A Few Steps Forward

This week I took Rodney for a hand walk to the end of the pasture and back. On the way out, he registered concern about gremlins in the woods. A few verses of Soft Kitty solved the problem. On the way back, he decided to be obstreperous. The conversation ran thusly:

R: I wanna charge back to the barn.
Me: No.
R: Why?
Me: Because I said so.
R: Okay. [Pause for a stride or two.] I wanna charge back to the barn.

Repeat for the length of the pasture. For the last two years he has essentially been sitting on the couch watching reruns. He sees no reason to go back to work.

This, Ladies & Gentlemen, is enormous progress. Not scoring a walk halfway around our own field. That’s just embarrassing. Victory is that I was able to turn his actions into a coherent story. Whether the story is real or anthropomorphic fantasy does not matter. I was able to use it to form an effective response. This is not something I have been able to do with him in the past.

Walking next to 17.1 hands of jaw-crossing, neck-curving, on-the-muscle fussiness worries me not. You wish to be rude? Bring it on. Previous Horse was five inches shorter but fiendishly quick. He was never evil but could be mean. As a bonus, he had arrogance to make a test pilot look meek. I dealt with him for 20 years. In comparison, my kindly giraffe, your attempt at attitude is a snowman’s fart in a blizzard.
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