Right before we brought Barbie Doll home, I had planned with a neighbor down the street to have them bring over one of their horses to our pasture to be a pasture pal. We arranged to have Chip, a Pony of America mare that came from the same place as Barbie, to come over on the day we brought our new horse home. It was hard to tell if they would get along right away, but we left them together that night thinking it would work out. Barbie seemed content, and Chip didn’t seem to care that much.
The relationship seemed to work for a few days, but soon we started noticing some issues. We quickly discovered that we could not tie them up next to each other, because Chip would start to make funny sounds, almost a growl, that was definitely a warning to Barbie. After several more days, Chip started acting really weird. We asked her to back, and she reared up really high several times. I was scared that she was going to go over backwards!
The very next day, we went out to feed and the neighbors flagged us down. They described a fight to end all fights, with bucking and rearing and the whole shebang. I quickly examined Barbie and found her back legs covered in cuts. Chip didn’t have a scratch. My mom called the neighbor to come and take Chip away. The neighbor gave us some Betadine to put on the scratches. We tried to squirt some on, but you could tell that it stung. The cuts were not that deep, so we left them alone. They are healing fine now and they really don’t seem to bother her much.
My poor Barbie Doll paced the fence for days, and didn’t settle down until we brought Chips son, Pepper, over. Pepper was a pony we had first considered when we wanted to buy a horse, but he was too young. Pepper and Barbie got along alright, but Pepper was pretty pushy and kept nosing into Barbies space, but Barbie was very good at making him keep his distance. We had a difference of opinion with the owners, so they took Pepper away also. Barbie settled down pretty quickly, unlike before, but she seemed very lonely and nervous.