My day "off"

I started by taking Rowdy and Rascal (or The Horses Formerly Known as Horton and Thistle as i like to call them) over for breakfast on their stakes. This consisted of walking up the corral, dodging them as they mobbed me to get their halters on so I could get to Mellow who is still inhand and waiting for his treat and breakfast. As I 'dashed' through one corral panel and slammed it on Rowdy's nose, Mellow was already walking over to get his treat. I then got out a tub of hay for the big boy and went back to the two R's.
Rowdy glued himself to my hip pocket and so got his halter on first. Rascal decided this morning was a good morning to play a game of "NO, I don't want to come back when YOU want me!" But a firm reminder and he changed his mind deciding the easiest route to breakfast was to cooperate. With the two boys in hand I then opened the panel into where Mellow was eating so he could get to the water when he wanted and proceeded to the gate with R & R.
We have a hard fast rule here that if you can not handle the gate with whatever and however many horses you have then you are not ready to be leading them out of the corral. These two are pretty good at this point but as Don or their new owners have been doing most of the handling I was paying close attention so they understood that I was in charge.
I pointed Rascal through the open gate first and he strolled on out then Rowdy and I followed. We all turned to close the gate and when we were done I walked between them so they had to bend in to me to get alongside. They were like old pros. Now before they get to go across the road to eat they need to get a drink and this is always scary as the water is dual purpose for them and the sheep and the sheep now have lambs and the lambs like to hop and jump at the proper time for training but as far as R & R are concerned the little woolies are evil horse eating devils. Today, however, R & R stayed calm while alert and we moved onto the guantlet phase of our journey.
I call it this because every horse - and some at any age - find this particular path down the drive by the wood pile, the garage, the basketball hoop and out into the more open part of the drive nerve wracking at any and all points of their existance. For these two they have taken a particular fear to heart of the cats - TINY little cats mind you not mountain lions or anything but these two just know those are their sworn enemy and that they lurk in the wood and just around the edge of the garage! Today the cats were no where to be seen but that did not keep the two boys from keeping an eye peeled for them.
Now I got on the fourwheeler and they trotted along with me at 11 MPH down the rest of the drive, down the road and into the neighbors 10 acre pasure where Rowdy went onto a 30 feet rope attached to a stake and Rascal went onto a 50 feet rope tied to a fence post. As soon as I switched their ropes they dropped their heads and startted eating. (this training started when they were weanlings and hungry - this keeps them from panicking on the rope and getting hurt)
And then tonight I reversed the process but Rowdy was just sure that walking at 4 MPH was too fast (I think he was too full LOL) so we had to do a bit of remembering who determines the speed we are going lessons and after two lessons with the second being a bit more firm he remembered and came along nicely.
NOW for the BIG news - I am waiting for Don to get home from picking up a BLM Curly Mare who was headed to long term holding as she was deemed too old to adopt out. However, they know us, they know our facility and the BLM group called to ask if we would take her and keep her out of long term holding! AND then the bonus is she had a foal who is also curly and will be part of the adoption package! For now the pair will go out with the mare band and run like wild ones. I hope to get pictures tomorrow before we turn her out - tonight she has to go into a good solid corral as it will be dark when she gets here and we won't turn her out until daylight. And then in the spring we will work with the foal and probably her enough to remove her adoption tag but mostly she will get to continue as a wild mare with a more limited range and hopefully more food. So, excitement tempered with the challenges of an older horse and a feral one at that! (think floating teeth on a feral horse! :))