Good Boy Pepsi!

We had a few breakthroughs last night...FINALLY!

Pepsi had finally quit trying to eat his halter after the clinic, but in the last week or so he's started trying to again. They've been pretty half-hearted attempts, but attempts nonetheless.

He tried it the first time yesterday and got a strong 'eeeenh!' for it. He ignored that and got a slap. Usually this has been enough to make him stop, but yesterday it wasn't. So, he tried it again and got a harder slap right on the muzzle along with KNOCK IT OFF! He STILL ignored this and tried to grab the halter yet again...this time I'd had enough and SMACKED him in the muzzle with the halter. Being the drama king that he is, he SQUEALED like a banshee and cantered off away from me. Ok, fine horse. If this is how you want to play, let's go.

He trots over to the gate and starts to graze. Ummm, I think not! He knows FULL WELL what it means when I go to put the halter on, and running away from me and ignoring me is NOT in the picture! So I make him move. He starts to squeal again, and then decides to take his frustration out on one of his pasturemates- he runs RIGHT up to him and tries to kick him. But his pasturemate is a 16.2 Percheron who kicked right back. ;) Of course, neither of them came CLOSE to making contact- they were just showing off.

So I make him move again since he's still ignoring me and this time I get an ear and an eye. I stand still and he stops completely and faces me! :D Good pony! Then he walks up to me and stands still right in front of me. He gets lots of scratches and a "good boy!" So I go to put the halter on and...you guessed it- he tries to eat it. AGAIN. Another smack, another (though noticeably less shrill) squeal and he trots off. 10 feet. Then stops and looks at me. I walk towards his hindend and he turns to face me. Good boy! He takes a step towards me, and I walk up the other 3 feet to his face. (I probably should have waited for him to come all the way to me, but at this point we were losing light and I needed to get to the barn where we had lights run by electricity, not the sun!) I go to put the halter on this time and he doesn't even move a lip. Just stands there like a gentlemen. Another rub and I offer him some water and to the barn we go.

I give him a quick grooming in the barn (his fungus treatment is starting to work and his scratches/wounds are healing nicely, so he's finally stopped looking like a swamp monster!) and out to the ring we go for some groundwork.

He does BEAUTIFULLY. We drive through cones like a gate, he stops when I ask him to, moves when I ask him to, and generally listens to me. Plus, I got 3 whole steps of sidepass to the right! (We're still having trouble getting them to the left, but that's the harder side for both of us.)

I decide to end on the great sidepass and call it a night. I take him in, hose off his legs in the wash stall, and then take him in the aisle to put on his fungus medicine. (He stood like a gentleman in the wash stall btw.) He tried to say hello to a mare in her stall, and didn't listen when I told him to knock it off. So, he got worked until he went- "Oh, right! I'm supposed to stand still!" and then proceeded to GROUND TIE like a perfect gentlemen.

Oh, and on a side note- I don't know if the deer weren't out there tonight or if he simply ignored them, but I had NO snorting or 'looking' at the scary side of the ring!

Hehehe. I KNEW my Pepsi monster could be good!