Magic and I rode today. Very nice weather. I have not ridden much recently because of the holidays and cold weather. Magic was very good. We just rode in the Ash pasture. Glory and the girls are in the Oak pasture which means we would have to open and close two gates and worry about Glory’s very infrequent but very powerful horse kicking. I will fix a ride around for that soon because the grazing in the pasture is valuable and I like to ride up on Shirey.
I have had some thoughts about Magic’s disrespectful pushing. Recently he nipped me when I walked past his stall. My memory of how Magic acted when he first got here last February does not include this behavior. I have noticed the past month or so Magic has started being more assertive in the herd. At first he was very passive and enjoyed Little More because Little More is even more passive than Magic. Now they both are being more assertive getting in tight spots with Newt and nipping him and trusting that it is play and they won’t get killed. It was so serious at first with Little More that he would plead with me to let him stay in the barn lot and not have to go into the pasture with the crowd. I just left him loose and he never caused any problem unless the ponies were out with him. They led him down the driveway and down the road one day. A neighbor saw them and came to tell me. I was not here but it worked out anyway because they all followed him to the house. Now some days I will leave Little More in the barn hallway and take the others to the pasture. I shut the gate and meet Little More coming to be with his buddies. It took Little More four years to get this much confidence. Little More, Magic and Newt are all Thoroughbreds off the track. TB’s have a nice childhood with their moms in a pasture but that is the end of normal horse life. They stay in a stall except when they go to the track to exercise or race. Little More ran 54 races in 6 years. He had no experience with mature horses in a social setting in a pasture. I think it takes lots of time for them to “settle in”, even years. I think Magic’s learning how to get along and not be so passive in the herd led him to try the same thing with me. I do not have a strict, follow the rules relationship with animals. My dogs go to work with me and everywhere without a leash. I do my job and they do theirs which is mostly sleeping and greeting the rare visitor. But we do not have a routine where I say “sit” and they sit down and do not move until I say so. (That’s boring, especially when somebody is showing me how obedient their dog is.) Anyway, that is why I think this behavior showed up in Magic at this time. I do understand that it is unacceptable behavior and we will get past it.