I've just been journalling on free-range herd living for horses, and thought I'd share:
All the horses I have here used to be on daytime turnout to dry lots with hand feeding, with one buddy if they were a mare or gelding, or alone if a stallion (which two of them were). Romeo and Sunsmart had already been living free range for four years when the chestnuts arrived. At first the "new" horses didn't know what hit them when they saw all the space and weren't put into buildings for the majority of a 24-hour period, but now they are really taking to the whole thing with aplomb.
This morning, the whole lot of them stormed out together from their 4ha fenced area into the unfenced "Common" that makes up the other 58ha of our farm. They were kicking up their heels and wearing "isn't this great" expressions, and ran to and fro for a while for sheer fun, before settling down to grazing the lush ryegrass that is coming in on that part of our land. It was a pleasure just watching them.
This evening, after feeding, I was letting Romeo back in with the others as usual (he eats in the orchard as he has way more in his bucket), the others looked at him, looked at each other, and kind of went, "Well, we're all here, let's go!" - and moved up into the hill paddock as a group. They reminded me of this chamber orchestra I went to see, the way they all communicate with glances and act in unison as a result. It's really special to see these animals do this.
In traditional stable/turnout situations, the horses spend large proportions of their day basically waiting for some human to come and do things for them - what they eat, where they go, who they socialise with is determined so closely by the humans. Free-ranging over a large area they can actually explore, our horses can make so many decisions about their daily lives independently, more like wild horses. Other than getting a bucket feed from us, they totally fend for themselves with foraging and can choose what, where and when to eat, and they decide who they hang out with (including other herbivores like donkeys and cattle), where they go on that range, and what they might like to see. They are so comparatively independent of humans this way, and have a far richer life for it. I see them look at each other sometimes in one of those "orchestra moments" and then all of them suddenly canter off onto the lead-out track behind the house to run down the forest track to the western boundary, from which they slowly make their way back along the pasture fence, grazing as they go. The house is central to all these goings on and has windows facing in all directions, so I see lots even from inside the house... and I just find it thrilling that these animals have so much liberty.
:loveshower:
Also, as I was coming home from a ride around our tracks this evening, I passed the donkeys. Don Quixote started running along with us in his comedic rocking-horse canter, kicking up his heels, then doubling back to his girls and running loops around them, making little braying noises (I stopped my horse to watch). Next, they all started running and circling and kicking up their heels. It was so funny... they do this every now and then. We call it going "cracker-donkey". :smile: