An interesting turn of events

When I pulled up to the barn today and saw Gwen and Rocky doing some mutual grooming I decided it was time to take Coriander out for a walk. Since breaking my ankle I've developed this new thing called caution, because of that I decided I'd rather walk him out on the trail first than ride. I took him out and let him graze outside of the fence for a bit to make sure Gwen would be okay. She paced the face once or twice but as soon as Rocky wandered back up to the barn, Gwen went right behind her. Phew!

I had previously gone out and found a nice short loop to introduce Coriander to trails and woods. It takes about 10 minutes to walk around it and arrive back at the pasture so I figured no one would have enough time to get really upset. He was very nervous, he didn't spook or try to bolt but he was on edge enough that I was glad I wasn't riding. We'll go for another walk tonight in a different direction and see how that goes.

When I brought him back I took Gwen out. Here's where it got interesting. Apparently Gwen has bonded to the other horses enough not to be too bothered about her brother leaving but Coriander definitely doesn't feel the same way (Did my horses swap personalities? Coriander has never before been known for having a high level of separation anxiety). Gwen was very relaxed outside of the pasture but he was very upset about her leaving. I was worried about him going through the fence if I took her out of his sight so my plan to take her for a walk was aborted. But that's okay for now, I've been walking her around the pasture with both the western and english saddle on her back this week. She's still a little anxious about taking that first forward step after the saddle has been cinched up so I'm just fine with continuing work on that. He'll merge into the herd eventually.

Sleepy quarters are sleepy, look at those lower lips!