Griffin made it through the first night free

Later on the same day that I released him, I went back to check on Griffin, only to find that he had his first tying lession without me! I worried about that, since he was in the trees so much chewing on them. It looks like his rope got caught, he must have fought a bit to free himself because the rope was wrapped around the bunch of short stems a few times, and he had mud down one side as though he had fallen. When I got there, he was standing still, just hanging out, waiting. I walked right up to him, untangled his rope from the stems, and then took his rope off. Looks like he had himself a good lesson though and learned something about tying.



The next morning after the release, he was doing so well with the mares (they were tolerating him really well) so I decided to turn Chico loose, with a drag rope to slow him down a bit if he got too aggressive with Griffin. The previous picture is their first sniffing.



I shouldn't have worried. Chico is the least aggressive to him so far out of all the horses! He still herded him with his ears back, but no trying to chase him out of the country. Someone in my past had me convinced that Chico was just plain mean to other horses, but it certainly is not true. I should have more faith in him.



But of course, the second that one starts moving Griffin, they'll all perk up and follow along to help. Horses are funny. In the following picture, I caught the action just a couple seconds too late. Chico was going to herd Griffin away, but then lost interest and was turning around to go eat hay. You can see that Cody and Catlow are right behind him to help though.



I'm still going to keep Kachina in for a week. Her and Griffin are so buddy-buddy. I want him to get a chance to build a relationship with the herd, and me, before I turn his best friend out with him. He's been great today about letting me approach and catch him in the pasture too.