Maisie

Maisie is a gorgeous bay mare who made the trip from northern Illinois to join us for retirement. Maisie is owned by the wonderful family who also have Lily and Norman retired with us. Most of the family members ride and they give their horses forever homes, all horses should be so lucky as to be a part of this family.

Maisie is an absolutely gorgeous mare

The family does not really know a lot about Maisie's history. On top of that they are pretty sure the information they were given at the time of purchase was not completely accurate anyway. For example, they were told that Maisie was 7 years old when they purchased her. However Maisie grew three inches during the first year they owned her so I think it is a safe bet to say that she was not 7 years old!! They think she was probably about 4 when they purchased her. Other unsavory tidbits came to light after purchasing Maisie including the fact that she had been given a long acting tranquilizer while she was at their barn to be tried. Typical horse world stuff, with the most unfortunate part being that it is typical.

I had to take a picture of Maisie's left front sock; I've seen lots of horses that have black spots in their socks around the coronet but I've never seen one where the black "spot" takes up such a large area. I think it is really neat and picture worthy!

Another view of the black and white sock

Needless to say it was a good day for Maisie when she joined her family eight years ago back in 2002. Maisie has a very sweet personality and is well known for her "snuff-a-whuffs." Maisie likes to snuffle and muzzle people, cats, dogs and pretty much any critter. Apparently she was not like this when they first purchased her. Her mom described her as being very shut down and withdrawn and not interactive with the world at all. Over time her true personality, and her snuff-a-whuffs emerged.

Maisie meeting Cuff Links while Lily keeps a watchful eye on things

Unfortunately Maisie has been plagued by soundness issues pretty much since they purchased her. After going through a few rehabs with her and dealing with a couple of reoccurring issues they decided it was the right decision to retire her and let her just enjoy being a horse rather than trying to keep her patched together and in work.

Maisie may be retired now but she can still show off when she wants to!

We were all interested to see how Lily and Maisie would react when they saw each other again. They had lived together for several years until Lily joined us in retirement last summer. It was very clear to me that Lily absolutely remembered Maisie. As soon as she spotted Maisie she came over and was making all sorts of vocalizations and greetings. I have never seen Lily react to a new horse in the same way before with so much talking, and she was also very persistent about following Maisie and pretty much demanding that Maisie acknowledge her.

Maisie checking things out in her new home

It was harder for me to read Maisie's reaction to Lily. Maisie is pretty submissive with other horses in general, and Lily has always been alpha over her. Maisie was acting very meek and submissive while Lily talked and babbled away and kept demanding that Maisie acknowledge her. I'm not sure if Maisie was just picking up where they left off in their relationship with Lily the boss and her the subordinate, or if she was acting submissive because that is how she tends to act with other horses.

Maisie and Lily taking a run together

They quickly settled down and grazed quietly together

It was fun to reunite Maisie and Lily and to see how everything worked out. For now they spend most of their time grazing relatively proximate to each other. It will be equally as fun to see how their relationship continues to unfold over time - will it be similar to how it was before or different?

Norman and Lily also had the chance to visit with one of the family members as well. Lily's "mom" was the one who drove Maisie to our farm from Illinois, and she spent a bit of quality time visiting with Lily and Norman while she was here. It was fun to see her again and we really appreciate her making the long drive with Maisie.

Visiting with Norman

Lily greeting me and her mom

Lily and her mom

We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people and horses. As I said to someone recently we have been very lucky to have so many amazing horses trusted to our care, and they always have equally wonderful owners. I've yet to have someone contact us and say "I have this horse that I really don't like so I want to retire him." It is the opposite, we get the nice, fun horses that everyone tends to fall in live with!