Third Road Walk - First Time Alone!!

Chrome went on his third ever walk on the roads around my neighborhood yesterday, but this was his first time going solo. We left Galaxy at home so that my husband could take pictures, instead of the crazy ones I try to take of Chrome while also leading him. :) I think he got some decent ones. Chrome did great! He was understandably upset, neighing and jigging, but he didn't panic or fight me. I forgot to take sugar, which upsets me because there were a couple of times when he calmed down and was walking on a loose lead that I would have loved to have given him a treat for. Hopefully the praise and scratches were enough reinforcement instead. :)

First I went out to groom Chrome while my husband checked the hen house for eggs. I didn't know he'd taken this picture at the time but I'm glad he did because it shows how great Chrome is. We were out in the middle of the pasture and he was not tied up, so there was no reason he had to stand there except that he wanted to. :) In the picture I was picking hay out of his tail and, out of habit, I put his brush on his haunches, which is what I used to do with the mare I had when I was growing up. He didn't mind at all! His expression might look annoyed, but he wasn't. I think he was just listening to me because I was basically in his blind spot.

I love how well this picture turned out. I was leading him out of the pasture when my husband asked me to pause for a picture. I'm so glad Chrome put his ears forward and looked at the camera. :) It also gives you a bit of an idea how tall he is getting. I'm five foot ten inches tall and his ears are the same height as my head. He's only seven months old, so he has a lot of growing to do. I also noticed the other day that his haunches are a LOT higher than his wither, so he's about to go through a growth spurt. :)

This picture kind of shows how much higher his rear end is. In the picture we had stopped at the neighbor's gate to see if the gelding was around. He wasn't. He'd probably gone to the other side to eat hay.

I like this picture because he's showing his spunk. He did a lot of trotting alongside me. I was actually happy about that because he's normally a slow poke. I can tell already that he inherited the collected movements of the Friesian. I'm going to have to work on a TON of lengthening exercises when I start riding him and training him for dressage. :) I might start working him over cavalettis in the spring to teach him to lengthen, watch his feet, get his head down and his back up. I don't want to overdo it though because he is only a baby.

This was after we'd gotten back home when he spotted Galaxy galloping around like the crazy filly she is lol. I gave him a pat and kept him going past our driveway.

I tried taking him through our ditch (pretty steep), but he wasn't too sure about it.

So I sat in the ditch and played with the grass and stuff while he checked out the situation.

He finally decided it wasn't that big a deal and walked through.

Bad picture I know, but I wanted to share it. He got a big hug for walking through the ditch. :) For only his third time out I think he did fantastic.