My journey to integrate my dogs and horses

We have some new 4 legged creatures living at The Ranch - and they are larger than our beloved Pitbulls, Mastiffs, Great Danes, and Cane Corsos!

At the end of May in the midst of many rescue activities, I decided I needed to take on a hobby “for myself”. I didn’t know what this really meant to me personally - but I felt a pull to find some “me time” where I could decompress, unwind, and relax. I thought about rejoining a high intensity gym class, getting back into some crafts I used to enjoy, or even just spending more time gardening.

Over the past four years, I have completely lost myself to the two worlds I choose to slave for: non profit animal rescue and corporate tech. In particular, the past two years have been very rewarding but severely draining; I spent the majority of my time working - building up the rescue, finishing my masters degree, helping my special needs parent, and getting deeper into my career at GE Digital.

At the completion of one milestone (my masters of science degree) and the rescue becoming more sustainable, I wanted to focus on something to help me “feel still”. Instead of continuing to run in every direction with the plethora of stuff I have on my plate for the rescue… I set out to find a new source of peace and zen.

I decided I wanted to meet and spend time learning about horses. I was shocked at the “dazed” feeling I felt after I left the first stable I visited.

This horse was a retired therapy horse.

I didn’t expect to feel as strongly towards horses - I am so hard core into dogs and my world has been dogs…. but I felt a lot towards horses. I started to think about learning to ride… but didn’t feel compelled towards the activity of riding itself. I was most interested in learning about caring for horses. So my journey continued. Initially, my intentions were to spend time with horses. That was all. With the help of Jenna Hartzell (a fantastic woman who adopted a dog from us named Meadow) I visited more horses to explore the potential of an emotional connection to a horse. As an animal lover, it was just all fun and games until I fell in love with Beau. He truly started this journey for me. His personality and the way he used his lips to show affection, curiosity…and the way he rolled in dirt!

So, I visited more and more horses… I fell in love with intricacy of their personalities, the complexities of their body language, and the physical work that goes into their care.

Then, I met another horse, Dolli. I couldn’t stop thinking about her and her gentle demeanor. She was beautiful to me inside and out.

The journey to learn progressed faster than I expected. I fell in love with not one, but two horses. I consulted each owner about the perspective of these horses being companions for each other.

Beau (Black \ Brown Quarter Horse) Dolli (Paint) . These are their fly masks to prevent flies from irritating them..don’t worry they can see through the masks.

Fast forward to today… the end of July (only two months later) … we have two horses living at The Ranch. And I am madly in love with them.

Each horse is incredibly different…I love different things about each Dolli and Beau. But, together - they are a great pair and I love them more as a pair than as individuals. They have started to show us that they are becoming bonded. They have begun to groom each other and call out for each other when the other is away. They share space, grass, water, and even often go in each others stalls together.

Initially when I took both of these horses in I had the lingering thought about the work I would need to do to integrate the horses together and the work I would need to put in to integrate my dogs and my horses. With ~7 dogs at The Ranch at any given time - I needed to know that my 4 personal dogs could handle the horses. At the beginning of this journey, I was very stressed.

Many visitors at The Ranch over the past month have asked “how do your dog’s do with the horses” or a question that always offends me “are your horses and dogs friends yet?” I always get this “punch in my stomach” feeling when humans jump to these sorts of questions. It feels so selfish - and to me, the hard core dog lover… it feels material. How can we assume that 6 beings will get along (Zeus, Zoey, Robyn, Buster + Dolli and Beau). Of course before committing to taking home the horses, I considered the situation that the dogs and horses may not be successful together. The horses could of been stressed out by the dogs…or the dogs could of been in danger with the horses.

But, I am happy to report - we have achieved the start of integration. I am so amazed by the transformation my dogs have gone through in just 2.5 weeks of having the horses “home”.

Here is the journey we went through to integrate our dogs to horses over the course of ~6 weeks.

First: I visited horses and came home with the smell. I brought the scent of the new species and the essence of a barn into my home. My dogs got to smell the horses I was intending to bring home. (even before I decided I was going to bring these horses home!)

This was the third time I visited Beau. We started with just brushing, walking, and watching. Then I worked up to some very relaxed and slow pace riding (both in door and outdoor with a wonderful woman who should be a formal instructor - Kristy Simpson!

