As I was feeding, Susie kept acting all weird. Running at Baxter and ignoring her grub. Not normal. She was not running him off, but herding him. I saw some bot eggs on her, and decided that must be the problem. She hates them and is always freaky when there are any around. I finally had to lock Baxter up for him to get enough peace to eat! She finally ate half her grub after I locked him up.
Then I took the hay out and put it in the feeders. Then I got the fly spray and sprayed Baxter who was grateful. Susie on the other hand was weird. She kept running over to the place where Baxter was locked up. As I was spraying her I looked east, and saw the stallion who lives in the next pasture. I looked again, and he was not in his pasture, but in the stallion lane.
Now I understood why Susie was hysterical. She was trying to protect Baxter! Then I looked closer at Baxter. That damn stallion had gotten him by the throat *again*. He also had several bite marks that I had though Susie did, but now I know the stallion did it.
I called the barn manager (BM - get it??) and of course he wouldn't answer the phone. Left a message. Waited for about 30 minutes and then decided that Susie was way too upset for me to leave the stallion there in hopes that the BM would put him away. I caught him and put him back in his pasture, and Susie relaxed a little. She was still circling Baxter, and any time he even looked that way, she would get between him and block his view of the stallion. She was on high alert, and any noise from that direction had her right at Baxter's head, pushing him away. I checked inside my fence line and there were lots of skid marks where Susie had run between them.
Wrote a note and went to the house. The teenage kid that lives there with his mother said he would give the BM the note. I asked him to have the BM call me. I am not holding my breath. I don't look good in blue....
There is going to be hell to pay if Susie is not right tomorrow. This guy is the most irresponsible person that ever neglected a horse. He keeps these stallions in fencing that won't keep anything in, with mares all over the place. One colt died trying to breed mares over the fence - impaled on a t-post! I have already spent a fortune on fence, tape, chargers, and t-posts trying to keep everyone else's horses *out* of my pasture. To say that I am unhappy is the understatement of the year!
We will see what his solution is, cause if he can't fix the problem I will, and I will take it off my board bill.
Just got a call from the woman who helps out at the barn. Seems that the power is off at the pole, so the stallion who is a fence tester knows that he can just walk through the fence. They moved him up to the house where at least there is a more solid fence to contain him. Supposedly they have the power company coming out tomorrow to fix the problem. In the mean time, the hot tape that blocks off the stallion lane is coming down tomorrow. Usually when he gets out he immediately runs up to the house, but today he was blocked in by hot tape that is run off of my side. Next time he gets out, he can run loose and not be tempted to get into my pasture.
It is not the stallion's fault. He is just doing what stallions do. He lives alone. Nobody pays much attention to him, so he wants to go where he knows his mares are. I feel sorry for him, but I am not going to allow my horses to be hurt.
I have got to find a way to get all the obstacles to moving taken care of. This situation just gets worse and worse.
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