Drifter day 11 and trail time

A while ago I read something about the Sun Frost horses, that they don't like to be nagged, just give them a job let them figure it out and then leave them alone. So, with that in mind, we came to the conclusion that Drifter was bored with being led around his small pen. So, we changed it up and took him into the adjacent pen, where Rose lives and put Rose in his pen meanwhile- and he led like a champ!

Shayla did some work on asking him to back up, and picked up his feet too. Later on in the day, we decided that he was good to take his first walk out of the pens. He got to go explore a bit, greet the mares who bothered to come up and visit, and even posed for a photo for his registration papers.

Not the best photo, but since I broke my big camera cell phone pics will have to do. Now if only his ears were forward.... may have to take more to get a better photo.
I have had a couple more rides, one was just the trails out back on a pretty fall day.



We found a nice spot down by the river for photo ops.

I think the horses enjoy the view as much as we do!

The next ride was all about ponying Mesa saddled.

She's just one of the girls now! Stands for saddling, is mostly good about standing tied although she does test it a time or two.
 This was her first time ponying saddled and I wanted to take her through all the trails in the bush to get her used to the sound of brush on the saddle.
However...
Gussie went on high alert as soon as we went near the pond. I pushed on, and big Red was still on high alert, and then Rose was too. As I tried to branch off down a trail, Shayla spotted what the mares were kerfuffled about. In my defense, I had my hands full with Gussie and Mesa so I wasn't looking around much!

Can you see it? (Love the double ear cam! Rose and Goose)

How about now?
A cow moose and her calf - we decided they had the right-away and retreated.  We headed back through the yard and off to the trail that leads to the swimming hole and then back along the dyke and home again.
No wild life, but there were people with dogs, and a quad with a dog, so lots of things for Mesa to look at. She did pony really well, I'm pretty happy with her.

Riding day 77 and 78