diff --git a/djrill/mail/backends/djrill.py b/djrill/mail/backends/djrill.py
index bb9d459..a2aac59 100644
--- a/djrill/mail/backends/djrill.py
+++ b/djrill/mail/backends/djrill.py
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ class DjrillBackend(BaseEmailBackend):
         super(DjrillBackend, self).__init__(**kwargs)
         self.api_key = getattr(settings, "MANDRILL_API_KEY", None)
         self.api_url = MANDRILL_API_URL
+        self.session = None
 
         self.subaccount = getattr(settings, "MANDRILL_SUBACCOUNT", None)
 
@@ -72,10 +73,33 @@ class DjrillBackend(BaseEmailBackend):
         self.api_send = self.api_url + "/messages/send.json"
         self.api_send_template = self.api_url + "/messages/send-template.json"
 
+    def open(self):
+        if not self.session:
+            try:
+                self.session = requests.Session()
+            except:
+                if not self.fail_silently:
+                    raise
+                return False
+        return True
+
+
+    def close(self, error=False):
+        if self.session:
+            try:
+                self.session.close()
+            except:
+                if not self.fail_silently and not error:
+                    raise
+            self.session = None
+
     def send_messages(self, email_messages):
         if not email_messages:
             return 0
 
+        if not self.open():
+            return
+
         num_sent = 0
         for message in email_messages:
             sent = self._send(message)
@@ -83,6 +107,8 @@ class DjrillBackend(BaseEmailBackend):
             if sent:
                 num_sent += 1
 
+        self.close()
+
         return num_sent
 
     def _send(self, message):
@@ -114,6 +140,7 @@ class DjrillBackend(BaseEmailBackend):
 
         except NotSupportedByMandrillError:
             if not self.fail_silently:
+                self.close(True)
                 raise
             return False
 
@@ -127,9 +154,10 @@ class DjrillBackend(BaseEmailBackend):
                 err.args[0] + " in a Djrill message (perhaps it's a merge var?)."
                               " Try converting it to a string or number first.",
             ) + err.args[1:]
+            self.close(True)
             raise err
 
-        response = requests.post(api_url, data=api_data)
+        response = self.session.post(api_url, data=api_data)
 
         if response.status_code != 200:
 
@@ -143,6 +171,7 @@ class DjrillBackend(BaseEmailBackend):
                         to['email'] for to in msg_dict.get('to', []) if 'email' in to)
                 if 'from_email' in msg_dict:
                     log_message += " from %s" % msg_dict['from_email']
+                self.close(True)
                 raise MandrillAPIError(
                     status_code=response.status_code,
                     response=response,
diff --git a/djrill/tests/mock_backend.py b/djrill/tests/mock_backend.py
index a675cd9..9fcf7b4 100644
--- a/djrill/tests/mock_backend.py
+++ b/djrill/tests/mock_backend.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ class DjrillBackendMockAPITestCase(TestCase):
             self.raw = six.BytesIO(raw)
 
     def setUp(self):
-        self.patch = patch('requests.post', autospec=True)
+        self.patch = patch('requests.Session.post', autospec=True)
         self.mock_post = self.patch.start()
         self.mock_post.return_value = self.MockResponse()
 
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ class DjrillBackendMockAPITestCase(TestCase):
             raise AssertionError("Mandrill API was not called")
         (args, kwargs) = self.mock_post.call_args
         try:
-            post_url = kwargs.get('url', None) or args[0]
+            post_url = kwargs.get('url', None) or args[1]
         except IndexError:
             raise AssertionError("requests.post was called without an url (?!)")
         if not post_url.endswith(endpoint):
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ class DjrillBackendMockAPITestCase(TestCase):
             raise AssertionError("Mandrill API was not called")
         (args, kwargs) = self.mock_post.call_args
         try:
-            post_data = kwargs.get('data', None) or args[1]
+            post_data = kwargs.get('data', None) or args[2]
         except IndexError:
             raise AssertionError("requests.post was called without data")
         return json.loads(post_data)