A Fight in the Herd

After we got back from Sunday's ride Ranae needed to clean out Dusty's 40 gallon water tank. First we had to catch the mosquito fish which was no easy task. Then there were several ant hills close by that were alerted by our presence.

I got out the pressure washer and we tipped it on its side to remove the scale and buildup. Dusty was right there supervising and after a while I put him in Jessie's pen. This was the first time they had been loose together and they seemed to get along well. We had ridden for a little more than two hours and in the heat I thought they would be just too tired to make a big fuss.

It took us about another half an hour to get the tank looking acceptable and while it was filling up we went inside to have some cheese and crackers for lunch. We weren't gone more than 30 minutes and when I looked out at the horses they were each in their own corner. I got Dusty and put him back. I noticed a little bite on his neck.

About an hour later I noticed Jessie had a black spot on her butt. On investigating, she had several pretty big spots where the hair on her butt had been scraped off. They must have gotten into it when we were inside! I thought Jessie wouldn't have taken such a shellacking from Dusty. She definitely was on the losing end. I felt bad that I had left them alone together, but they had not shown even the slightest bit of aggression for the half hour we had supervised them.

I was going to try early morning rides this week. Some of the spots are sensitive. I busy in the evenings until Thursday, so she'll get a good rest.