Next, I focused on bonding with the horses and…with my dogs. I visited the horses for a month (I visited Beau 5x and was able to visit Dolli 3x). I continued to bring home the scents of the horses. While introducing a new scent to my dogs - and with me feeling guilty leaving the dogs… I focused on bonding with my dogs. Zeus enjoys adventures and new things. Buster enjoys swimming, Robyn enjoys new toys and sticks, Zoey enjoys fetch. During any new transition with your dogs, you have to bond with them and do special 1:1 things to help them feel assured.

Then, as we neared the end of the preliminary exposure period … I started to gather supplies like hay for the horses. I put the hay in my car, which again, acted as a way to desensitize my dogs to new “horse things”.

Next, I took two of my dogs (I took my two dogs who were going to be the primary candidates to integrate successfully with the horses) to the stable where Beau lived. They got to travel TO the stable and SEE horses from a far. I used a quarter tank of gas so that my dogs could sit outside in the AC while I spent time with Beau. They got to see and hear the horses from a far. And they got to smell the hay in the car. They also got to smell Beau scents on me right after I rode Beau.

Then, I bonded again and my dogs and I had more fun after this experience. The car ride was fun for them. And, Buster and Robyn had more 1:1 or social time with other dogs like Ghost, Grayson, Reuger, and Polly as we prepared for the big move in.

When we moved Dolli and Beau in - they had never met before. We had both owners come over and help with the move in.

After the horses were fully moved in - we had to then bond again with the horses. I spent time sitting out with the horses their first nights - and gave them lots of extra time their first few days. They got to see and smell the dogs from a far, but the dogs had no contact with the horses for the first few days.

As the horses started to settle in and get used to each other, we started to bring our dogs out on leash while the horses were stalled. We walked the dogs at a distance from the horses to see them from a far. We then went on a nice rewarding walk with our dogs (Buster, Robyn, Zeus and Zoey.)

After walking the dogs past the barn for a few days, we brought the dogs into the barn at night to see the horses in a controlled and safe way. We kept sessions short - focused on positive reinforcement with both the dogs and the horses - and repeated the exercise a few times at the end of the day.

Note: for those who are extreme fans of Buster and Robyn… I want you to know, they also got their time. However, they are not candidates to be successful with horses. Robyn is special needs and perseverates on things. Buster, as social as he is - is not obedient and is very easily worked up by the horses. I chose the lens of working with Zeus because he is very obedient, he is off leash trained, and he is my least social dog who is the most reactive. He was the one I was most concerned about because he has the most privileges and would be the one to get himself into trouble.

As we started to spend more and more time with the horses and the dogs - the horses also opened up to the dogs.

With introducing the horses to something new and slightly stressful, I spent lots of quality time bonding with them in between exposure sessions.

The next step for the dogs and the horses was to start to build up contact with the dogs. We let the horses go to the dogs on their own terms while stalled. We never let the dogs bark, growl, or come close to hurting the horses.

Dolli likes to reach down and smell \ kiss Zeus like he is her little goat or donkey. She is very sweet and affectionate.

As the horses, showed more and more signs of being relaxed, settled, and interested in the dogs… we started to walk our dogs past the horses while they were in the pasture.

After all of this work - today was the first day that our dogs were able to go outside, off leash, while the horses were in pasture. It feels good to give Zeus and Zoey this privilege back. They had to give this up for us to be able to work through the change of bringing horses home.

We were able to reach this milestone because we took the act of introducing our dogs to our horses \ introducing our horses to our dogs VERY SLOWLY. We worked to slowly expose (through the sense of smell) and progressive increased proximity. We bonded with the animals through every stage and used lots of 1:1 time and positive rewards.

Our next step is to continue to let our dogs have free roam of The Ranch while the horses are in pasture. We are always outside with our dogs who are off leash, so that we can call them back if they wander or if something were to draw them into the pasture with the horses.

Now that the dogs have “gotten over” the excitement and have successfully been able to greet the horses (give kisses to the horses and get nuzzles from the horses) - they have a higher chance of being able to safely coexist with the “big giant pony dogs” and respect their pasture.