Reaping rewards.

I moved all our horses to the back paddock today.  There isn't any feed left around the house, and I am sick of spending half an hour trying to get the prickles out of the horses before I can even get a head collar on them when they are out in the bush.  So I have put them out the back.  I have a few barrels and heaps of natural obstacles in the big paddock, so I will play with them down there for a while.

To move them I put the three older ones on line, and had the two younger ones follow along and we went off on the bike.  Leading one, or even two on my own is easy, but five can be a challenge!  It only takes one of them to be challenging, and the whole operation can be a mess!

I was so happy, because they were perfect!  They got in position, one on either side of the bike, and one behind, and they stayed right with me.  I never had to speed up, or slow down because one was lugging behind.  They never jostled for position.  I never had to untangle the ropes, while leading three horses with one hand, and controlling the bike with the other.  When they had to squeeze between the bike and trees, or embankements, they thought their way through and didn't panic and burst through.  The two that were loose just followed along nicely.  They all had their ears forward and were happy and relaxed and looked as if it is the most normal thing to do in the world, walk along through the bush following a motor bike!

I take these things for granted, but I was thinking about it as I was riding down there, and I wondered how many horses in the world would have been so relaxed and well behaved when asked to do this.  We had to go a couple of kilometres, and down a really steep hill, just before dark, and it was lovely.  I really enjoy these times with my horses.  Even though I don't win at competition, it is times like these, when I ask a lot  from my horses, and they are so willing to do it with so little fuss, that I realise the rewards of the time I put in to them...