Since I lunged Dude and Bestie yesterday, I decided to give them both the day off and just hand graze them. I developed a routine a few weeks ago after taking Dude out and having him leap and buck and rear around me ... one of the hazards of no turnout is very dramatic forms of misbehavior. My routine is this: arrive at the barn and open Bestie's door (she's trustworthy with the stall guard). Say hello to Dude but leave his door closed (he has busted right through several stall guard spring clips). Grab a couple horse treats and put 2-3 drops of Equilite's Mellow Out on each treat, let it soak in, then feed each of them one. Muck one stall while waiting for Mellow Out to do its thing. Take Bestie out for hand grazing, bring her back in and then take Dude out. That whole process usually takes about 45 minutes.
I wrote about the Mellow Out in an earlier post. It really does seem to calm them down. I've been putting it in their water too for about three weeks and am on a second bottle. It does take a while to work and I really should've started it while they were still getting turned out. We've tried Bestie on all sorts of natural calming supplements and this is the only one that seems to work somewhat. She can definitely be the poster girl for crazy mare syndrome.
Even with the Mellow Out, they're still absolutely frantic when they get out there, ripping at the grass and practically inhaling it. After about 5 minutes I can see them start to calm down, blowing a little air through the nose, slowing down and becoming a little more methodical in their eating. The Zen of Grazing.
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