Freedom and Video footage

We got Otto turned out with Cassidy this week. Cassidy is the choice out of all the geldings because  he is the least likely to cause any major injury in the meet and greet process. Before hand there was some  prep work we did first.

In preparation for Ottos' release to the pasture for "out time" , I hand walked him multiple times when we were out hand grazing so he became familiar with the property and boundary lines of where he could go. Our exterior  fence is three strand electric so not super visible if a horse is not familiar with the area. I took the added effort of  flagging  all my exterior fence with marker ribbon so it was more visible and put metal T post toppers on ALL metal T posts. I withstood a great deal of eye-rolling from my husband, who thinks I take it too far sometimes with "horse proofing". I know I can't keep him safe from stupid colts stuff and things might happen, but I sleep better knowing I did everything I possibly could to make things as safe as reasonably possible, short of wrapping him in bubble wrap, ofcourse. I admit, having a half Arab , half TB on the property has made me hyper vigilant again, back to my time of owning TB's! My confidence in this colts sense of self preservation isn't quite like it is with the Morgans or Barb's.. !! TB's are accident prone and both breeds have abundant energy and exuberance.
yWe started with a  few hours a day and built on that until they were out all day together . We are still separating them at night. Eventually Cassidy will stay with him full time and I will leave the gate open so they can come and go from the corral /barn area to the pasture as they want. But for now, this is the program.

Overall,  It has gone pretty well and mostly uneventful. The first  day was only a few hours they were together. Otto was pretty bold with his approaches to Cassidy and  tried to jump up on Cassidy once and then  quickly reverted to the  "I am a baby, don't hurt me" mouthing thing when Cassiy pinned his ears at him. They both went to happily grazing shortly after that. Otto didn't let Cassidy get too far away before trotting or cantering over to him to be close again. Things seemed to be fine so I went back to work . Later that afternoon, I noticed Otto was hanging out on one end of the pasture, and Cassidy on the other end. Otto appeared to be pouting, or sulking..  I walked out there and  noticed a few teeth marks and roughed up hair on Otto's rump. A little missing hide but nothing major. Apparently , Cassidy had educated the young man about something. I am pretty sure Otto did not enjoy the day's lesson but he'll survive. He doesn't appear to have alot of horse social skills. He actually seems to prefer human interaction. He comes cantering up to greet me every time I go out there. ( I am thinking I could easily train him to come to a whistle).

Cassidy  doesn't seem to be too fond of his new duties of babysiting another young punk but is tolerating it.  Otto occasionally tries to  get Cassidy to play but Cassidy seems to be disinterested and tries to ignore Otto's juvenile stunts. Otto then goes galloping off to run a lap and buck, kick or do whatever his little heart desires. I am hoping Cassidy's smarts and calmness will rub off on the youngster.

Here are a couple of video clips.. ( I am still learning how to efficiently use video editing software )