This pony is so good...

...and so smart! So I was saying in my last post that I introduced her to the flag and she was a bit looky toward it but we got it worked out. I took her out yesterday for a little walkabout and she was great with the flag!

It is really important to me to do whatever I can to prevent my horses from getting herd bound. To that end, I've been moving them around a lot. Pony went out by herself in the morning, got introduced to Paddy at lunch, by herself again at dinner, in the barn at night. That was the schedule the past couple days. Yesterday we went for a walkabout away from the barn and pastures, down the driveway, on the trail behind the house, into the arena, back to the driveway, back down the trail, into the pasture behind the house, out of the pasture, back down the trail to barn area. There was actually calling from the boys just a couple times, but no calling from the pony. At first she was a little nervous going down the trail, but she stayed right with me the whole way.

This morning I put her and Paddy out for breakfast (separate pastures, shared fence), then brought Paddy in for lunch with Mac. Then I put pony in a grass pasture while I took Mac down to the arena to see how she'd do when I took him away. She and Paddy called for him twice, he didn't respond, and all was quiet while we did a little ground work. I brought him back and put him in the grass pasture (separated from pony by The Bachelor Pad), did my chores, and then brought pony up to the barn. Paddy was in his stall/paddock because it was raining and he doesn't like the rain, and pony was in the dry lot surrounding the barn so she and Paddy could socialize over the fence but not be together.

Everyone is now happily munching hay in their stalls. So far the drama has been kept to a relative minimum, for which I'm grateful! But it is work to keep them away from each other enough that they don't get overly bonded, yet together enough that they get well socialized.