The Pecking Order

This morning the hubs and I woke up and looked outside to find the horses enjoying some soybean plants!!!  What a delightful breakfast for a horse.  This led the hubs to go out and check the fence and of course it need to fixed.

That is Archie looking at us.  I think he knows he is in trouble!!!!  He is our oldest daughters horse.  They are BFFs!!!!!!!!!

They did not have a care in the world this morning....except for eating the plants.....naughty herd!!!  Exactly how many horses does it take to call it a herd???  We have 6 equine friends which I will call a herd.

 This is one of our geldings.  His name is Twitch.  I love him!!!  I love his flaxen mane and tail!!!  He is 3rd in line in the pecking order.  Pecking order is the order of dominance.

Here is the pecking order.

First up is Buck.  He is the buckskin (hence the name) and he will always dominate and get first choice!!!  He has very few manners when it comes to eating.  He loves cows and knows his job when it comes to cattle.

Next up is Archie, our veteran horse that we have had since the day he was born.  He came to be because our neighbors were borrowing our sweet sweet mare Six (she is in horse heaven now) for their kids to use for 4-H.  While Six was staying at the neighbors they had a stud horse there to breed one of their mares.  Well.... horse love happened and that stud grew fond of Six and now we have Archie a grulla gelding the kids love.  Funny thing about that story is the owner of the stud horse wanted to throw a grulla gelding and never got one.  The neighbors and us had to laugh when Archie was born because this accident horse was exactly what he wanted.  Archie used to be first in the pecking order until we got Buck.  They do go back and forth, but Buck usually comes out on top.

Next up is Twitch, the beautiful horse I love.  He tries so hard to be number one in the pecking order, but will back down to Archie and Buck and take 3rd place.

Then we have Laci.  She is a beautiful sorrow mare with four perfect white socks.  Socks are the markings on her legs.  She lets the other horses pick their feed and then gently walks up to her pile and gracefully eats without causing any issues.

Now we have Freckles aka "Circles"....my daughter couldn't say Freckles when she was younger and called her Circles so we call her either name.  She is a flea bitten grey American pony.  She is STUBBORN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Anyone who has dealt with a pony knows what I am talking about.  She will give the "big" horses a run for their money some days.  She can be mean despite her stature but will eventually back down.

Last we have Cartoon our middle daughters sorrow horse.  He is the newest addition at our house.  Cartoon is the sweetest horse.  He reminds me of our mare Six we used to have.  You will hear people call horses a babysitter and that would describe Cartoon.  He is laid back and lets all the other horses go ahead before him.

The hubs got the fence fixed and went to lead them back to their pen.  The horses had different ideas and decided to go for a little exercise on this very hot and muggy morning.  They didn't go to far before heading back home.

Archie and Cartoon were being a little stubborn, but eventually I got them headed home after the others were already there.

{{{HUGS}}}