Community Horses

PLEASE let me know if Slendy and Bossy are too dark to see. My screen does weird things and what's visible to me might not be to you guys.

Some sketches of Community-related equine things

Here we have Slenderman and Bossmare, two horses involved in my storylines that hang around the community. I imagine they probably don't have many, especially in it's earlier months, since horses (although VERY useful) need a lot of care and attention.
Bossmare is an older mare who probably came into the community earlier, and is probably one of their more useful equine members. She's fair sized (15.1 hands, or 5 feet tall at the top of the shoulders), and very much a typical Quarter horse: muscular, hardy, and easy to work with. She's friendly and easygoing with people, but without a doubt a dominant mare and bosses around all the other horses and livestock (hence her name). This makes her great for herding anything, however: all you have to do is steer, and she'll chase down any horse, cow, or goat that's trying to make a break for it. The other thing that's been noted is while she obviously has zero patience for idiots among the animals, Bossy has an enormous love for children. To the point that if she hears a crying infant/child, she will untie herself, drag whoever's leading her, and ignore whoever's riding her to get to the kid and make sure it's okay. She's also noticeably better behaved when handled by children and teens, and has a tendancy to follow them around. She's also been known to defend said children: she's bitten/pushed over more than one adult for hitting or yelling at a kid before. (Bossy is heavily based off my own mare, and sadly enough, this isn't much of an exaggeration of her behavior. Half the reason I'm tossing her in is because of the potential for hilarious situations.)

Slenderman doesn't arrive until after the Cat's raid, when he's found wandering in the woods by some Underground members. Named after his resemblance to a certain sinister figure, Slendy's a VERY tall (17.3 hands, or nearly 6 feet) warmblood gelding who was most likely a jumper in his past life. He's friendly, but very, very jittery and sometimes unpredictable. Sudden movements frighten him, and he can violently spook at things that really shouldn't frighten a horse (ie, a random person walking by him), but then not even twitch an ear at a zombie or half-dead roaring and charging at him. Despite this, he's eager to please and can jump pretty much any obstacle you need him to.

Also, I've included some ideas for horse/livestock corrals in the community. Generally, if you have some wire or rope and fencing hooks (a nail that's bent in half and sharp on both ends), you can just nail three strands to trees and construct a makeshift pen without having to worry about putting in posts or using backyard fences (Which horses can chew through/knock over/break accidently). Chicken wire works far better for goats, and barbed wire is probably the only thing you can use for cattle without electricity, but that's the basis for either type of fencing. As far as gates go, the type usually used on ranches for cattle is shown above: four posts in a row nailed to wire, with the last one hooking with two loops of wire attached to a fence on the top and bottom of the post. It's the easiest to construct, and hardest for livestock to undo/break. I also figured that if New Hampshire is anything like eastern Canada, a rain/wind shelter is probably a good idea for the horses at least, especially if there's no tree cover in the corrals. The easiest way to do it would probably be to attach the fence to some kind of empty building, preferably with a dirt floor, with at least three walls and a roof. Most horses will have the sense to go and huddle inside when the weather turns, which saves the humans the time and energy to make sure they're dry and warm. Goats would probably need this too, cattle... wouldn't be a bad idea, again if there isn't decent tree cover.

SO THERE. HAVE SOME LIVESTOCK KNOWLEDGE FROM CRAZY.