A band of horses, which is also known as a herd, consists of 3-30 mares, (rarely that many) their foals and a single dominant stallion.
Lone mares will survive late spring and summer alone, come winter they will start searching for herds because they will not survive on their own. Mares do not get annoyed when a stallion snakes them. And don't ever get away from stallions unless he is younger than 5. If she is snaked she won't care, she might be annoyed for an hour or so and then she simply won't care.
Older mares that can no longer produce foal's will sometimes try to steal foals from other mares. If this happens, a stallion can't and will not do anything about it. The mother can try to take her foal back, but if she fails the foal will die.
Horses are Flight animals, they will not go looking for trouble, they will run away from ANY danger they can sense. Horses are also Claustrophobic and won't go into caves.
When a stallion who had a herd of any amount of mares, if he loses to another stallion then all the mares that belong to the stallion will be given to the stallion who won the fight.
A Bachelor stallion is a young male (or old) whom does not have a herd, often he will join up with what is called a Bachelor Band, which is a band of stallions with an old male whom is between 13 and 20 years who leads the herd the rest of the males simply follow him like his mares. In spring, the older bachelors of the herd will depart and look for mares, if he finds no mares over spring and summer he will return to the bachelor band and stay for autumn and winter. Some lone bachelors, (2- 6 years) will tag along with a herd of mares and their stallion. Often when the band stallion leaves to find food, this young male will see if he can mate with some of the stallions mares.
Snaking is when a horse lowers his/her neck and nips at another horses hips, flank and hocks and drives them somewhere, wether towards a herd, or out of a herd. When a stallion snakes, A mare might kick a few times but unlessthe stallion is 5 years or younger, the mare will adventually give up and will simply go where the stallion wants. With mares snaking out other horses, the more the horse fights, the longer the lead mare will keep the horse out of the herd.
A lead mare's Role is to lead the herd, She is the dominant or alpha mare of the herd. She is usually the oldest and wisest. A lead Mare will lead her herd to safety, and when her stallion has found a good meadow or river or whatever, she will lead the herd up front to the area. The lead mare gets the best drinking spot, and the best grazing spots. Her foal however is not always the most dominant of the lot. The lead mare is not the stallions favorite mare, in fact Stallions don't have lead mares. Lead mares are sorted out through challenges, mares don't get violent, mares will nip, squeal and now and then kick the air, but won't actually draw any blood from other mares. After about 10 minutes, the older mare will win, the younger mare will back away accept her spot. If a horse in the herd (mare, filly, colt) is being disrespectful, or simply being annoying, the lead mare will snake him or her out of the herd and she or he will not be allowed back into the herd until the lead mare allows them. If she snakes them out the band stallion can't and will not do anything about it. The lead mare also has every right to snake her band stallion out of the herd, if he is young or simply cocky and disrespectful, the lead mare will chase him out and won't allow him back until she decides. If she doesn't want him back, she will start calling out to bachelors alarming them there is a herd needing a stallion here. And the band stallion can't do much about it. He will simply have to try and fend away stallions until his Lead lets him back in.
Band stallion is the 'dominant' stallion of the herd, so to speak. He does not lead the herd, nor is he the leader of the mares. He's not boss. His job is to keep the herd safe from predators and humans, and will chase his herd away from any danger. When with humans, sometimes the stallion will cut away from his herd and lead the human someplace else and after while when he knows he's lost the man he will return to his herd and will keep pushing them. With predators such as, Wolves, Bears, Cougars, etc he will chase his herd to saftey. Stallions may chase off a mountain lion if it is young or ill, but if not he might kick at it once to distract it while his herd takes off and then he will follow. His main job is to protect the herd and mate with his mares to produce foals and make his blood line bigger. A Band stallion will often depart from his herd in search of good meadows and water and then he'll return and snake his herd toward the area, his lead mare up front.
