Dandy & Delite or The Dinner Duel

[Tockita]

Well Dandy is 2 months old today, and he has sure grown! He also thinks he is all that and a bag of chips!


This is him next to a 5' 4 rail panel (he is over 10 hands tall.. OK not so huge but coming out of a midget mom... that's pretty darn good at 2 months IMO)

We adore the little monster but we do have to let him know it is not OK to nip just because you are itchy.... Sometimes I do have to be raking or scrubbing and that he just has to wait.



We moved Sera's leaking pool into the yard as a feeder because he tends to throw himself down on the food if he thinks mom is eating too much of it and frankly he was too big for her tire. This way mom can still eat around him.

This is how dinner went tonight







Notice mom COMPLETELY ignored the entire event! Which lasted a while.. the flash was recharging in between the shots.

I think we are going to take him to Laurie's where there is a colt just a bit older then him, so he can play with someone who wants to play back. At this rate he wont be able to play with the new baby for quite awhile, (IF she ever decides to come out that is!) and I think he could benefit from sometime spent with someone his own size and energy level!

[caryn]

LOL...Dandy is all that and a super grab bag of chips!!!!! Love the pics, thanks for sharing

[wendyp]

Okay, I have hardly any colt/filly experience - hystyle and I each raised a PMU baby and they are 4 years old now - so my question is: Isn't that pretty ballsy of a baby to chase a mare away from the trough? Is that an indication of a future dominant personality? Or will that go away when he's gelded?
I know Tonisha gelded Nitro early (5mo?) because he started acting dominant and he was waaayyyyyyyy tooooo bigggg for that (TB/Clyde/Perch cross).

Our babys never did anything like that as babies, but my now 4 year old PMU filly will chase the less dominant horses away from the food...............

He is adorable, but I was surprised at the pics! Maybe that's normal - what do I know??? ;D

WendyP/Bend, OR

[Tockita]

Well I think it's pretty ballsy. We have always planned to geld him (Beth wanted a filly in the first place)

Mom lets him do whatever he wants. At the most she will just push past him and walk away. When she lays down to nap and he isn't happy about it he nips at her ears, chews her mane and paws at her.

Grandma is the only one that says no to him, and she does say NO! She met each of his advances. While it looks ugly, no real contact happened, just lots of posturing. Delite usually eats breakfast and dinner alone but they sometimes share lunch. His attitude is more pronounced when there is food involved. He was about 2 weeks old when he started getting pissy and flopping himself down on Haydn's feed. She lets him and just eats around him, she has started to nip him if he is too forceful while at the bar.

I think he needs someone to play with, he tries to play with Mom and Grandma but they are not interested in playing. So we are going to give him a playmate and see how that goes.

But we do want him to have some boldness and 'tude as he is hopefully going to be working cows... and Hayden sure stands up for herself with everyone but him, so he came by it honestly!