Insights into herd life - a little love story

"There’s a whole world to observe and understand within herd life, when we enable ponies to live together and evolve together."

Observing the subtleties and complexities of herd life is a fascinating privilege - and a wonderful learning opportunity. These past few weeks, a quartet of ponies - Imperial Topaz, Dazzler, Yogi Bear and Karisimbi - have been offering intriguing insights into the bonds and relationships within the herd. Basically, it’s a bit of a love story.

Nearly twelve years ago, Topaz, along with Dazzler and her siblings joined our new Exmoor Pony Project as newly weaned moorland foals. They came from different herds and connected immediately. Within this sizeable foal herd, Dazzler and her half sister Scarlet formed a close bond with Topaz. In fact, Scarlet and Topaz were closest of all. 

Some year’s later, I moved Scarlet to run with Bear to have a foal (she eventually produced two beautiful daughters, Goldilocks and Phoebe) and this meant she was away from Topaz and the big herd for a few years. At first, Topaz appeared to be devastated, before gradually becoming closer to Dazzler - and they became inseparable, like peas in a pod. 

This bond has continued for over a decade - until a few weeks ago. 

A quick background summary - A few months ago, newly gelded Yogi Bear was reunited with his daughters Annabel, Helena and Spirit and their mother Annie - and soon afterwards, they joined the big herd. As you can imagine, this was rather like throwing a large rock into a pond and the ripple effect from all the different meetings and greetings and establishing of herd hierarchy and relationships was quite dramatic at times. (Some of the Patron films include some great footage of it all).

While still maintaining a close eye on his immediate family, Yogi Bear took a huge shine to Monty’s daughter, Cristal and didn’t let her out of his sight. Subsequently, various other mares started hanging out with him, including Dazzler. I became aware that Topaz seemed to have removed himself from the whole herd and started spending time on the outskirts, even standing alone outside the barn, or in a different part of the pasture. He seemed rather downcast and out of sorts. 

Soon, I realised this was because Dazzler was spending more and more time running around with Yogi Bear and his new little gang - and Topaz was very unhappy about it, and even quite irritated. He seemed to be sulking. 

Then, another of the mares, Karisimbi, caught Yogi Bear's eye and he started hanging around with her and ignoring the other mares. Currently, they are a definite pair and are together all the time. This didn’t sit too well with Dazzler, who looked a bit lost. But Topaz carried on ignoring her and for a while, there was a definite stand off. Even though Topaz had returned himself into the herd, he was not to be seen anywhere near Dazzler. 

Until yesterday! I walked into the barn where the whole herd had migrated in for a rest. There, in the middle, were Topaz and Dazzler, standing together as they have done for most of their lives. When I went over to say hello, they both came up to me, clearly once again happy in each other’s company. 

This case study has been fascinating as the ponies have demonstrated a wide range of clear emotions and emotional responses and shown how they navigate the nuances in their friendships and relationships - and how these evolve and change, according to their feelings, when they are free to make choices for themselves. 

There’s a whole world to observe and understand within herd life, when we enable ponies to live together and evolve together. As I say often - there is so much we can learn from them. 

Our Exmoor Pony Project social media followers think so too. One posted this morning, “In this precarious world, so lovely to be diverted by your posts and photos of herd life.”

Indeed. We're blessed to spend time alongside these very special Exmoor ponies.

Below:
First picture: Dazzler (second left), Scarlet (third left) and Topaz (far right)

Second picture: Yogi Bear and Karisimbi

Third picture: Dazzler and Topaz reunited