Well, Presto hates me.

He got a couple of presents for his birthday – Lauffer reins and a set of Shoofly Leggins. Well ok, I ordered the Lauffer reins (or Phillip reins or sliding side reins or whatever you want to call them) during Black Friday but I hadn’t actually used them or even taken them down to the barn yet until his birthday. And the Leggins just coincidentally happened to arrive at the right time. But whatever, we’ll call them birthday presents.

The fly boots are mostly Henry’s doing. The flies have been ridiculously persistent here the past couple weeks, to the point where I have gone through a gallon of fly spray in that time trying to keep everyone covered. And the flies really don’t even seem that deterred for more than 5 minutes. And they’re biting. Poor Henry the delicate flower couldn’t stand it, he was constantly stomping despite being covered in so much fly spray you could smell him from 10′ away. Presto was stomping too, although didn’t seem nearly as annoyed in general. Still though, if I was gonna buy fly boots for one, might as well by fly boots for both, right?

As soon as I put them on Presto he started glaring at me, and walked off high-stepping. Once he was walking normally I turned him back out and he immediately started pulling at them. Yeah, that’s kind of what I figured might happen. Why do you think he got BRIGHT ASS ORANGE instead of pretty blue ones like Henry? So I can find them in the field when he removes them.

I was hoping that if I left them on overnight in his stall he would finally just settle and accept his fate but HAHAHAHAHAHA. This is what I found when I came out to feed.

He had managed to remove 3 of the 4 boots, hiding two of them under the pile of hay scraps (she’ll never find them here!) and tossing one over his stall door out into the aisle. It seemed very deliberate, like executing a prisoner and leaving the body on display to serve as a warning. I put them all back on while he ate his breakfast, but I have a feeling we’ll be playing this game for a while. He is M-A-D at me. Clearly I’m ruining his life.

Henry at least seems appreciative, he stopped stomping almost immediately.

Presto also wore his new reins for the first time.

Set quite loose, as you can see. Not changing his natural head carriage at all, just putting a bit of a “feel” on each rein. Since he’s still a little fussy about the bit I wanted him to just be able to think about it and figure it out on his own with a very light steady contact mimicking what he would feel from a rider. He wasn’t thrilled but he understood it pretty quickly and stopped fussing, so hopefully a few short and easy sessions will get him more comfortable with all that before I swing a leg over for another ride.

So… yeah. He’s annoyed with me right now. Clearly I’m the worst mother and I’m trying to ruin his life with my horrible gifts. #firstworldhorseproblems