Newt has a bad habit – when I am busy tipping up the bowls to put food in, he sidles up to the other ponies and kicks them to get everyone away from “his” bowls.
So now the others refuse to eat near him and he is ostracised. His own fault.
I don’t blame them. Newt can be quite vicious and accurate with his sharp little hooves.
Later, while out poo-picking, I came across Newt enjoying the sunshine and I tried to explain to him that he was making himself very unpopular in the herd.
And this was proven by the fact that the others wouldn’t let him eat from the one hay net I put out when they went into their paddock for the night.
I watched as Newt mooched around, asking if there was a space for him. Silver said a very firm no, and so Newt dug deep and tried to work his charm on Tiddles, who is a soft touch.
And, after Tiddles said ok, but you’d better be nice, Newt was allowed to join in and eat the hay.
Meanwhile, Vitamin and Fivla told me they wanted to join the others in the field-of-nothing-to-eat, so I let them in and off they galloped (yes, they can shift when they want to). Then they spent their afternoon shouting at me that there was no food and could they come back, please.
I had to make up for their ridiculous decision by giving them tons of food. Hence the many buckets.
I title this “you can never have too many buckets (or handbags)”.
New plan – I am trying to leave everyone outside for longer as it saves on mucking out and it doesn’t get dark these days until after 6 p.m.
