Do Saddlebreds Have Consciences? :-)

Sometimes you could ALMOST swear that Saddlebreds have consciences. As in, guilty ones that make them overcompensate later. Of course I know they don't; of course I know I'm madly anthropomorphizing. But as wretchedly naughty as Quattro was the other night, that's how PERFECT he was tonight. It was pretty funny.

I think the other night he was just overtired and his nerves were shot. I also think they're so hypersensitive to our moods that they pick it up when We Are Not Amused, and they want to please us so much that they try all the harder next time. I admit I kinda reinforce that thought with Quattro a little bit by withholding the extra specials when he's been a scheisskopf! If he does what he's supposed to do and tries his best, he gets heaps of praise and petting and extra cookies and a good long hand graze in the hay field where the grass is nice and long. If not - not. I'm also trying to teach him something a little more subtle which the late HRH Avery unquestionably knew: If you aim for, and attain, absolute perfection, and don't give the human one single thing to nitpick at, the human will cut the lesson short. HRH Avery knew this so well that it was like a big game to him: "I'll be BETTER than you, I will, I will!" He liked me to mess up so that he could be perfect and feel all superior. :-P Which is good: I *want* Quattro to be better than me. And Quattro is a sharp kid; it really hasn't taken him long to add all this up.

The piece of REALLY good news this evening falls, I suppose, into the "I think he's got it - by George, I think he's got it!" category. Houston, we have - RELAXATION. FINALLY. He is FINALLY going around nicely in the long lines at a pleasant medium trot, long and low, reaching for contact, and not acting like he wants to win the Road Horse To Wagon class at Lexington. He's done it five times in a row now, and even at three times I was still wondering if it was a coincidence. It's not. He's got it. And now we can move his training along.

He also has given himself a new job around the place: Chief Cat Herder. When I think back to how terrified he was of the barn cats when he first got here, and watch him in the paddock now chasing them calmly but firmly OUT of his paddock, I get a good giggle out of it. He actually did it at my request tonight, twice; we were out for a hand-graze and one of the barn cats was tangling in between my feet trying to play with the longe line, and I kept tripping. So I jokingly moved aside and said "Quattro, could you chase the kitty off, please?" He did. I said my biggest hugest "Gooooooood boooooy!" and when the cat came back (of course), I said again "Quattro, get rid of the cat for me, please" and he did it again! Now, THAT may have been a coincidence. Remind me to test this theory again some time.

The adventure continues.