Guard Dog Ponies!

[blogslut]

These lil' critters are badass:

[frogmarch]

1. They are!

When my son and his wife in Colorado went on a trail ride once with rented horses, the trail boss warned them that the horses hated bears and that if they caught sight of one, or even smelled one close by, they'd take off after it, and if they found a bear, they'd attack it. My son and his wife were glad there were no bears around that day.

[Kali]

2. yikes, those people were lucky!

wild boars -

[Fla Dem]

4. Is that what it was? A wild boar?

[lovemydog]

3. Very cool that once that boar is off their property

(indicated by the stakes) they just let it go.

You're right, those little ponies are badass!

[magical thyme]

5. omd they're cute!!!

FYI, donkeys also make excellent guardians...

[LWolf]

6. My oldest mare has been

chasing coyotes out of her pasture since she was weaned. Not a boar, lol, but the same behavior.

[csziggy]

9. My mares were nasty to stray dogs and other canines that got in their pastures

One neighbor let their unsocialized Rottweiler run loose in the area. One day he got into the mares' pasture and they spent 15-20 minutes chasing him around. Finally, the dog managed to get under the fence into the lower pastures. I could almost see him say, "Whew! Survived that!"

Then the weanlings got into the act. They'd been watching their dams so they decided it looked like fun to chase the canine. The dog got another 10 minutes or so of running. Since my horses come from cutting horse stock, they are naturals at herding animals and would take turns cutting the dog off from any escape route.

The dog finally made it back under the fence to his home yard. We didn't see that dog again on our property!

I've also seen the mares chasing foxes and coyotes - but they like the cats and hang out with them without bothering them in the pasture.

[LWolf]

11. cutting stock

My old mare is an appendix qh; sire was a tb, dam was from an old Hancock line. We spent a lot of time out where herds of cattle roamed, on public land leased for the purpose but still available for trails. If there were cattle blocking the trail, she'd pin her ears and they'd move; we never had to slow down or do anything else. It was something about her attitude, I think; always the alpha.

Once, out with a friend who had her dog riding out, we came across a cow who'd had a still birth. There was a large pack of coyotes just waiting for her to abandon the dead calf. Because of her dog, we took a different trail around the area and ran into MORE coyotes a bit further on, who'd been chased out by the pack at the scene. One showed an unhealthy interest in the dog, tracking us, so she got off her horse, put the dog up in the saddle, and led her horse toward the ranch while my mare and I blocked the coyote from following. That coyote was determined, and so did my mare. She had no cutting training, but you wouldn't have known it as she blocked him at every turn and finally decided the only way to get him off the trail was to chase him off. She herded and then chased him for more than a mile before he gave up. All without any direction from me after I put her in between the coyote and the other horse and pointed her at him.

It doesn't surprise me that they'd teach that Rottie a lesson, lol.

[csziggy]

12. Hancock line was old working stock

Long before the various QH lines became specialized, Hancock horses were bred to do all the ranch work and be reliable at it. Most of my horses are Poco Bueno and King bred, but I've had a few Hancock line horses, too. I prefer those foundation bred QHs over the "modern" ones bred for show rings.

We don't have the numbers of coyotes here in North Florida you have, or the loose cattle. The situation you describe would probably freak me and my horses out!

That Rottie disappeared - the owners put up posters all over the area and never found him. I wouldn't be surprised if he'd been stomped by one of the mares. I'd warned the owners about my horses and since there is a leash law the dog had no business running free, so I wasn't going to spend time hunting for their dog. Since the dog had tried killing our cats on my front porch, I was relieved he was gone.

[LWolf]

13. Yes.

The old mare's sire, the tb, was rescued from the track after a breaking a cannon bone in training. My old family member, who rescued him, didn't breed him often; he considered him "too light," and thought that's why he broke down. Hancock horses are known for their good bone, though, so he did breed him to his old Hancock line.

I have 2 of her daughters out there with her; I bred her back to QH lines. I stuck to older bloodlines; Leo for the first, and Jaz ranch breeding (Poco Bueno) for the 2nd.

I wanted all-round horses, not specialists, so foundation breeding was the way to go. These days I don't do much with them; I work way too many hours to keep up with them, and spend most of my time feeding hay into one end and scooping manure from the other.

