Ride with Me in the UP of Michigan-Happy New Year's

It's been a gorgeous day in the UP of Michigan today! Of course Rocky isn't old enough to ride yet, but we got him out and took him for his first walk in the woods without the other horses to see how he would do. He did whinny a few times, but otherwise didn't think anything of this walk. I let Kirk take him ahead of me so "Dad" is helping with training too.

We ran across the turkeys and if you look hard you can see one running across the trail in front of Rocky and he just was unfazed about the situation. Earlier before our walk in the woods I had him on the road walking and a truck went by and he did very well! Didn't flinch or anything. I did try to get him to the mailbox, which he didn't have a problem with either. Opening it the first time startled him, but then he was fine after that.

After our walk in the woods, we did a photo shoot with our New Year's hat on and necklace. We are amazed that he just doesn't care about anything we do to him!

After the photo shoot we did some standing still, backing and whoaing. I had started Rocky on flexing and I found he remembered his lessons well, even though it's been over a week since I had him out last. He responds to the pressure of the halter very well, so I decided to see how he is with yielding his front and hind. He doesn't know that, so that will give us something to work on. He did figure it out at the end, though, which made me very happy. He's such a good boy. I just can't believe I've been blessed again with a Curly!

Happy New Year to everyone from the Radtkes and Rocky!