Juby Beats the $hit out of the Fence Today!!!

Got your attention with the title, didn't I? ;)

First of all, let me start by saying that Alex is a GENIUS. An absolute GENIUS I tell you! Like, there should be a Nobel Peace Prize for Horse People, and she should get it. Because even though she may not be responsible for peace in the world, she DID help me to acheive a certain level of peace with Mr. Fizzy-Pants today, and I was really starting to think I wouldn't EVER get that!

Ok, so here's the deal....

Alex and I have been talking over AIM a lot lately, and she's been giving me some advice on Pepsi. Now, I've had LOTS of people give me advice on Pepsi...some of it worked, a lot of it didn't. I'm used to that. But what she said was "Put him in the round pen, and when you want him to change direction, get after the fence...NOT him!" I'm like, okaaaaaay- she wants me to beat the fence. "Are you sure you're feeling ok Alex? Not feverish or anything, are you?"
"I'm fine. And I PROMISE it will work. Just beat the fence like crazy and he WILL turn and not kick out!"

I think 'ok, fine- what have I got to lose?' I don't REALLY think it will work (unless her ultimate goal is to get everyone to call the "crazy cops" on me, which probably WILL work) but I figure I'll try it anyway.

So I go out today, grab Pepsi, throw him in the round pen, and let him warm himself up. He starts out just walking, then starts trotting. I figure now's as good a time as any to try this crazy thing, and I do just what she said- I pick a point on the fence, calmly walk up to it, and start YELLING at it while BEATING it with the lunge whip. Pepsi takes ONE LOOK at me, snorts, half-rears, and then doubles back and TAKES OFF. Well, it worked that time! So I find another spot on the rail and do it again. I start yelling at the fence and beating it with my lunge whip while COMPLETELY IGNORING MY HORSE. Once again, he sees me, turns around, and heads in the other direction!

I do this for another few minutes, and he starts to calm down a bit once he realizes that whip isn't coming anywhere NEAR him. He sees me get to the fence, sees me whipping it, and thinks "I'm not getting ANYWHERE NEAR that crazy lady!" and turns around and heads the other direction. After about 20 minutes of this he's starting to turn as soon as I start HEADING TOWARD the fence- I don't even have to be at it now!

After a few more minutes I let him come into me and petted and rubbed him all over. He stood there licking with his head dropped, letting me rub his face. Then he followed me around for a few minutes at the walk with lots of circles, changes of direction, and several stops.

I put him back on the rail and we did some more turns. I didn't even have to yell at the fence by now- I just had to wave my whip around a little and he would turn. I was just about to stop when he BLEW past me once. However, I will say that he WAS getting ready to turn (had his nose pointed to the outside and I could tell he was starting to shift his weight) but something obviously spooked him and he immediately changed his mind and blew past me. So, we just continued for a few more minutes (I had to yell at the fence again the first few times ;) ) but then he settled down and got nice and quiet again. We ended up with him getting rubbed and patted while he licked and licked and licked. :D

He was also an angel in the wash stall too- he tried pawing/striking once, and I SLAMMED his leg with my crop and yelled at him until he backed up. After that he got the idea and didn't try it (or anything else!) again!

So, all in all, Pepsi was SO good today and I'm so proud of him! Thanks Alex!!