Strong bond between mare & yearling

Question
I saw that you had a herd bound situation back in April, so I thought you might have some advice or at least an experience you could share. I have a 9 year old mare and her gelded yearling colt. I have only been able to separate  them at my place with a hot wire down the pasture. But they are still extremely attached. She hollars if I just take him out to work with him or trim his hooves. He's about the same about her. They can't stand to not be in sight of each other. Recently someone told me to separate them completely for about 6 months so I have put the colt at a friend's place and brought back a mare for a buddy for my mare. What I'd like to know is how long should I leave him there? If my friend can keep him, I'd like to leave him there for 4 months at least, maybe 6. But when I bring him back are they just going to reattach? I am planning to keep both horses for a long time.

Answer
Kathy,

Separating them like you have done is the perfect solution.  Any way you can keep the companion mare you brought back for your mare for a little while after you bring him home?  You sound like you have a mare who becomes strongly bonded to other horses so it would be good for her not to have just him once he comes back.  4 mos. should be sufficient, maybe keep the companion mare around for a month or so after you bring him back.  She'll be a lot happier with her mare friend and probably won't care too much about his return.  Keeping just the 2 of them together will, in all likelihood, always have some issues with separating them but if you start right from when he comes home with doing things with each of them without the other one there you should be OK.  They will have been separated long enough to break the mare/foal bond but there are some horses that the herd instinct is so strong in that they need to be with other horses and are not happy if they are alone.  But it can be done.  

When I take my mare out to work she will sometimes holler while she's going down the trail but at least she has a work ethic from her racetrack days and will go out and do her job.  We run into bonding issues a lot at competitions.  Horses have to come to P&R checks together because they will get upset (and fail to pass the pulse check) if their buddy isn't with them.  I've even had horses bond with horses that we rode with on the ride!  All my guys have learned that they may leave but they will always come back, eventually, so it's not such a big deal for them but that took time and lots of repetitions of taking 1 horse away and then returning.

You'll be able to keep both of them, hopefully forever, and will just have to deal with this as you go along.  You may consider getting another horse/pony to stay with the 1 you leave behind when you take the other one out.  I know, I know, then you have to feed 3!  Or just resign yourself to the one who is left behind being unhappy until you return with their buddy.  

Lyn