Curious Stable Horses and a Puppy coloring page

About this coloring page

These horses in the stable are craning their necks with curiosity, and that is no accident. Horses are deeply social animals. In the wild they live in herds, stable groups where every member knows the others well, with friendships, a pecking order and plenty of unwritten rules.

Within a herd, horses usually have favorite buddies. They graze side by side, doze near each other and scratch one another’s necks and withers. Separate close friends suddenly, and a horse may get anxious, call out again and again or go off its feed for a while.

That is why good barns let stalled horses see, hear and smell their neighbors, and give them turnout time with other horses. A horse kept alone all the time is more likely to get bored and pick up stable vices, such as chewing wood, cribbing or weaving back and forth.

When another horse isn’t available, owners sometimes find a companion of a different species. Goats, donkeys, sheep and even dogs and cats can become barn buddies. In horse racing it has long been a tradition for some high-strung Thoroughbreds to travel with a pet goat, and the old saying about getting someone’s goat may trace back to that habit.

• stable
• horses
• puppy
• friendship
• barn