Changing the Herd Dynamics (again)...
While Molly seems to be settling in pretty well, there's still some definite strife between her and Bonnie & Charles. Part of the problem, I reasoned, was that Bonnie & Charles were a bit too bound to each other; Or at least, Bonnie to Charles. I thought it might be an idea to try moving Charles in with PoohBear and Dirk, thus leaving Molly and Bonnie alone together and sort of "forcing" them to bond by their herding instincts.
Last year, we had tried putting Charles in with Dirk, and PoohBear with Bonnie, so I knew that Dirk would give Charles a rough time at first, then eventually calm down. What I wasn't sure of, was how Charles and PoohBear would get along; My worry being that Charles might take after PoohBear and hurt him. As it turned out, that worry was groundless; The two geldings became close buddies almost instantly, and were quite content to stand side-by-side eating.
As expected, Dirk made multiple attempts to mount Charles, and generally chased him around the paddock for about an hour before he finally got too tired (and fed up) to keep harassing him. What I found very interesting is that PoohBear would not stay out of the melee! He kept getting into the thick of it, and it actually seemed as if he were trying to protect Charles from Dirk! I've heard of jealous mares trying to prevent a stallion from mounting any other mare, but I wouldn't have expected that sort of behaviour from PoohBear. PoohBear doesn't like to "play that game" with Dirk, so you would think he certainly would not be jealous of Dirk trying to mount another horse. If anything, one would think PoohBear would be pleased that someone else was getting jumped on. For whatever his reasons, PoohBear was determined to run interference and keep Dirk from mounting Charles as much as he could. It's not that PoohBear wanted to mount Charles himself, he just didn't want Dirk jumping all over his new friend.
When I checked on everyone at the 7pm feeding time, they were all more relaxed. Bonnie isn't overly happy about not having Charles to run to, or "defend" her from the big scary Molly, but she's getting better. Both girls came inside for Crunchies, though I put their bowls down far enough apart to make sure that there wouldn't be any fighting. I hope that my theory is correct, and that their herding/bonding instincts will draw them together now that there's just the two of them.
PoohBear and Charles are definitely happy together, now it's just a question as to whether Dirk will be happy having these two as the subordinate members of his herd.