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This question comes from Victoria, who is a regular contributor and has her own blog at www.victoriacummings.blogspot.com

I just took your quiz and the one question that I answered “no” to made me want to ask your advice. I have two Quarter Horses, a mare (who is 20 years old) and her daughter (who is 6 years old). They live together, without other horses - although prior to being in my backyard, I had them in a herd of 6 horses - and it has become difficult to separate one from the other. Mostly, it is Mama Silk who gets upset when her baby, Siete, is out of eyesight. Silk is very closely bonded to me, so it may partly be jealousy that I’m going away with the other horse. She gets so upset, calling and racing back and forth. What can I do to help her realize that we’ll be back soon and that everything is okay?

I’m really enjoying your blog, and it’s very generous of you to help. I read Naked Liberty about a year ago and it really opened my mind to new possibilities with my girls. It’s great that you have started doing videos. I look forward to seeing the Waterhole Ritual™ DVD.

In reply:
Thank you first of all for your kind comments. Even though these feelings are very natural for a horse who does not want to be left alone, I have always been able to fix the problem you are having with a horse like Mama Silk. It will take some effort and time but is lots of fun if you enjoy tinkering with your horses. When you and Siete leave the paddock do it at the time the horses are fed and then groom Siete near her mother on the opposite side of the fence. After a few minutes, lead her a short distance away and return her to her mother. Make sure that on the way you have some grain in a bucket at various spots along the path you are traveling so Siete is thinking that it is a good thing to leave her mother. Then bring her back to Mama Silk and let her mother settle down, repeat this many times.

If Siete or her mother is having a hard time with the process let her eat her food as far away from her mother as her mother will tolerate before venturing on short trips. Have two piles of food; one very close and another some distance away. Put both piles in a place so that both mother and baby can see each other. It will take about five days, maybe longer.

Any time the horses get nervous take Siete back to where she is not nervous and start in on another adventure. Take Siete to places she can graze for a short time, maybe a minute to start with, and then bring her back to her mother. Her mother should be absorbed in eating. If not, use Equine Senior to sweeten the pot and keep her daughter coming and going in short little trips each day.

Make sure that any extra food is removed when you leave. This way Mama Silk will understand that she missed an opportunity and next time she will have more desire to eat her treat food when it is presented to her.

Hope this is some help. Let me know how it goes and how you got the job done. Your biggest problem lies in that fact that you only have two horses. This will be a little harder to accomplish. The good news is that it can be fixed. I found that horses adjust to almost anything if they can expect what is happening as a daily routine.

To learn more about Carolyn, her lifelong relationship with the horses and her quest to findthe ideal communication method between man and horse, visit Carolyn Resnick's siteand read her book Naked Liberty published in English and German (Tochter Der Mustangs –Daughter of the Mustangs).

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