Curly

We have a new "desensitizing" agent staying with us until tomorrow.  His name is "Curly", or "Curly-Sue-Ee"! 
Over the weekend I swapped a local fellow two lambs for a market hog.  Curly's stay with us is going to be very short, as tomorrow the bacon wagon is coming to get him.  But, today was a great day to introduce our horse herd to something that they've never seen before.  A pig.....



The noisey, rooting, grunting, squealing desensitizer - Curly.



Octopelle (Kinor x Miss Diana Ross) a.k.a. "Ox" - The Dealer
"I'll make a deal with you, you stay in the pen and both of us will be okay.  Come any closer, and all bets are off..."

Octopelle was skeptical of Curly, but accepted him after hanging out near him for a few minutes.  If both of them were loose in the pasture, it would most likely be a whole different story...

Sagebrush Nettie (warm springs mustang) a.k.a. "Nettie" - The Tolerator
"You're stinky, pink, and make funny sounds.  I'll put up with you, but don't expect me to cuddle up next to you tonight."

 Nettie was about the same as Octopelle, skeptical at first - but slowly grew accustomed to Curly. 

Suzette the Vette (Kinor x GC Manila) a.k.a. Suzette - The Shrinking Violet
"Who does your hair?  I need to find a new stylist - my rasta dreds are outta fashion."

 Suzette accepted Curly better than I thought that she would.  Being half arab, she's generally on the snorty side of things - but she didn't hesitate to march right up and make friends with the pig.  I was fairly happy that she accepted him as well as she did.

UB Wink A Lena (SNW Go Tuf Lena x Cinegas Cowgirl) a.k.a. "Betty" - The Intimidator
"Go ahead, make my day... If there wasn't a fence right here, we wouldn't have to wait for the bacon truck to get here."

 Betty was a whole different story.  I had two horses that felt like killing the pig, and she was one of them.  Absolutely no fear whatsoever - just a general disgust for the little porker.  She spent most of her time pinning her ears and looking very grumpy at him.

Zetlano (Kinor x Stormin Norma) a.k.a. "Roo" - The Cowardly Lion
"I guess you're okay, but just don't make any sudden impulsive movements..."

Roo is generally overly leery of everything on gods green earth, but he does come around if he's given enough time to wrap his brain around things.  He handled meeting Curly very well - much better than I had expected.  In fact, he had a bigger issue with Craig's skid steer excavator parked near the pen, rather than with the pig itself.   

Gweedi-O (Grade shetland pony) a.k.a. "Gweedie" - The Hobbit
"Are you from The Shire too?  You're almost my height."

Being a typical pony, he was fairly laid back and accepts brand new things very well.  He was more concerned about what was going on with the pasture grass rather than with the pig.

Dees Wishful Thinking (PT Peps Lucky Wish x Miss Diana Ross) a.k.a. "Fred" - The Courageous
"I don't know who you are, and I really don't care..."

Fred really surprised me with the pig.  I haven't done much desensitizing with him, and he hasn't been off the farm that much to see new weird objects.  So, his attitude towards the pig was impressive.  He could've cared less about it.  Just thought that Curly was a funny looking sheep, I guess.

Asil Tumay (Astrachan x Annastasia) a.k.a. "Tommy" - The Challenger
"I definitely grunted louder than you.  Start packin' your bags fatso." 

Tommy was a bit of an interesting event with the pig.  At first he was curious and stood back aways with a craned neck to try and figure out what the pig was - but after the curiosity subsided it was full on aggression.  He bellowed like a stud horse and stomped his front foot when his nose touched the pigs snout.  (Curly wasn't exactly impressed nor intimidated by this action, but just kept right on eating next to the fence.)  I assumed that Tommy thought the pig was a small pink stallion that wanted to take over the barnyard for himself....  Afterwards when Curly grunted and made noises, there was some ear pinning and puffed up bluffing stances on Tommy's part - so I put him away before he tried to take out the fence and destroy the little pink intruder.




Smidgen of Budaka (Kinor x Miss Diana Ross) a.k.a. "Smidgen" - The Poker Face
"Can I have some of that?  By the way, have you seen Tommy around..?"

Like her half brother Fred, Smidgen could've cared less about Curly.  It's spring, she's a filly, and has fallen quite suddenly in love with Tommy.  She had no problem standing next to the pen and helping herself to some of the pigs grass snack, meanwhile keeping a lookout for where the geldings went to.