Warning - Sexual Content

For those of you who follow my posts, you know that Annie, Jack and Blaze are coming home to Red Chair Ranch at the end of the month. While I didn’t expect the fourth horse to show up so soon, a decision was made recently and Rose will be joining the herd.

That’s three mares and one gelding. A gelding who has not been with mares for a very long time. Are you sensing the foreshadowing?

As part of their transition, they were put in a pen together yesterday.

It was fascinating to watch their interactions. I was curious.

Who is going to be alpha?

What role will each have in the herd?

The mares have been living together and know one another. Will they accept Jack?

I was expecting to see some storming as they figure themselves out as a herd.

What I did not expect was Jack being interested in mares in heat!

You see, over the past year, he seemed totally disinterested in any mare that was walking by his pen while his pen mates pranced up and down the fence line when the mares went out to pasture.

Jack’s behaviour yesterday surprised me.

It was not inappropriate. He was doing what geldings do naturally.

I choose to be curious.

Would the mares look after each other?

Would he respect their wishes?

Will this settle down over time as he gets used to their cycles?

Is there anything us humans need to do to ensure no one gets hurt?

And then it got me thinking about people and how we react to change, in particular, how we have been reacting during this worldwide pandemic.

Who is leading? Who is not?

Who is watching from the side and staying out of the conflict?

Who is demonstrating behaviours we have not seen before?

Do we agree with them?

What do we do when we notice those behaviours?

Do we judge?

Are we curious?

Is there something we can do to better understand?

Or help them understand the impact of their actions?

Jack’s jarring behaviour, my interpretation, not his, got me thinking that stress, change, and conflict can bring out behaviours in us that others have not seen before.

It doesn’t change who we are.

It doesn’t make us less than or different.

They demonstrate something in us that may have been dormant. Or is reserved for those really stressful times in our life.

When you observe others acting in ways differently than you have seen before, how do you respond?

When you act in ways that others do not expect, how do you want them to respond to you?

Now more than ever, choosing to be curious and kind matters!