Ten Hours In

So 10 hours have passed and it certainly doesn’t feel like it.  The light is starting to fade here but I think I will be able to see clearly enough for another hour.  It’s 10pm here and so far there has been no rain.

I’ve been trying to decide what my approach to this project should be and one thing I have decided is that it will not be a scientific approach.  Scientists try to remain seperate from whatever it is that they are measuring so as not to alter the results.  But in this case I think it makes no sense to worry about whether I am altering Hazel and Pollyanne’s behaviour by being here.  I think it will be impossible not to affect them and so I must observe them and me as part of a unit.  In a way I’m not sure what it is that I am really trying to learn about so I am keeping an open mind and just seeing what pops up.

One of the neighbours wondering what is going on

The first thing that has occurred to me is that Hazel and Pollyanne have spent practically no time interacting with each other.  They are always fairly close to each other but they are not touching each other, or looking for each other or doing anything else by way of interacting.  But it is obvious that they are very aware of each other.  If one of them starts to have a snooze the other will join in very quickly and when one mooches off quite a distance away the other one will follow.  I have been wandering around the field with them, picking some weeds and wondering should I be trying to “connect” with them.  I get the feeling I shouldn’t.  Apart from helping Hazel picking some thistle flowers I haven’t really said much to either of them.  I did lie down with them, but obviously there is no converstation.  So for me this is strange.  This is something that I will be thinking about.  Horses are social animals, but how do they manifest that social nature?  They are certainly different to us humans who need to be chatting all the time.  I don’t want to inflict my need to connect on them too much, I am more interested in how they connect with each other and how they may connect with me over time.

What is evident is that I definitely want to be in the same area as them.  If they wander away and I don’t go after them because I am rooting out a particularly stubborn weed I suddenly feel very alone.  It is painfully obvious that I am the odd one out.  So I am compelled to follow them.  There is a lot of talk about the fact that horses are prey animals and there they go with the safety in numbers thing, but where does that leave me, an apparent predator.  I ain’t happy about being left on my own either.  It isn’t because I am scared, it is just because I don’t want to be on my own while they are at the other end of the field.  It feels wrong.  I wonder is this how they feel.  Are they really living in fear of attack all the time or do they just respond to the desire to share company.  This obviously does improve one’s safety but I need this safety as much as they do.

Advertisement