Odin hit another milestone! Today, Odin gained a pasture mate, on a trial basis. At around noon today, we introduced one of our chestnut mares named Journey to Odin. Journey is a well grounded, well behaved special needs lesson horse. She’s the Disney princess horse, but right now, for some reason, she is lame, and currently without a diagnosis.
We weren’t sure what to expect putting them together, but the response was, well…underwhelming and rather uneventful. We’re not complaining. At first, they simply had no interest in each other. Journey spent some time hanging out close to her human safety nets while Odin ate grass and confirmed over the fence that his true love was Shadowfax. Journey then spent some time sniffing poop, orienting herself, and marking her territory. She looked off into the distance in the direction of the field she came from and also spent some time investigating her new digs. It didn’t take long before she found her way into the Kentucky barn, one of Odin’s favorite places.
Once Journey was in the barn, Susan and I followed and found our way up to offer some fresh water in the troughs, keeping an eye on Journey who seemed to enjoy hanging out in the open barn. It was also an opportunity to discuss what to do next. We were going to need to make a decision. Do we leave them alone together, or do we remove Journey and place her back in Full Moon, the pasture she came from? Since it wasn’t love at first sight, but there were no issues either, it could have gone either way. But in the end, I think we were willing to take one more risk before a final decision for the day.
Odin had found his way to the hay round, so once more I put the lead on Journey and brought her to the hay round as well. Showing her the hay this time, she began to eat not far from Odin. I removed the lead and slowly began to walk away leaving them to figure it out together. Odin finally got up close and sniffed her breath, Journey gave a marish squeal, he sniffed her butt, and they both went back to eating hay.
Let’s hope this is the beginning of a budding new friendship. One in which the woman once again teaches the man to become domesticated.
Odin 