I drove to the Seattle area to pick up Vinnie this weekend. He had been hauled from the Cayuse Ranch earlier this week. He was out there spending some time growing up. I was curious to see what he remembered. Well, the little squirt has grown some, but not a lot. I had to remember how big Paisano was when I got him. Vinnie is about the same age as Paisano was then and he’s about the same size.

He whinnied when he saw me! And he still catches and leads and loads perfectly. First impressions: His mane in incredibly long for a two year old; Feet need triming; And he’s still a sweet as ever. You might not see many photos of him for a while, as he’s definitely in the ‘ugly duckling’ stage.

I was lucky that there was minimal rain for the entire drive, even though it was predicted. I was also quite curious to see how Lily and Paisano would react on meeting him again. Paisano never did spend much time with him before, so I didn’t expect him to think much of him.

I have two paddocks now, with two strands of hot tape separating them. Each side has a 14×12 shelter, well, actually the 14×24 split in two… So I tie up Paisano and Lily to bring Vinnie in and show him around.

Lily was pretty interested. Paisano was a bit agitated. And Vinnie was calm as seems to be usual with him so far. The odd part to me was how Lily acted when I had turned Vinnie loose and went back to turn her loose. She stayed as far from Vinnie as possible. Vinnie was visiting with the geldings on the other side of the fence and checking out the grass available to eat. When Lily did go up to him, it was to chase him! She was alternately fascinated (from a distance) and apparently repulsed by him. She won’t let him up to the shelter or to the water near it.

After an initial greeting, Paisano wanted a piece of him! He tore up and down the fenceline and lunged at him, teeth at the ready, whenever he got close enough.

I left Vinnie with a couple of buckets of water halfway out into the paddock. If Lily doesn’t get over herself and let him up there, I’ll put him out in the hay pasture with the geldings today. It is nice to have all my horses in one place. Now if they just would get along!

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