Lady of the Mysties

Lady of the Mysties - The Mystical Herd

Lady is a fine boned, beautiful 16.2hh chestnut thoroughbred mare. She is the wise elder - the oldest member of both herds. Lady is 28 this year - her birthday is 5th February 1996. Lady was rescued by Springwood in 2017.

Lady's past:

Lady was bred as a racehorse and raced for the first few years of her life - being weaned too young and being put into training at just a year old. This stress on her body created gastric ulcers which she struggled with for many years. After almost dying on the racetrack she was then was 'put to stud' to be bred from. She had several foals who were taken away from her whilst they were only a few months old whilst she was still nursing them and before she was able to properly wean them. They were all also sadly used in the racing industry. Eventually after many years of racing and breeding she was unable to go full term with a foal and was therefore deemed too old to breed from further and was cruelly discarded. Many ex-racehorses at that stage end up either being abandoned, being used for further exploitation (for polo etc) and often in an abattoir.

Lady's life now:

We took Lady into the sanctuary aged 21, in October 2017, giving her a safe, soft landing and a loving forever home. After two years her stomach ulcers began to heal and she is now pain free and comfortable. Despite her age she is going from strength to strength which fills me with such joy.

It took Lady over a year to begin to trust her human caregivers. She was angry and frustrated and disliked being touched or interacted with in any way. She still often chooses not to be brushed too often. However she really loves a good head rub and will put her full force behind one - so watch out if you offer your hand for her to rub her face on!

She is very opinionated and will let you know without any doubt where she wants to be, how she wants to be interacted with and whether she is happy. I love that and it makes it easy for me to ensure she always has her needs met. Lady is a gentle, wise, beautiful horse who is a integral member of the Mysties. She and Blue Moon often mutual groom and share caring, peaceful time together. She enjoys her life at the sanctuary with all the others who live here. The constant access to hills and meadows, varied foraging, shelters and herd mates keeps her very healthy.

Lady needs a lot of extra feed throughout the year and especially so in the winter. She used to not enjoy her food and I have spent many years hand feeding her through the winter to try to keep weight on her. Happily this has changed this year and she is very much enjoying her bucket food and hay as well as her routine of coming out of the yard with Winnie, eating her bucket food under a big oak tree by the lake, wandering off to the orchard or along the lake path to graze and then enjoying a lie down if it's sunny before returning to her friends in the herd. She dislikes being rugged, but also dislikes heavy rain, so the ability to find good shelter is very important - luckily we have lots of that here. She is getting stronger every year and this winter she is holding more weight and is more resilient than ever before - it's so great to see as it can be so worrying caring for an elderly horse.

Lady especially loves apples, rosehips and grazing in the orchard or by the lake for juicy plantain leaves. After such a hard early life which caused a lot of stress to her body and mind, she is doing absolutely amazingly being a fit and healthy 28 year old.

It is our honour to care for Lady and all the animals at the sanctuary. If you'd like to sponsor Lady, we'd love to have your support to look after her. Thank you.