Horses a Better Way

01/18/2012

I have been lax in keeping track of the dates.  Beauty has been allowed to free graze in the field almost every day.  I have hand-grazed Maura several times.  She is a more reactive horse than Beauty. While Beauty is content to graze, Maura is more about exploring and being on the alert. She has calmed down quite a bit however, though is still somewhat headshy.  Maura and Beauty are still friends and often eat from the same pile of hay.

At this point I am still allowing the mares just to be horses, and trying to show them that people can respect them as individual beings without wanting anything from them. The only other thing I'm doing is making minerals available free choice.  They currently have a Redmond salt rock, free choice, loose, plain white salt, and free choice dolomite, copper, and sulfur powdered mix.

12/24/2011

Hand grazed Beauty and Maura

12/22/2011

Hand grazed Beauty

12/21/2011

Hand grazed Beauty

12/16/2011

Hand grazed Beauty

12/14/2011

Hand grazed both Beauty and Maura

12/12/2011

Hand grazed Beauty.

12/11/2011

Today, while I was working in the horses' enclosure, Beauty approached me and made it pretty clear she wanted something. I was fairly certain it was to go out and do more hand grazing, so I did take her out.

As you can see by the photo - she was much calmer. I was very impressed that she is such a fast learner and understands that I listen to what she has to say. I think she has been waiting for someone to connect with her as a unique being.

12/8/2011

Until today I haven't done anything with the horses, other than feed Tiz Life aka Beauty 2 quarts of Strategy every morning. I have allowed them to just be horses and to settle into the herd. Today I took Beauty out to hand graze in the backyard. She was nervous but good. A little worried and jumpy, but she clearly enjoyed the grass! More Oysters aka Maura is a little more hesitant about approaching, so I will wait a few days before starting to work with her.