Freedom for confidence

Dancer is a stereotypical anxious Thoroughbred. When she was being fed in the pasture she would trot in big circles, nervously waiting for her grain. When I first started working with her, even on the ground, she showed an extreme lack of confidence.
I discovered something that has made a huge change in her own personal confidence, not just her comfort level with a person, but her bravery even when alone.

Dancer is a hard-keeper. Even when she's fat her belly hangs down, pulling the skin tight over her ribs, giving her that underweight appearance. During the summer instead of restricting her to a stall for 8 hours with hay, I let her free-wander around the property to graze the lush grass with the option of coming into the barn where her fan was blowing. At first she would stick very close to the barn and only graze in a 10 foot perimeter. But once that grass was gone in that area, she started venturing further and further into the mysterious land of her own TB imagination. It was a huge turning point when she successfully passed by the pump house all alone. I was amazed at how her confidence was developing. It was as if she would talk herself through situations and eventually become familiar and comfortable with once horrifying objects.

That said, I want this for every horse. Knowing that individual horses learn differently, I was curious to see how other horses would respond to this same confidence-building freedom.

John and I started allowing the girls (Shellie, Betsy, Satin, Dancer) to walk from their pasture to the barn at evening feeding time. We let one horse out at a time and they walked about 40 feet, sometimes past a wheelbarrow or a tarp. John would wait in the barn with all the stall doors closed. I would call out to him, "Here comes Shellie." and he would open up her stall and occasionally encourage them in.
Satin, Dancer, and Betsy never had any issue. Satin and Betsy are very food driven. Dancer doesn't want to be a non-conformist, so she always goes right for her stall. Shellie, on the other hand, remains true to her young age. She has never once walked from the pasture to the barn. No, she takes a scenic route each time, sometimes trotting aimlessly around the barn playing hard to get (we just let her do her thing, under supervision). Sometimes she teases the donkeys or picks an argument with a horse already in their stall. Eventually, I walk up to her and gently reach my hand under her head and take the bottom of her cheek in my hand. She walks very calmly to her stall and finally ends her adventure. She doesn't like to be walked by her mane and will often become annoyed at this. "Don't tell me what to do!" Instead, she prefers you ask or encourage her. She's a sweet girl!

The girls seemed to enjoy this little deviation from the norm so much that when we moved them way down to Pasture 3, we decided to allow them the same freedom. We started by walking one or two horses and allowing the other two to follow. Now the girls are permitted to exit the pasture on their own and make their way down the long path, past scary objects like horse trailers, cages, shadows, the pump house, and more!
Their evening routine has become this:
Satin, who is night blind but also the most food obsessed, is usually the first to start walking. Betsy and Dancer follow right behind. They generally walk the entire distance unless Shellie decides to trot up behind them and herd them like the alpha mare she is, in which case they may brake into the trot. Shellie is always hard to convince to leave the pasture. I have to encourage her by the cheek to leave the pasture. By the time I get down to the barn, Satin is standing at her stall with a front leg raised, crying starvation. Betsy is hanging out a few feet away, keeping out of grumpy Satin's reach. Dancer is being forced to trot around the barn by Shellie but usually ditches Shellie after two laps around the barn. Once those three girls are in and munching their grain, Shellie's loneliness sets in and she finally comes into the barn.

These girls really seem to enjoy their daily dose of freedom. The only problem is I always feel guilty leaving Molly behind in the pasture. Maybe soon I will let her free roam with access to the barn and her girlfriends (Jedi and Ufir apparently aren't good friends).

We've now allowed the 4 girls to walk from the barn to their pasture in the mornings. Sometimes we will let them explore for 10-20 minutes before going down and opening the gate for them.

Pokey and Goose are still adjusting to their freedom. Most of the time they trot around a few feet and stand their, not really sure which way to go. Eventually, Pokey will realize that there is food waiting for him and will come into the barn. Once he's eating, Goose cries for her best friend and rushes into the barn. With time they will likely calm down and enjoy their short walks from Pasture 1 to the barn.

We rarely use even a rope when bringing JW to and from the barn. He'll usually follow you where ever you're headed, and will definitely follow you if you're carrying grain. He enjoys watching the girls free-walk and will often trot around the pasture as they walk by. If he's in the stall he's constantly flirting with the girls and dropping hay outside his stall door to lure them over.

Bodhi and Casanova absolutely adore JW. Their young cries remind me of a 4 year-old child getting dropped off at day care. But they find comfort in one another and I will often see them sleeping nostril to nostril or munching on hay with their shoulders pressed up against each other. Too cute!

But soon we will be introducing Bodhi and Cas to Magic, Tav, and Dusty. We will try JW with Pokey and Goose. I don't anticipate any issues with the geldings, but we'll see how Goose accepts old man JW.