Moving the mares to their Winter pastures

Winter is upon us, and as temperatures drop the mares and foals are moved to the winter fields with houses and shelter from wind and rain ☔
Our ‘Group of Greys’ has Cigana and her filly from 2022 and colt from 2023 (full siblings) living together 🖤 Sintra (2022) was never weaned by us, only by Cigana. Although Sintra was asked to keep a distance the first week or so after Trevo (2023) was born, they are very much acting as a family. They share their meals and prefer to eat together from one portion, over each to their own 🥰 Sintra plays with Trevo and still seeks her mothers advice. The family bond is obviously strong, and makes for considering how we treat young horses and foals as “standard”. I stopped weaning at 6 months of age long ago, but seeing a family grow up is really making me understand how much longer the bond exists and how devastating it is to take a 6 months old from his or her mother 💔
We seek to form groups based on where the horses seek friendships, are confident in sharing and will not be stressed around feeding times. It takes years to get to know a large herd like ours, but taking the time to observe and adjust I’ve found that so many issues are resolved as they find friendship and support 🫂
Herdlife is not just a group of horses. It’s friends, families and a way to form a community - even with the ones you care less about. To a horse the herd matters most and is above everything else. So we adapt and hope to fulfill the needs of all of our horses, so they will feel surrounded by family and safe at all times 🦄