Blessi and the Gypsy Vanner Colt

Encampment of Gypsies with Caravans
by Vincent Van Gogh--Wikipedia

When I got to the stable today, Amy told me another Blessi story. A 2-year old Gypsy Vanner stallion is boarded at the stable. The owners seldom come out to visit and the horse is led out to a pasture in the morning and then back to a stall at night. Since he is a stallion, the colt is pastured by himself. Phantom is kind of a blank slate--friendly enough, sometimes a little antsy on the lead line, and, at this age, looking more for companionship rather than domination.

Last week, Amy led both Blessi and Phantom together out to the pastures and the two horses walked very nicely in unison. Today, Blessi was turned loose so he could eat grass while Amy took all the other horses out. Blessi would then be led into his pasture after about 20 minutes of free grazing. When Amy went to get Phantom, Blessi left off his eating, positioned himself on the other side of Phantom and escorted Amy and Phantom to the pasture. Once again, the two horses walked in unison--which is actually a little slow in comparison to Blessi's fast Icelandic walk.

Amy is still trying to puzzle out why Blessi did this. Frankly, I am surprised that he would stop eating grass but I think he felt the colt, who is as large as Blessi, needed some free-style ponying. I am sure that with Blessi's size and temperament, he was used to help train younger horses in Iceland.