The Mare Rejuvenation Project

On November 9, 2011 there were two new arrivals at the farm – mares to take part in my Mare Rejuvenation Project .

The mares registered names are Tiz Life and More Oysters.  I quickly found myself calling them Tizzy and Oysters.  Just as quickly I decided to find better names for them!  Tiz Life is now Beauty, and More Oysters is Maura.

In this first stage of the project I am just letting them be horses in the herd.  At first the two new girls were inseparable – always within a few feet of each other.  Once introduced into the herd this continued for several days – then one day they were apart.  Now they are still friends, and occasionally spend time together, but for the most part they do their own thing.  Which is good.

Beauty is a very smart girl.  I do feed her some Strategy once a day – about 2 quarts.  I had only fed her twice in a 3 day period when she figured out the situation.  She must be alone, in the area by the trough, with no other horses in sight – as they would take the food away from her.  The fourth day I heard a whinny that sounded so close I thought someone had gotten out.  A glance out the window revealed Beauty standing by the feed bucket, looking at the trailer.  All the other horses were out of sight!  I got her food ready and ran out and fed her.   Eventually the whinny turned to a snort – and now I just have a ‘feeling’ she’s out there – and there she is.

Beauty has also been accepted very quickly by the herd leaders.  Which speaks highly of her intelligence and nature.  Here she is, below, with Shadow – the lead mare – and Roxanna the mustang (the real lead mare who lets Shadow think she runs things.)

Shadow, Roxanna, and Beauty hanging out