Lead Mare Wisdom
- March 11, 2024
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- Jan Swan Wood
Posted in: Featured, Horse Care, Ranch Life
The dam in the winter horse pasture had gotten low and finally frozen to the bottom. It was a cold but
nearly snowless winter and the horses couldn’t even eat snow to get by, so I had to make a way for them to get water.
It was about 100 yards from the corner of their winter pasture to the corner of the north pasture that had a deeper dam in it, so I put up a temporary fence to make a lane from gate to gate. I’d call the horses up to the dam in that pasture every morning and feed them their cake. I’d chop ice for them and they could water before going back to the meadows to graze. It worked slick.
It was a mixed group with youngsters, saddle horses and broodmares in it. The boss mare was a big
broodmare named Elsie. She had grown into a good lead mare just like her mother had been. The other
horses respected her and would go where she led them. She’d come at a trot from anywhere in their
pasture when I whistled and would bring them up that lane and to the dam where I waited.
One morning I’d whistled at the horses and had seen Elsie start my way from quite a ways up the creek. They had to go around a corner, across a meadow and up to the corner where the lane was, so I had
time to chop ice while I waited. I got the ice chopped and looked up expectantly to watch the horses
coming. No horses. I got back in the pickup and drove up higher to where I could see them. They were in the corner of their pasture standing by the gate. As I whistled and watched, I saw Elsie turn them back, over and over. She wouldn’t let one horse go into that lane.
I drove over to the corner of the north pasture and got out of the pickup. Elsie was standing at the other end of the lane looking at me. I called to her and she nickered but didn’t move. I could see no wire or anything on the ground that would have been impeding her way, so I was puzzled. The other horses knew why I was there and they wanted their cake and drink, so they crowded her. She whirled at them and drove them back sternly.
Finally, she put her head down and advanced several steps into the lane. She let out a big snort and
retreated to the gate into their pasture. What in the world, I thought. I kept a halter behind the seat of the pickup so I got it and walked down the lane and up to Elsie. I haltered her and led her into the lane. She followed me to the spot where she’d stopped before. Down her head went and she let out a big roller and snort and tried to leave. I looked at the bare ground. It was hard sod with not a speck of snow on it, so no tracks were visible.
It took quite a bit of coaxing before I finally got Elsie to cross that area, but she sure didn’t like it. The
other horses followed with several of them being a little goosey over that spot too. Once out of the lane, I pulled the halter off of Elsie and headed back to the dam where I caked them and they got a drink. It was several days before they finally left that pasture and returned to the good feed on the meadows. There had been a skiff of snow in the meantime, so whatever she had smelled on the ground must have finally faded and was covered with the snow.
One other time Elsie caused my son and I some additional work. This one happened in the north pasture. We had a high east wind and some snow forecasted, so I wanted to feed them in a deep draw on the north side of the ridge with protection from that wind. He and I had fed the little square bales in that draw and were expecting the horses to show up before we finished, but they didn’t. We got back in the pickup and drove up out of the draw, and there was Elsie, fighting the others back. She wouldn’t let them cross over the ridge to go to where we’d fed. I knew she wasn’t being ornery, she had her reasons. Those other horses really wanted to come, but they didn’t want to tangle with Elsie.
My son was a little perturbed when I told him we were going to gather up that hay and go feed them
somewhere else. I explained that there was a good reason that Elsie didn’t feel it was safe to be in that
draw or even on the north side of the ridge. She couldn’t tell us with words, but had sure been telling us
the best way she could. Since he had a young horse in the bunch, he sure agreed with Elsie’s thinking. You can bet we were both looking over our shoulders as we worked.
We gathered up the hay and took it over to another spot that wasn’t as good as the draw but would have enough protection to keep the wind from blowing the hay away. Elsie let them come with us as we drove that way and there were no more problems.
In both of these incidents, I figured that there had been a mountain lion around. In the lane, it must have laid down a scent trail across the lane that Elsie picked up. In the deep draw, perhaps Elsie had actually seen the lion cutting through there on his way to the creek. Neither time was there any snow to see a track in, so I’ll never know for sure.
A big tom mountain lion worked the neighborhood and was seen multiple times by reliable people. So, not much doubt that that is what had Elsie on high alert. She was a well bred, modern mare, but she still had the survival instincts to be a good lead mare. Elsie sure had a nose for lions and no one in her band was going to be allowed to be in the wrong place and become his next meal. Not on her watch!
Posted in: Featured, Horse Care, Ranch Life
About Jan Swan Wood
Jan was raised on a ranch in far western South Dakota. She grew up horseback working all descriptions of cattle, plus sheep and horses. After leaving home she pursued a post-graduate study of cowboying and dayworking in Nebraska, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota....