Bill (my driving pony) and I have several goals this year...several events we'd like to attend. Bucket list type things that I've wanted to do for a while, but because of other responsibilities, I just never had the time to put into these particular goals. I will eventually share those goals, but for now I just want to use my blog as a diary of sorts. It's always a good thing to Journal as it allows you to see your progress or lack thereof.
Yesterday was our start date. What a beautifully cold and sunny day. It was about 12 degrees but the sun made it feel much warmer. Billy was keen to head out the gate. I had ground driven him a couple days before and he headed for the upper gate and stood. That's a good sign...he wanted to take a walk around the neighborhood, but it wasn't in our plans for the day. Billy has become a bit herd bound. He started his driving career as my only driving partner and when we attended events it was with him only. We then added a second driving pony to our family; my husband and Miss and Bill decided he reeaallly liked to have company. So much so it was hard for him to leave his friend when asked. It can happen and I didn't notice it until it came to a bit of a challenge point. "Uh-oh" I should have seen this coming way before...but I didn't. So my plan this year is to go back to Billy and I going out solo.
Since the ground is covered in snow and slippery and we couldn't drive, I thought it would be a good thing for us to take a walk; for him to practice leaving his friends and for our fitness level to walk around our country neighborhood. We live on an extremely busy road, one that truly would not be safe to drive on...but walking is another matter entirely and we have lots of places we can explore.
Day 1 we walked around our neighbors 2 acre field, up by the road and on the road when no cars were in sight (thankfully we did have a car pass us as we were standing right by the road and Bill was fine - "good boy"). We then crossed the road and walked up behind our neighbors house (we have been given permission by our neighbors to walk their property lines in advance) by a wood pile while a little animal scurried out from under some rubble - Bill spooked in place, another "atta boy" - around our neighbor's 2 plus acre lot, back across the road, out in front of our pasture while Bill's mares whinnied to him, of which, Billy did not whiny back which again was a very "good boy". Billy was forward and looking all around but very good and listened well. Back to the barn.
A very good start...
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