lee's Book Easy Gaited Horses http://tinyurl.com/7vyjo [] IceHorses Map http://www.frappr.com/IceHorses [] IceHorses ToolBar http://iceryder.ourtoolbar.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IceHorses/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IceHorses/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
