It’s not personal. Acceptable space boundaries change when a newborn foal arrives.
About to be introduced to the rest of the herd for the first time, this mare reassures her new foal.
It’s not every year that the oats grow so abundantly, but it’s glorious when it happens.
The stallion presents himself to a mare and foal.
“That night he dreamt of horses in a field on a high plain where the spring rains had brought up the grass and the wildflowers out of the ground and the flowers ran all blue and yellow far as the eye could see and in the dream he was among the horses running and in the dream he himself could run with the horses and they coursed the young mares and fillies over the plain where their rich bay and their rich chestnut colors shone in the sun and the young colts ran with their dams and trampled down the flowers in a haze of pollen that hung in the sun like powdered gold …”
– Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses
When a filly wakes from a nap and cannot immediately find her mother, she makes several mistakes while soliciting each mare she comes upon for comfort. It was comical to see the foals much more upset by this than the mares. The images are explained in the captions.
During the first few days of life the mares are very vigilant with other herd members about keeping their distance from the newborns. As a whole, though, the mares and the stallion are very tolerant and accepting of each other.
