All Together Now, One, Two, Three…

Teddy and Louis have been sharing their own space together while they got to know each other. Now that Teddy has had a few weeks to settle in, it was time to let Louis and Teddy out with the horses, Mousie and Czarina. When the big day arrived, Czarina led the way out of the barn.

Mousie followed, and then the two donkeys headed outside.

I expected that there would be a certain amount of ‘getting acquainted’ activity when the donkeys joined the horses, but it turned out to be a non-event. The horses had accepted Teddy as one of the herd.

The horses headed out to their favorite grazing area, while the donkeys were content to graze on their own.

Since all was quiet, I left everyone to get on with their day. A few hours later, I went out to see how everyone was doing.

Everyone was out in the field, grazing quietly. One, two, three… all together. What? That’s not right! One, two, three… No! One, two, three…Arg! Where is Louis? Everyone was grazing quietly. Horses are very herd-oriented and if something was wrong, it would usually be obvious by their behaviour. Still…where was Louis??? I walked over to their shelter and looked in.

There he was, all by himself, inside the shelter. The deer and horseflies have been fierce, and Louis apparently decided he’d rather retreat to the shelter where the flies are less aggressive. He was fine. I was relieved. I said hello, and when I left, Louis followed me back to the field and rejoined the others.

I left them all together. One. Two. Three. Four. When I walked out later, the mares were still grazing, but the donkeys had returned to the shelter. Now Teddy was keeping Louis company. Here he is, looking out of the shelter door.