This morning Dewey and I did our usual warm up in the round pen, then went to the big arena to walk around and practice stops, backing, and turns, then boldly headed out to the back forty to tour the pastures and see the logs! This horse is so calm and sensible! We walked around the back side of the indoor arena, and as we came around the corner Dewey could see all his friends in their paddock. It was pretty windy, so they were all wound up. Dewey stayed focused on me, and almost shot them a look saying, "don't you wish you were out here playing like me?"
After looking at his friends he got right back to work.
Here is a video of him practicing walking, halt, backing, and walking again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpwYS9sBRLU
We marched out to the farthest pasture to mess around with the logs.
It was pretty windy, but I got some video of him walking through the field. He did spook a little at a wind gust, but you can see that he really is very reasonable and steady.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCKJjtgmDPo
We got to the logs in the back and Dewey was very interested and careful. When they first appeared on the horizon he was a little nervous about how they just held perfectly still, lurking in the distance like a predator. Mazhi went ahead of him to show him that it was safe, and she jumped each jump or stood on each log so that Dewey wouldn't be afraid.
I got two videos of Dewey mastering the logs that can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d7-KjVvUOQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZih7eoKi1I
When we were all done exploring in the back we ground drove towards the house. We walked aound the house, around the yard, over the cement on the driveway, crossing the sidewalk a few times, and generally ignoring the horses that live in the front pasture who were excited about our walk. Dewey was pretty tired mentally when we were done, it was a LOT of stimulation for a young horse to take in. A very successful morning of work!
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