Chat
09-27-2014, 08:46 PM
Finn. Is. Awesome. I absolutely adore this little guy! He's too yucky to take hiking any more, so I thought I'd bring him with me on a trail ride today. He can't spray me or rub is pee-stained nose all over my pants if I'm up on a horse! He's never been around horses very much so I wasn't sure if he'd follow. Well, he followed perfectly! He was noisy for the first half of the ride because he was upset that I was up in the air on a horse instead of walking like a normal person. He acted like he didn't know where I was, and when I would call him he'd look all around but he wouldn't look up. After lots of stops involving me leaning down and handing him cookies from the saddle, he finally figured it out and stopped calling for me.
Finn's not the least bit afraid of horses and sometimes he almost ran underneath Jet, but he never got stepped on. I'm surprised he's not more nervous around them. Except for Cuzco, all my other goats are terrified of the horses and bolt in terror when one so much as looks at them. But Finn was walking right under my left stirrup by the time we headed back. He followed Jet into the horse trailer for the trip home and I had to make him get out. I'd have let him ride in there with Jet except that I was with a friend and I didn't trust him to be safe in there with two horses. It's kind of cramped with two horses and he's still a little guy.
My friend brought her Labrador and Finn and the dog got along perfectly. They rode nicely in the truck bed together. Finn was not the least bit nervous around her, even when she would race up behind him and blow past him on the trail. When we got back to the trailhead there was a group of people there just starting out on their mountain bikes. Finn went over to say hi and was an instant hit. One lady loved him up like crazy after he started rubbing his head against her leg. I told her she might not want to do that and explained why his face was yellow. She backed off a little, but Finn is pretty charming and still got a lot of loves from the ladies in that group. In fact, he felt so comfortable around them he went and jumped right up into their truck bed so he could meet the guys who were up there unloading bikes!
But as much as Finn loved meeting strangers and acted as though he wanted to go home with them, he came back to me as soon as I called him and followed me and Jet back to our own trailer without protest. I think Finn is shaping up to be an incredible trail companion. I'm incredibly please to see that he also has a ton of "presence" just like Cuzco. He carries his head high, steps out boldly, and has that same self-confident look in his eyes. I have a feeling he's going to grow up to be a camera-poser like Cuzco.
Finn's not the least bit afraid of horses and sometimes he almost ran underneath Jet, but he never got stepped on. I'm surprised he's not more nervous around them. Except for Cuzco, all my other goats are terrified of the horses and bolt in terror when one so much as looks at them. But Finn was walking right under my left stirrup by the time we headed back. He followed Jet into the horse trailer for the trip home and I had to make him get out. I'd have let him ride in there with Jet except that I was with a friend and I didn't trust him to be safe in there with two horses. It's kind of cramped with two horses and he's still a little guy.
My friend brought her Labrador and Finn and the dog got along perfectly. They rode nicely in the truck bed together. Finn was not the least bit nervous around her, even when she would race up behind him and blow past him on the trail. When we got back to the trailhead there was a group of people there just starting out on their mountain bikes. Finn went over to say hi and was an instant hit. One lady loved him up like crazy after he started rubbing his head against her leg. I told her she might not want to do that and explained why his face was yellow. She backed off a little, but Finn is pretty charming and still got a lot of loves from the ladies in that group. In fact, he felt so comfortable around them he went and jumped right up into their truck bed so he could meet the guys who were up there unloading bikes!
But as much as Finn loved meeting strangers and acted as though he wanted to go home with them, he came back to me as soon as I called him and followed me and Jet back to our own trailer without protest. I think Finn is shaping up to be an incredible trail companion. I'm incredibly please to see that he also has a ton of "presence" just like Cuzco. He carries his head high, steps out boldly, and has that same self-confident look in his eyes. I have a feeling he's going to grow up to be a camera-poser like Cuzco.