Horses, Ponies and Cows, Oh My!!

I have a horsey and Renegade and cows story: I got home from work tonight after running 999 errands and whoa nelley...the horses were in the pasture with the cows. I had always hesitated to do that because my big monster cow has big monster horns and knows how to use them But...everyone was getting along famously, grazing side by side - it was a wonderful site. Even Renegade who likes to chase cows was grazing quietly.

Well, as much as I hated to interrupt that scene, I had a roll of hay for the cows (and it's not horse quality and I don't want horses eating it) so I had to get the horses back to their own pastures. It went really smooth, just approached each horse, friendlied them a bit then asked them to walk with me back to the pasture (just had a savvy string looped around their neck) and they came right along with me. Of course everyone got a cookie reward for such good behavior!!

I left Renegade til last as I wanted to play with him a bit before putting him back so...at LIBERTY...I asked him to back (using the M-I-L look) and he did and did it right smart!! Then I asked him back to me and he came at a trot!! Then a couple of hq and fq yields and some stick to me one step at a time. Then one foot then two over a log, stop then go sideways. He did it perfectly and looked so good doing it!! Then circle around me at a walk...it did one complete circle willingly so I STOPPED RIGHT THERE!!!

Now the grande finale...drum roll please...we played more stick to me at the trot and as we were trotting around the pasture I jumped over the log and Renegade did too - at the same time I did. IT WAS SO FANTASTICALLY AWSOME. I stopped and started laughing so Renegade stopped and started his chuckling. He got 2 cookies for that!!!

Then we ran back to the horse pasture side by side. When we got inside the pasture I had a cookie fest with all the horses. When I moved away from them (quite a distance) and asked them to come to me...here's the big suprise: Captain (who is the most shy, skeptical horse I know) came trotting to me and looked very confident doing so. I guess we are making progress. He hasn't had much confidence in humans with what he went through before I got him. I'm so thrilled I'm able to convince him that some humans ARE worthwhile!!