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| Brat on the left, Rory on the right |
I went out to get Rory yesterday and found him standing next to the brat at the fence as the herd watched the new horses in the next field. I took a bum shot of the two of them just to record how close Rory is to the brat's height already. I was looking at the photo again today and Rory's knees and hocks are larger than the brat's. So obviously I realize that he's grown up a lot, and is no longer my little boy, but when I saw the photo of me standing next to him I was shocked. He doesn't look that big from my point of view when I'm standing next to him! Three of the horses in his field are very big too (16.3 and up) and so I'm most often seeing him as the little boy next to the big horse.
After the photos I took him for a walk around the track. We had to start with some more involved in hand work in the sand ring and around the jumps because he decided that he couldn't walk. We walked around the jumps, halted backed up, moved his bum over, and so on. Rory eyed the horses in the paddocks, and settled down. We walked around and over the cavaletti and he did his figure eight around/over one cavaletti (while I stand in the middle) exercise. He didn't do it as well as he does inside, but there were a lot of distractions around. At one point he managed to step on a tire and it didn't fizz him at all. He stood there sniffing another tire for a minute before stepping over them. Once he'd settled down we did go for the planned tour around the track and he was good. We had to halt and back up a few times when he got a little ahead of me, but not too many. When we came onto the stretch towards home the horses on either side of the track ran over to the fence to see Rory, and then ran up and down in their paddocks. This was rather a lot of excitement for Rory and we had to turn around several times before he and they settled down enough for us to walk politely back to the barn and out to his field.
After the photos I took him for a walk around the track. We had to start with some more involved in hand work in the sand ring and around the jumps because he decided that he couldn't walk. We walked around the jumps, halted backed up, moved his bum over, and so on. Rory eyed the horses in the paddocks, and settled down. We walked around and over the cavaletti and he did his figure eight around/over one cavaletti (while I stand in the middle) exercise. He didn't do it as well as he does inside, but there were a lot of distractions around. At one point he managed to step on a tire and it didn't fizz him at all. He stood there sniffing another tire for a minute before stepping over them. Once he'd settled down we did go for the planned tour around the track and he was good. We had to halt and back up a few times when he got a little ahead of me, but not too many. When we came onto the stretch towards home the horses on either side of the track ran over to the fence to see Rory, and then ran up and down in their paddocks. This was rather a lot of excitement for Rory and we had to turn around several times before he and they settled down enough for us to walk politely back to the barn and out to his field.
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