Thrilled with This

From this weekend ...

My barn owner had just added some wood pellets and shavings to her stall, and the bags were still laying out in the barn aisle waiting to be tossed into the trash. 

Had I been saddling Speedy, I would have cleared the bags out of the aisle before even thinking of walking him by them. No matter how many times I've worked with Speedy, he will never get over plastic bags or tarps. They're simply his Kryptonite.

Izzy on the other hand, has zero fear of anything. He never spooks at traffic noise, flapping bags, or the mower. And if he does flinch at something, his feet stay put, but he looks rather embarrassed by the momentary lapse in courage.

I don't know who to thank for this complete lack of fear. Did his first owner, Noemi, expose him to just the right stuff at just the right time in his life? I know she had him playing with all sorts of weird object as a youngster. 

Is it just good breeding? He has some solid Oldenburg lines in his pedigree like Inbegriff and Ideal. Or is it just who he is, the luck of the draw?

When I first bought him, he showed a pretty good tendency towards courage, but he lacked confidence. Back in November, he would walk past scary objects, but he wanted to do it slowly and with a somewhat wide berth.

We haven't left the property in a few months; I've been busy with the under saddle work and riding Speedy. Once we're back from our trip and I am officially done with school, we'll be doing more hand walks and "trail" rides around the neighborhood. We'll see if his confidence has grown.

He's looking and feeling ready to start expanding his horizons.