Gus Loses Tina...

I think I mentioned previously that we had asked the owner of Tina, the pony, to come take her away? Ponies can be a little feisty, and she didn't like the goats. The owner had sent her with Gus, the gelding, to keep him company while he settled in, but he really didn't seem to pay much attention to her.

Her owner came Sunday afternoon. She pulled up with a big horse trailer that apparently contained at least one of her other horses. It whinnied, and Gus went mad trying to get to it. He whinnied back, and starting pounding around the corral trying to get to it. The owner came down, and while her friend whisked Tina away and put her in the trailer, the owner stayed in the corral to talk to us about Gus, with Gus stomping angrily around her. It was quite the temper tantrum! We'd never seen him like that. I was afraid for her, but she didn't seem concerned, which reinforced my confidence in Gus's essentially calm nature.

After she left, we let Gus up into the upper pasture. He stormed around for a while, then went to the corner where the trailer had been, and stood there looking at the spot.

I know I'm not supposed to anthropomorphosize, but this is one sad horse. Was he looking for Tina, or wishing he could have gone home with the others?

He paced the fenceline along the road, whinnying as he went.

Finally, he let me pet him, but he was one angry, sad horse all evening.

I hung out with him as much as I could, but he really wasn't ready to forgive us.

I'm happy to report that he's feeling a little better today. My husband said he grazed normally during the day, though he let out sad cries from time to time. When I came home, he was standoffish at first, but I stuck with it, and he finally come up and put his head in my arms and let me love him up a bit. We did that several times this evening. When I put him in his stall to feed him, he licked my hair, which I suppose means something in horse body language.

I hope it doesn't just mean I need to wash my hair.