If there’s one thing Presto’s got, it’s persistence. And chutzpah… pleeeeenty of chutzpah. Therefore it should be no surprise that he’s started to tear down Henry’s extra spikey walls, and while I wouldn’t quite say they’re friends yet (does Henry really even have actual friends?), there has definitely been a truce. This time last week Henry was chasing Presto around, trying to pin him in a corner and murder him. Now… Henry’s being civil at least.

A big part of it is that Presto stopped running from him, and stopped trying to hide behind Quinnie. He’s got a lot of bite marks to show for it, but it was a wise choice to be brave and take a stand. Henry is a bully to the worst extent, and only respects other horses if they don’t seem weak. If they run from him, he is brutal and unrelenting. So as long as Henry said “move” and Presto said “yes sir” with fear, Henry was just the worst kind of asshole. Somewhere over the weekend a shift began in their dynamic, and Presto stopped running. Henry would come at him with teeth bared, and Presto would take a step back, but he didn’t run and hide, and as soon as Henry relented he would step back up again. Kiddo decided enough was enough I guess. Henry has decided maybe this kid isn’t such a weak sorry excuse for a horse anymore after all. He’s earned some respect.

I mean, don’t get me wrong – they aren’t buddies. Henry has just moved from outright disdain to mostly just pretending that Presto doesn’t exist. I’m not sure if y’all know a damn thing about Presto, but… he is hard to ignore. That kid is in-your-face, and he’s persistent, and he’s not the best at taking no for an answer when he really wants something. And what he really wanted was to play.

Presto loves to play. Bitey Face is his game of choice, but he’s also really into Chase. He and his buddy JB would play a lot, all throughout the day, and I think now that JB is spending the winter in Florida, Presto is missing having a play buddy. He knows better than to try with Quinnie – she is NOT messing around – but he’s thinking there might be a chance with Henry. So Presto did what Presto does best: antagonized the shit out of him.

To Henry’s credit, he put up with it for a while before Presto finally broke him down. It’s hard to ignore a giant bouncing baby horse that’s trying to bite your face though. Subtle, Presto is not. After a few minutes Henry finally reacted, and while he wasn’t quite sure he really wanted to play with this BabyIdiot, he did humor him a little bit at least.

Since then they seem to have come to an agreement. Henry still makes grumpy faces and pretends to hate him, but it’s all empty threats. He’ll bite Presto at night check when I’m giving out cookies and Presto puts his face in Henry’s stall, but it lacks the viciousness it did in the beginning. Plus Presto doesn’t seem to mind, which apparently takes all the fun out of it for Henry. I’ve even caught them playing actual Bitey Face a couple more times. It’s not at the level that Presto and JB played, but it’s something. Dare I say that Uncle Henry might be developing a bit of a soft spot for the kid that just won’t take no for an answer?