Mojito and friends

[sbutter]

I have been taking pictures of Mojito as we introduce him to the different boys of West 12 ranch. These first pictures are of when we introduced him to No Points and Latte. No Points is a retired TB stallion that is about 23 years old and Latte is a palomino morgan gelding. We knew Latte would be the one to watch in the pasture since he thinks he is hot stuff. Mojito instantly one him over by giving him a back scratch, so we knew he had an instant friend. It was actually a very quite transition considering Latte likes to run everyone around, but this time they just did a couple leisure laps around the pasture due to excitement.

[sbutter]

This is when we introduced him to Will Power. Will Power created a little more noise and excitement due to his size and the fact that he is young and just off of the track, so he is pretty hot, but very sociable. They ran around the pasture for a while, but WP loved to go all out while Mojito was content to shadow him at a distance. It was pretty cute and a little comical to see the two together. WP only kicked Mojito once when Mojito got too close at first, but it was a light kick and more for show of dominance. They now are almost inseparable and give each other scratches and will eat out of the same feeder. I just think Mojito is a smooth talker and he knows how to communicate very well with other horses, since everyone seems to accept him right off the bat without any problems.

[sbutter]

Last but not least, we added Hawk into the picture. I moved him into WP and Mojito's pasture to add a little more herd dynamic and I ended up taking a lot of photos Again, everything went very smoothly and Hawk took leadership of the small herd. It was the first time I had seen Mojito give his "baby talk" to another horse when Hawk was introduced. Hawk is not as quick nor as big as WP, but he has more experience as a leader. So I thought it very interesting that Mojito could pick that up right away and WP didn't try to argue at all. They just followed him right off the bat even though they had never met each other prior to this meeting. Here are some of the pictures.

[kigermustang1]

Wow!!!!! Great pictures, I wish I could have been there to see all that in person!!! If you dont mind me asking, what State are you located in? Would it happen to be near the Canadian Border??? LOL!!!!

[DianneC]

Interesting how both Mojito and Will Power have one ear on Hawk as they are running and he has his ears half back. Super pictures.

[lindad]

Great socializing shots. I especially like the one of the three of them in front of the puddle. I think Mojito is a good example of a well herd socialized horse that has that great temperament we all associate with the Kiger ideal. You are so fortunate to have this wonderful boy.

[spanishsagegrullas]

Awh, Mojito's being such a good baby boy! I think it is always good to get the studs out with other horses....it lets horses be horses. Good for you!

Diane P.
Spanish Sage Ranch

[fantasykiger]

Gorgeous horses running my favorite kind of pictures ;D that cool shot of them in front of the puddle is a great kodak moment, as well.

[angelsdream]

Great pics! I love to watch horse's interact with each other - You always get some great action shots. I do love Mojito - he as been my favorite!

[mustangdara]

Cool photos!
how fun that must have been

[sbutter]

We actually live in Lodi, which is in Northern California, so it is a long drive from the Canadian border.

Mojito is still doing awesome and is keeping everyone in his herd young. He seems to go from one horse to the next to get all his playing in. I am glad to see them racing around the pasture every so often, since he is a pretty laid back guy and doesn't like to use up as much energy as the other horses who enjoy a dead out run. We also took Calista and Latte out for a ride since their was a nice sunny day and everything had dried up enough to go for a ride. They were both very fresh and Calista was happy when we had a straight away to run on. She gave one buck and then we took off. It was a lot of fun and she was very responsive to me. I used her forward motion to have a little lesson on our way back. As we walked, I would ask for her to give her hip until we faced the opposite direction and then I would ask for her shoulder over. She was so quick to bring her shoulder back around that I could feel her really rest back on her hind end to get her front around. I worked on both sides this way and it felt like we were dancing. Mojito had seen us riding by and his head shot straight up. He stared at us as we rode by. When we got back, my mom used Latte to see if Mojito would catch onto ponying as fast as Calista did. Mojito is much more cold blooded than she is, so if he was nervous at all, he just wanted to plant himself in one spot and not budge. I flagged him from behind and he started to catch on, but I think we will need to work on some more groundwork and little minny pony lesson before we take him on a trail ride with us. Now to get the weather to cooperate with us

[DianneC]

That is dancing! You're doing such a marvelous job with Calista! Its great that you used a horse to pony that Mojito already knew. I notice that that is a big issue with Kigers, probably other horses too. They just don't want to be that close to a horse they don't know.

[dunbnwild]

I've noticed that with Lazzy--she is very uncomfortable around new horses. She warms up pretty quick, luckily, but I can absolutely feel her concern with strange horses at first.

Another thing--when Mari first stepped off the trailer, Cat and Lazzy both immediately seemed to recognize that she belonged in their herd (not without some fussing of course). I don't recall them ever acting like that about other breeds. It is possible that Mari and Cat "knew" each other, though--as they both spent at least a small amount of time at the Fourniers place. I don't know if they were there at the same time though. Anyway--it was an interesting moment.

[DianneC]

Kind of like a southerner being in the NW and hearing a southern accent I'll bet. There is lots of evidence that horses prefer horses of a certain color too. Hey, she looks like us!

[sbutter]

I think that it would be interesting to study certain breeds of horses that are very similar looking (such as a very limited range of color) and see what they would do if another horse of a very different breed were introduced to it. If the horses grew up only "seeing" their type, they may be prejudiced against a horse of a different color, because they have never been exposed to them before. I know some big farms in Kentucky will use pintos or appaloosas as babysitters in their big weanling pastures, because they will see them at the track. They started doing this because some of the horses would freak out on the track if they saw those "loud" colors approaching them.