Rock, 3yo Mustang gelding from Little Colorado, WY got the ultimate Christmas present yesterday: His first ever pasture turn out.
To me that’s one of the biggest steps, right up there with the first touch, the first time leading out of the pens, the first trip off property and the first ride:
Giving them a bit of freedom back for the first time. The first time ever for facility born ones, and the first time in years for those that were gathered.
While they live in larger pens in holding than many boarding facilities and property owners can offer, there’s still something special about seeing them eat, run and play on grass grass the way a horse should.
This step is nerve wracking too. What if they run through a fence? What if they try to rewild themselves?
I must have checked on him 20 times yesterday. He’s turned out with Lacy who’s (relatively) quiet, won’t chase him, and is very respectful of fences. He checked in with me several times and remained very catchable and friendly throughout the day.
There’s also nothing wrong with letting them out for only minutes or hours at the time at first, and/or only during daylight hours.
The goal is to keep them safe and ourselves sane (-ish, we’re horse people after all, who are we kidding 
).
It’s also not wrong to reduce or temporarily eliminate pasture time again if we realize they weren’t ready or if weight is a concern.
*I leave the halter on for the first hour or so of the very first turn out ONLY. In case something unexpected does happen, I can catch them more easily. I do not recommend leaving halters – or anything else – on unsupervised horses because they don’t need any more ways to hurt themselves*
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little video of Rock’s release after a lovely Christmas morning ride… NO GLOVES and manageable amounts of snow, it was glorious.
I’m not complaining, there’s still plenty of time for those of us who practically live outside to freeze our tails off and wade through feet of snow this winter.
This good boy is staying with Wild Horse Outreach & Advocacy for the time being. We have other wonderful, gentled wildies looking for their humans. Please reach out if you’re looking to adopt 
I hope all of you who celebrate had a wonderful and very Merry Christmas 
