Who is that pony in the house?!

[Debbie]

Hahaha.. the other day I had Blossom outside to enjoy a bit of sunshine. By the time I brought her in, she'd run around quite a bit and rolled, so she was thoroughly wet and I knew we'd have below freezing temps that night. I wanted to change her blanket to her heavyweight and on the offchance Eldon might be in the sunroom, I led Blossom to the back of the house to holler for him.

I didn't think anything about it, but the lighting was just right so the glass doors to the sunroom turned into mirrors. I went for the door and Blossom jumped back, then zoomed forward, bumping her nose into the glass. Then her ears went back, then forwards It took me a bit to realize she'd seen herself; however, when they picked up LeeLoo a few weeks back, Kimberly had brought along Bing the Fell pony to help LeeLoo feel assured about loading into the trailer. They'd brought Bing into the barn for LeeLoo and we were all focused on the task. Blossom was super elated to see another pony! And then super bummed when he got whisked out again, all business and didn't talk with her. Now she thought she'd spotted Bing ~ only he was in the house! Cue a bit of huffy outrage on her part why on earth did HE get to be in the house, when she was not?!?!

Then Bloss began putting two and two together and we stood so she could admire that pretty pony in the window I love my lil silly girlie.

[Fi]

The first time I took Sammie somewhere with mirrors it was funny. He was like ‘wow, aren’t I GORGEOUS!’

[Debbie]

How adorable

[harveydales]

Ahh how sweet Do you think they know it's themselves in the reflection or do they think it's some gorgeous, beautiful pony? I'm not sure as we are told very few animals understand reflections. Eve certainly adores looking at herself! Even when we are out on a walk down the lanes she looks at her reflection in windows at every opportunity. In fact this was so obvious that I got Andy to put up a big stable mirror I had hanging around in the barn into her stable. She loves looking at herself and when I do anything with her, she always goes over to tell her friend what she has been doing! I'm not sure she knows it's herself because she does try and look behind to see where the gorgeous pony is but maybe she does....

Harvey, on the other hand, was quite the opposite. He was very antisocial when it came to geldings although he did like the girls. Once I put him in a stable with the mirror and he hated it! He told it to go away in no uncertain terms and when it didn't, he reared up and attacked his reflection with his teeth and front legs It was very frightening and Andy had to rush in and cover the mirror with a sack before we could get him out. He really didn't want any other male horse in his stable!

[Debbie]

I think it varies with the pony, age and situation. Some of them do know it's a reflection of themselves, some love looking at themselves, and will admire a long time. Others are convinced it's another pony that's frightening what Harvey did, though! I'd never heard of one being that robust at attacking a mirror, but I'm sure there are other strong willed boys out there who've done the same.

[tinkeralison]

That is so funny Debbie, I was thinking of getting a stable mirror for Alfie but now hearing how Harvey reacted I think he would do the same, he can only tolerate one pony at a time, he's such an oddbod 🙄