More on the Pony Wars

We have told many stories of the pony wars that have happened here throughout the years. The mares like to stake their claim on a pony and occasionally they have what could be described as “discussions” about who owns which pony.

One mare who has tended to stay out of the pony wars, in fact has seemed to have a total disinterest in ponies, has been Lily. Her arch nemesis in the world of ponies has been Cuff Links. When Lily first arrived and was integrating into her new group she was, how can we put this, unnecessarily rude to Cuffie sometimes. Cuffie had arrived about three months prior and had not yet become the pony we know and love today. Although comfortable in the group he was not the independent, bossy, overly full of himself pony that we know and love today. He was still respectful of his elders and if someone told him to move out of the way he did so promptly.

This went on for a few months with Lily clearly dominant over Cuffie. Until one day things changed. Lily pinned her ears at Cuffie and told him to move, she wanted to graze where he was grazing. Cuffie ignored her and kept grazing. Lily swung her butt around and in horse talk was telling Cuffie to move now or face my wrath. Cuffie’s response to this was to swing his butt around and fire double barrels at Lily. Lily was so stunned she walked a few steps away. Cuffie didn’t stop, but instead threw it in reverse and flew backwards at Lily with hind legs flying. Lily hustled out of his way, in fact went almost halfway across the pasture, with a stunned look on her face.

For almost two years this remained the status quo between Lily and Cuffie. Their roles were reversed and at times Cuffie was “unnecessarily rude” to Lily just to remind her where her place was. Most of the time they just functioned together as part of the group but every now and then Cuffie would remind Lily of the way things were, and that they hadn’t changed.

Right about the time that we moved their group to the new farm we began noticing subtle changes in the dynamics between Cuffie and Lily. Cuffie seemed to no longer feel the need to remind Lily from time to time of how things were. Now it is not an unusual sight to see them paired off together, we see this routinely whereas it used to be rare. It is too soon to tell if Lily has not only claimed a pony but claimed Cuffie, her former arch nemesis, or if they are more like frenemies. Cuffie typically prefers not to be claimed anyway and likes to remain independent and be his own boss, despite the fact that pretty much every mare has tried to stake their claim on him. It will be interesting to watch them over the next few months and see if this new friendship remains or if the former status quo returns.

I took this picture of Lily and Cuffie a couple of weeks ago