Come By and Away

River finally got to perform an inherent skill today - one which I have hitherto discouraged her from practicing.  I allowed her to work some sheep.  And boy oh boy, did she enjoy it!

We had to bring all the ponies down off the hill yesterday to overnight in an adjacent field.  In the melee of bringing them in, a few sheep ended up in the field with them.  Today, I let my ponies out again, but my friend was keeping hers in - she didn't want the sheep in there as well as there is little enough grass.  Once the horses were where they were all supposed to be, I opened the bottom gate which leads on to the hill, and went to find the sheep.

We quietly went round the back of them, and started to drive them down towards the gate.  River was doing her semi-crouching stalking walk, moving round them and then towards them, but steadied up every time I asked her to.  They made a bit of a run in the wrong direction, and with a bit of inept arm waving from me, River shot round the other side of me and pushed them back.  We got half way down the field like this, and then Talulah decided she wanted to help.  She came from behind me, running fast and straight, right into the middle of them with a huge "Woof".  The sheep scattered.

River stopped, look at Talulah with a look that I swear was exasperation, then looked at me as if to say "Now what mum?"

We just stood still, and the sheep re-grouped on their own, so we continued down the field.  They got a bit ahead of us at one point, and I could see they might run the wrong way and back into the field rather than out of the gate, but while River was still steadily moving them along, I moved out in order to discourage their potential escape.  They halted at the gate, hesitating a few moments before running through.  Good girl River!!  She came bounding up, looking very pleased with herself.  Talulah was still looking a little sheepish.

Okay - maybe it wasn't quite so smooth as this sounds, but River behaved fantastically, and with a lot of instinctive thinking.  She has shown this instinct before, and I have often wondered how I could have a go at working some sheep.

And where was Tussock during all of this?  Trying to avoid the puddles!!

No photos though as it was far too wet to take the camera.  But here are a couple of old photos which show her interest in sheep.

Okay, so these aren't sheep.  She constantly tried to round up the horses when they are running away.  They are not impressed.