Horses are herd animals, meaning their natural instinct is to be part of a group led by a leader, or a lead mare, and held by a dominant stallion. These inter herd rankings are called the pecking order.
Each horse has his or her place in the pecking order. Obviously, mares are naturally dominant in a group setting. Usually, geldings and stallions will submit to her authority, while another mare may resist and try to fight for dominance herself. Watching horses in group settings, especially in feeding, it’s easy to see the pecking order in action. For example, my grandpa has a group of mares who live freely in his lower pasture. When watching them feed, it’s easy to see that, when one horse gets tired of one bucket of grain, she’ll push the next horse away and eat from her bucket, then that mare will push another away and eat from that one, then the next will do the same to another, and so on.
So why is the pecking order so important? Well, it’s certainly important for horses in a group setting, such as in a paddock or pasture, especially in feeding. But, more than that, it’s important in your relationship with your horse. You need to be the leader, to speak the language the horse speaks, in which case is body language (see section on round penning). In this pecking order, you’re at the top.
The pecking order in action. One horse advances another, that horse advances the next in line, and so on.
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