Grisham already had 14 foals before coming to the Mareworthy Sanctuary, so now she just gets to live out her retirement with her new friends at Mareworthy.

Learn more about Mareworthy Charities and consider a tax-deductible donation to help support the mission to protect all Thoroughbred mares after they are done with their racing and/or breeding careers: www.mareworthy.com/charities

Before Monday, November 14, 2022 I swore I would NEVER bail a horse from a feed lot no matter how much that horse tugged on my heart strings because I was not about to put money into the pockets of the people capitalizing off horses who landed in tough situations.

That all changed when one of my followers on Facebook sent me the post for Grisham. I'm not sure why this particular mare was the one who changed my mind. Maybe it was the fact that she was 23 years old? Maybe it was the fact that she had 13 foals with her 2022 foal clearly having only been weaned very recently before Grisham ended up in the auction ring based on the fact that she was still lactating? Maybe it was just the fact that I'm at a different point in life with a much clearer focus on the impact I want to make.

Whatever the reason, I broke my cardinal rule and sent $1,105.00 to Moore's feed lot in PA to bail Grisham.

What does 2023 have in store for Mareworthy? 
That's an exciting question and also a tough one that requires calling out something that fell off the list of priorities.

So much of what I thought would be the focus for this year is actually the main item that I decided to completely remove from the list. It's no secret that I've been dreaming of taking Dyana to the RRP Thoroughbred Makeover ever since the day I decided to breed Freja, but after lots of deliberation I decided to withdraw my application to compete in the Makeover this year yesterday. That means Dyana will never compete at the Makeover since she won't be eligible after this year, but it doesn't mean I don't still plan to get her out to shows this year.

There is definitely a fair bit of regret that comes with this decision because so much of Dyana's journey was focused on the Makeover since Freja never got to go. That intense focus means I'm already putting extra unnecessary pressure on Dyana and myself to perform on a deadline, and I have to recognize that I wanted this Makeover more for me than for my horse. Dyana will not miss anything by not participating in the Makeover, but what we will gain together as a team is the ability to ensure her training develops at her pace without a deadline and stress of aiming for a high profile event. Don't get me wrong, I'm still setting goals for our show season this year (see below), but without the stress of being under the microscope in October I believe we'll actually have more fun taking one day at a time.

So now that I've let that cat out of the bag. What WILL we be doing over here at Team Mareworthy this year? There are so many options for which way to go.