[csziggy]

14. I've lusted after the Jaz stallions!

But where I am I would have to use their frozen semen to breed and my vet is pessimistic about the conception rate.

The stallion I bred and raised was out of a son of Shady Dell, a daughter of Poco Bueno and his dam had King and Poco Bueno on her papers. I had daughters of Two Eyed Jack and James Caan and produced some nice babies out of those mares. I still own some of them, mostly mares I bred and raised. The one mare I didn't raise has Poco close up, though she doesn't look like the other Poco horses I've owned.

My old stallion:
Mel (Milagro)


My current favorite mares:
Ziggy (granddaughter of Mel)


Goldy (Ziggy's foal by a son of James Caan out of a Leo mare)


If I bred to a Jaz Ranch stallion, Goldy would be the one I'd try. Ziggy is now in her late teens and has had trouble catching and carrying to term.

Foals I bred have done everything from working cow horse, Western Pleasure & Trail at shows, dressage, three day eventing, hunter, halter, and more. Mel won at Western Pleasure, but he was bored doing it - he loved Trail classes. He won at the one time we put him into a hunter class though he'd never been trained to jump or worked with an English saddle before. LOL! After that, I showed him at some English shows and took dressage lessons on him - but the flat classes bored him and I was too old to take up jumping.

[LWolf]

15. We had a local

Jaz stud the last time I decided to breed; when his owners retired, they gelded him and sold him to friends in So Cal. My youngest mare was in his last crop.

This is him with the local (to him) trainer who sometimes uses him for demonstrations at clinics.



His daughter is the end of the line...and the best of them. Here she is as a weanling; I don't have any good pictures, lol.



Here's one from last November; that's her Leo sister behind her, along with the sheep that thinks she's a horse, lol.

[csziggy]

18. Gorgeous horses!

I love that wedge head of the Poco blood. Your mare was a beautiful filly even in an out of focus shot.

I miss breeding, but our last foal crop was the year I got new knees and we still have the colt from that year and his older half brother. Older brother is going soon - I traded him for several months training on the younger one. The younger one - just turned three - is over 16 hands and incredibly sweet. He's going to stick around a while since I like him so much. If I breed locally, it will be his dam and the mare I didn't breed will go back to the sire - he's Ziggy's oldest foal, out of the James Caan/Leo stallion and full brother to Goldy.

[LWolf]

19. I NEED new knees,

which is one reason why I don't do much with them any more, lol. My mom, in her late 70s, is riding her old horse with 2 titanium knees, which I'm a bit nervous about. It's quite an expense to keep 3 horses and their pet sheep, but they ARE the last in a long family line, and I'll make sure they are safe for the duration of their lives.

I've only bred to continue the line, not to sell; they are the 3rd and 4th generation of horses in my family since the 1940s. My old mare's dam was the last of her sire's line, and the old mare was the last of her dam's, and the two daughters I've got are the last of hers, with that youngest born when she was 18. It's amazing to think that there are only 4 generations in 70 years.

[magical thyme]

16. I looked out my kitchen window one day, and saw a coyote in the woods making a beeline

for the barn, where my goat was tethered. My old arab gelding, Algiers, was grazing peacefully with his back to the woods.

It took me about 3 seconds to come racing out the door and get around the house. Too late, lol. The coyote was gone and Algiers was trotting back and forth along the fence line, staring into the woods, ears pricked and ready to play.

[LWolf]

17. Yes.

Coyotes should fear when an Arab decides to play, lol.

[magical thyme]

20. here are pix I found recently that I'd forgotten about

of us playing together...

[LWolf]

21. Lovely.

[hifiguy]

7. Must be relatives of Rainbow Dash

even though they're not pegasi.

[Sanity Claws]

8. Their excitement for the day, maybe the week

[Laffy Kat]

10. And don't come back! nt

[hunter]

22. Pigs like that are the most dangerous animal in the California forest.

I haven't had a scary bear encounter, but I've had several scary encounters with pigs.

There's another funny part in that video: Near the end of the video, just after the pig escapes under the fence, a crow takes off after it, no doubt continuing the chase.