We planned this weekend to get the babies trailer loading. That didn’t go to plan. But, one thing I’d learned with horses is doing some ambitious plan will force me what we need to work on.
In this case, we were walking them up to the trailer, through the big field that the horses are normally turned out in, and there was just too much stimulation going on. They freaked out, pulled away from us, and ran back to hang out with Vintage’s head sticking out of her stall window.
“We are totally innocent beings.”
So, we retrieve them and make the attempt once more. Now they are super excited, and it’s easy to remember at this point that despite their good brains, they are just babies. Both of them were rearing and pawing, and having fits, although Olivet was much more passionate about all of her feelings and spent a lot of time on her hind legs.
We started moving them around, getting their attention on us, and moving their feet the way we wanted. They did calm down and become obedient, but we decided it was just too much energy for one day, and we would postpone trailer loading for another weekend. Next up on the training schedule – learning how to walk on all four legs, at a normal pace, in a direction that we decide.
After all the excitement, we let them loose in the big field to explore. But the only thing they were interested in doing was standing next to Vintage’s head. It is very interesting how Vintage already has them under her control… as though they are her little minions. That mare has power over other horses…
After a few minutes of them boringly standing next to Vintage, we decided to let Pony out so he could provide a guided tour of the pasture. His first act was to stand there, looking grumpy and purposely not look at the babies. The babies found him super interesting though and approached. He chased them away, but it was such a halfhearted chase, I could tell he didn’t really have anything to back up his threats.
They did a little bit of preliminary playing, but eventually, everyone just gave up and started eating hay. A peace agreement had been made, as they were all eating within 10 feet of each other. I decided to leave them all out there for a few hours to see if they would become friends.
After a few hours, I came out to the babies still eating hay, although much more spread out, and Pony standing a distance away, looking very grumpy. I guess he got tired of their childish behavior.
Both Ollie and Stu came right up to me, I caught them and led them quietly back to their paddock, all the dramatics of earlier forgotten. When I shut the gate on them, they just stood there for a while, as though they weren’t quite sure what to do now. They had a taste of the big field, and they wanted more. Ah well… another time little babies!