🎶 Let Me Tell Ya ‘bout My Best Friend 🎶

Many of our horses here at WM have been together almost their whole lives. Some horses come from all walks of life and are completely different but something about their personality draws them together and a friendship blossoms. WM follows turn out schedules. Certain horses go out during the day and others go out at night.

Each horse knows they have to come in at some point and they each have their own stalls. Pasture buddies are actually not stalled together. This keeps things fresh for them and they learn that separation is ok. The horses are used to their patterns and it works well for them. They know exactly what is happenin’ and when it’s happenin’ Many of our old show horses are very “hard” to get along with.

It takes the right buddy. We choose buddies based on 1. Age, 2. Personality.. and 3. Sometimes size. Old Horses go with old horses, young guys stick together, and innocent non kickers go together. Other horses like Op the Saddlebred has to be turned out alone. To us that doesn’t sound very fun for him but actually he prefers it.

Some show horses.. like OP never had the opportunity to learn how to be social with other horses. If we tried to train him to be social it would turn into a biting kicking match. Horses kicking other horses is not what we want. This behavior can be super dangerous and cause injuries. Horses like OP get their outside time, just alone and up against the pasture where he can be social.. just over a fence. We do have a few paddocks specifically designed for 1 horse turn out. Surprisingly we don’t have a ton of pastures. This is ok for us because the majority of our horses only enjoy being outside for a few hours. Most have a scheduled time limits.

Horses like B and twist really only enjoy outside time for about 1 hour. After this, they become upset, pace the fence, stomp, and sometimes nervous sweat! We don’t push them past their comfort zone. Our job is to let them live a happy peaceful life without any stress, they truly deserve it.

Our amazing WM team knows these schedules, when a certain pasture’s group is up, they come inside and the next pair go out. This morning the buddies were very happy to see each other. Seeing their happiness and love for each other is priceless.