While it’s true that Presto is, overwhelmingly, a really good baby horse, he’s still a baby horse. Not sure if y’all have met horses, but they’re dumb. Especially when they’re young. And when the Baby Horse does decide to be naughty, he’s generally smart, clever, contemplative, and creative about it. Ie: kid is trouble on four hooves.

He’s been a little more full of himself than usual this week. He had Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to himself, when I was busy with Henry and the horse show. Usually I have my hands on him doing something at least 5 days a week, even if it’s just a quick 10 minute grooming in the crossties. Then we got some rain on Monday that meant the horses were inside all day, so by the time I got to him on Monday afternoon he was riding quite high on his own overinflated ego.

I brought him in for grooming, as usual, but he was Mr. Prancy Pants and just could not keep himself from wiggling. He wasn’t pushy about it, so I didn’t get on his case too much… I know he was a little amped from being inside, and he’s a yearling, and I was asking him to be still. So I took him for a walk out toward the back hay field, working on his “whoa” and “cluck” voice commands. Then we wandered into one of the front paddocks so I could practice his FEH stuff – standing still and then walking/trotting on a triangle. We were on our second “stand” when it started to rain.

As soon as it started coming down hard on the metal roof of the barn next to us, he thought that was a great excuse to turn into a horse kite. I, on the other hand, thought that his decision to turn into a horse kite was a great excuse to stand out in the rain and let him figure out that sometimes life just sucks and you have to deal with it anyway. Once he stood still and relaxed, I took him in.

He’s gotten a little more mouthy lately too, wanting to chew on things and pick up EVERYTHING in his mouth. I think he might have some baby teeth things going on, so I’m going to have the vet take a peek in there tomorrow when he’s here doing Henry’s health certificate, just in case. Either that or Presto has just discovered his mouth all the sudden. Could be either/or. Colts.

Yesterday morning I took him out to pony with Henry and he was ON FIRE. Normally if he’s “wild” he just kind of bounces around next to Henry a little bit but I think that being cooped up due to the weather made him extra frisky. He decided it was a prime time to play and popped up on his hind legs, trying to bite at Henry. I turned the end of my lead rope into a club and stopped that shit real quick. Being frisky in your own space, fine. Coming at Henry, even in a playful way, with hooves and teeth – NOPE. Nope right between your big fluffy donkey ears. He was dedicated enough to try it one more time, but after wallop #2 all the wind went out of his sails and he decided to just trudge along next to us, looking dejected.

The good thing about him is that he’s not at all dedicated to being naughty. One or two good reprimands and he abandons those ideas post haste. And he’s not actually scared of anything, so it’s not like he’s being spooky or something. Just… testing his boundaries a bit. I keep them very clearly defined, and if he chooses to step over the line then that’s his choice and he gets to deal with the consequences. Yeah, I’m a mean lady.

We’ll see which Presto decides to show up on Sunday for his FEH class. Hopefully it’s the sweet angelic one, but with just a touch of the naughty wild one for the trot so that he’s cute. Now that I’ve said that I’m probably going to get the opposite, aren’t I?