Dirty Little Fun-Haver

Well last night Jimmy chose to romp, squeel, fart, twist, turn, buck, rear, and stomp as much as possible in his 5 minutes of round-pen time....I was less than thrilled. While I watched him do it and realized that "Hhhhhooooo" wouldn't chill him out I just simply said to him "Yes, I love watching you land that hard over and over on your new ankles. You jerk". He really is one sometimes, but I can't help but love him.

Tonight he came out of his stall half crippled. Guess that class act from last night caught up to him? Serves him right!!! Haha. I'm so cruel :-P I didn't give him any bute either, he needs to think about cause and effect a little more. (I know that he's a horse and he won't, but last time I gave him bute he about trampled me the following night from feeling TOO good. Figures.) I put him on a 22' line and brought my "carrot stick" (which is actually yellow, and way more awesome, for the record) and started toying around with him in the round pen. First just made him walk, turn and reverse, and walk some more. Then we perked up to a little tiny baby trot to see how he was feeling and he was well...less than satisfactory. I let him trot each direction as much as he wanted, but absolutely no cantering or shenanigans. It worked. Lunge line will now be a daily event. He behaves SOOOO well on it, it's just the better option through these last two weeks of home stretch recovery time.

Helen (barn owner) said every day he finds something new to get into, destroy, or have a nervous meltdown about. His new trick is to climb up on the dirt mound in his dry lot and try to climb over the fence to get into the upper paddock with the driving ponies. P-U-N-K. He showed me this trick tonight when I tried to fly spray him and he decided fly spray was again the most terrifying thing he'd ever experienced in his ENTIRE life. He went trotting away as I sprayed and called after him, he trotted his way up his dirt mound and stood there, like an elephant on a ball and looked down at me like "Ha! Who's sprayin' now, Mama!?" Need I repeat the P word?? Needless to say, this mound of dirt is maybe two and a half feet tall now since he has climbed up and down it so much, so he's really just the size of an average Clydsdale when he gets up there. I patted his neck and said "Get down here" and down he came, and stood for me while I sprayed. He has these meltdowns and then just stands there while I repeat what offended him so much 5 seconds before. Some things I will never understand. I think he just does it to test me. I've learned losing my patience with him only encourages more meltdowns, so the more neutral I can be at any given time, the better.

He also played his "I can probably tip the wheelbarrow over while Mom's not looking" game tonight. I captured it. BAZINGA! CAUGHT RED-HOOFED, JIMMY!!!

ALSO tonight I took his JollyBall down from the lead rope it was hanging on in his stall and put it in the dry lot so he had more entertainment during the day. Queue trotting in a panic up the dirt mound, yet again. 5 seconds later? He was like "OH HEY SWEET A BALL!!!" and bumping it around on the ground with his nose all over the dry lot. He's such a nerdcake. Two more long weeks.