February 24, 2009 - Walkabout

We went for a little walk on the weekend. I brought him into the barn through the garage door. This was the first time I have opened and closed it with Rory in hand. His eyes got a little bigger when the door went up, but he didn't object to going through it. Naturally once we were inside (alone!) he started whinnying for TOW. But he didn't panic or pull when I tied him (while I went and got his eyelid grease). He didn't even poop! Once he was greased we went out the back door of the barn and walked down the driveway and back up. Okay, I walked - he passaged, stopped, jumped sideways, bumped into me, walked, trotted, tried to bolt... I'm kidding. He did do all of those things, but spent at least 80% of the trip walking politely beside me. He even figured out that when I elbowed him it meant he was drifting too close to me and he needed to move over a bit. He got a little strong when we turned down between paddocks to get back to his gate. I had to stop him and back him up a couple of times.

After I slipped the halter off I scritched both weanlings for a bit. Rory will come and nudge me if I spend too much time scritching TOW. He's cute!

January 12, 2008 – Out for a walk in the snow

I took Rory out for a walk yesterday. The weather was gorgeous, sunny and relatively warm. We didn't go far, just around the hayfield behind the arena. One of the barn dogs came with us. Rory whinnied a couple of times, then was quiet for a bit until he heard one of the mares calling for her buddies. The two of them called back and forth as we were coming back towards the arena, and Rory got a little ahead of me. I stopped a bunch of times and let him walk a circle around me back into the proper position, then I walked with him until he got ahead again. I kept it low key, but wouldn't let him get away with barging into or past me either. We cut down between paddocks on the way back and all the horses in each paddock came over to look at Rory. He was happy to get back to his weanling buddy.