Settling Into Baby Horse Life

We are settling into a routine here.

Best baby stallion chilling in his "I'm about to have a Kate lesson, aren't I" rope halter. And the crossties that we shortened to the point that it's no longer fun for him to try to eat them. #winning

Not quite two weeks into his return, we have hit a lot of milestones. All of the co-op members can handle him safely. He walks like a good boy down the driveway to and from his turn out, both two-at-a-time with Connor and alone. He continues to be turned out with Connor no problem, although Connor would prefer he play a little less rough sometimes. And he finds being curried to be much more of a turn on so far than our one and only mare (yay, boys).

We have also had two Kate groundwork lessons so far, which have both felt like inoculations against thinking I can't raise a three year old stallion to be a good citizen. It helps so much to have her in my ear telling me to stick with my ask when he pushes my buttons and to tell me my timing was/wasn't quite right and to give me a structured, repeatable framework for my asks, my rewards, and all of the skills I need him to have.

I'm being very slow, methodical and careful in everything with him because I want to set both him and the co-op up for success, but truly, he has been such a good boy so far. There are certainly moments when I question my sanity, but there are many others when I find myself impressed and surprised that he's standing there quietly or learning something new easily or keeping his freaking mouth shut when I'm trying to halter him (a work in progress, thank you Kate!).

Baby stallion vertical mirror covers designed and built by my wonderful SO

Trying to keep it all in perspective, this baby horse life. I know the good moments will get closer and closer all the time until one day they're 15 and I won't remember these baby days at all.