I recently had a wobble and acquired two more mini ponies. OK wobble plays things down a little doesn’t it?

It has been quite depressing watching them.

My new horse-centric eyes have seen so much more stress than I would have seen 20yrs ago.

I feel so guilty for upending them and bringing them home and subjecting them to that stress.

It is still on-going, but slowly improving?

They didn’t have a good start.

Both came from a rescue who had them courtesy of owner neglect. Different owners.

I’d been so spoilt in the past having a stable herd. A peaceful herd, coexisting as normal equines should. I’d had one prior new horse introduction to my herd, but it seemed to go smoothly. Equine assimilation with little to no skirmishes.

20yrs ago skirmishes were what we were expected to see –

the ‘lead mare’ dogma and the pecking order.

The ‘sh__ty little pony syndrome’

Over the last 15yrs I’ve been slowly noticing that doesn’t happen.

Starting positive reinforcement training for my horses was probably the best thing I’ve done.

It promoted research, reading, questioning.

Along the way I’ve learnt that in natural, stable herds, the pecking order thing is bogus. Altercations are extremely rare, and when they do occur they end up being about priority access to FINITE resources. Nothing to do with boss or leader.

Access to something the human has failed to provide for them in adequate supply.

Back to the new minis.

Pacing. Calling out.

Squeals and striking. Threatened and actioned bites.

Outright and serious kicking matches.

Completely out of “equine” character.

NOT “narky little sh__ ponies” as the un-educated may want you to believe – but stress.

Remembered or expected deprivation from times of not enough food.

Times of not enough space to behave in normal horse appropriate ways.

Times of learning to respond to un-natural behaviours aimed at them, in order to protect themselves from other horses, who were so dis-regulated they were not acting like horses do.

It has been 8wks so far. Slowly they are starting to show more glimpses of ‘normality’

Other than time, and plentiful resources - I am not sure what else I can do to help them settle.

They are now in the big open paddock with my other minis and horses – plenty of space to move and explore, plenty of grazing (although it is now summer brown with little value)

I have now seen them follow my other minis to the water trough, follow them to the trees for shade and scratching.

They are appearing to be acting mostly in a more species appropriate way, and fitting in.

Old eyes and superceded knowledge would have incorrectly seen nasty little sh__ ponies;

But, these are ponies displaying stress and inappropriate behaviour from sub-optimal (or downright bad!) prior horse care.

These ponies have experienced harmful horse keeping, and have suffered for it.

These ponies need time to adjust and help to heal – not labelling and name calling

Written by Vicki Conroy of PPGA Equine sub-committee