Samwise the Brave

The day was spent riding Sammie out for walk and a wee trot on some soft ground with a friend and her young horse. Sammie was so brave!! Youngster had near heart failure when he saw the resident mini Shetland in one of the fields we were walking around and made an about-face turn. We were going away from home but I pushed Sammie on and he led the way.Then the shetland started trotting and freaked youngster out completely. He shot past Sammie (who I just about managed to stop) and then realised Sammie wasn't following and stopped.

Then we came across the big cow field - a big no,no for the young one! He planted and started to panic a bit. My friend got off at that point (very sensibly) and once again, even though we were going away from home and his young companion had shown fear, I pushed Sammie on and he just forged ahead. In fact the main thing Sammie was worried about were the frosty bushes and fences - I think he thought they looked very odd! Normally if another horse shows a lot of fear Sammie starts to think it's not safe either, but yesterday there was nothing of the sort.I have a feeling it's because our companion was young and not a dominant horse. They get on really well actually and Sammie was more than happy to take the lead.

So all in all it was a pretty amusing ride, but I was delighted with Sammie. He even led off the yard when we set off, when usually he wants to stick in behind the other horse if he can. Maybe it was the younger, less dominant horse thing or maybe his confidence is going through a growth spurt again. Whatever it was, he did very well.

He was fine with the farrier today as well. Walked straight up to him, pulled a face and accepted the apple that was offered up in greeting. For perfection I need to roll the hind hooves back a bit more and keep the white line a little tighter. Farrier said there are no problems and a normal farrier wouldn't see anything wrong with them, but for him there is room for a bit of improvement. He sold me a new sharper rasp as he trusts me with one now! I had a go with it later on and it did make the job quite a bit easier. Fronts were fine and to be honest, after the initial, "What do you think you're doing!" behaviour, Sammie didn't look as if he could give two hoots.