(this was just over an hour and half since I left the horses) I was looking out the windows of my living room, licking my wounds, and all of a sudden, running up over the ridge to the south, here comes the herd of horses I had left in that big field and, not only that, with them was the colt that had been missing the herd for 4 days!!!! They trotted to a stop in front of the house and barn. Baby started nursing immediately.
Somehow, seeing me over by that field must have triggered something in the herd, or maybe in that stallion or in the lead mare…??? That reminded them they had a place where they were safe and could get grain. It could not have been a coincidence. The desire for grain must have outweighed whatever the trauma was that sent them running for their lives. In that short distance to get here (more or less, as the crow flies) they must have come across baby’s scent (or baby came across their scent – I’ll never know which) and they set about retrieving baby in the process. And boy, was baby hungry!!!
Those 4 days were some of the strongest emotions I have ever felt in all my years. I was so worried over that baby and there wasn’t anything I could do to help him. The little filly had gotten kicked out of the herd for some reason and all we could do was find her a safe place to live. I didn’t understand any of it. But the story of the little filly wasn’t done yet.
The neighbor that helped me look for baby and was with me when we found the little filly was true to her word. She found that little filly a home a couple of miles away and up on that hill to the north of me. The family had a couple of geldings so she would have herself another herd of three. There wasn’t any way to get her loaded into a trailer because she was wild and there wasn’t any way to contain her, so they bribed her with grain to get her to follow them home. It worked, even though it took several days; they finally got her up the hill to their place, to safety and to her new home.
So that first week in June, 201, was finally over. What a stressful week!!! Little did I know that it was just the beginning of several emotional times trying to protect this herd.
That kind of stress made me want to know what had happened – especially to that little filly. Why had she been kicked out of the herd? So I got on my computer and started doing research.
There was a lot of information on colts getting kicked out of herds. It is apparently common knowledge that once a colt matures enough for the herd stallion to sense a threat it is time for the boy to go. All the articles I could find tell you that he will kick the colts out between a year and two years old. That depends on how fast the colt matures, and how tolerant the mother is. There are stories that the colts will even try to mate with their mothers if left in the herd. The stallion will give them 2 warnings and then the 3rd time, if the colt hasn’t found it prudent to leave already, the stallion will make sure he stays gone on the 3rd attempt.
There isn’t nearly as much information on the web about what happens to the yearling fillies when they come into their first season. I did find some and it explained a similar story in that the lead mare somehow knows the stallion can’t mate with his own offspring so she kicks out the fillies when the time has come. I have found that it is not common knowledge about fillies getting kicked out of their birth herd. Also, what I witnessed was not the lead mare kicking out the little gray filly, it was the stallion. It is probably worth mentioning here that Bossie’s two year old filly is still with the herd because was not sired by this stallion, but rather by the first stallion I met. At this point for lack of information I am feeling at a distinct disadvantage and I am not sure whether that was just an oddity or if there is another version of this experience just waiting to be written.
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