WHO's yer Boss Mare, Quattro? WHAT's My Name? Repeat That.

Well, I'm sorry to report that poor Quattro is SO deep in the doghouse, he's not sure if he's EVER getting out. He even got threatened with the Fall Sale (not that I meant it, but HE doesn't have to know that!).

Most of the time Quattro is so well-behaved that you forget he's still young and only half-broke. You do this, frankly, at your peril, because that's exactly the day he's going to wake up on the wrong side of the bed and start a riot.

Which is pretty much what happened this morning when I went to bring him up off night turnout. He was probably sleep-deprived/stressed from the fireworks, as well as hungry and wet owing to an early morning rain, which doesn't put him in the most charming mood.

Well, he came out of that paddock in a sulky mood, wanting to go where HE wanted to go, and raging when I wouldn't let him. First he wanted to go graze in the hay field, which he knows perfectly well he's only permitted to do when he's on his way out at night; then he spotted something going on in the yearling paddock that he wanted to go investigate, when he knows perfectly well he's NEVER allowed to hang out at the yearling paddock. (I even work him outside it once a week or so, and expect him to keep 100% of his attention on ME; THAT's how much he's NOT allowed to even express interest in, let alone go near, the yearling paddock.) There are things I have thinner boundaries about than I should, but neither of these two are on that list. They are firmly, consistently non-negotiable.

So basically we had a spinning, rearing, striking war all the way up the driveway. I didn't have a whip but, thank God, did have him on a longe line with a stud chain, so essentially we longed in spirals all the way up the drive, with lots of halts and backing up as well. Every time he refused to walk quietly, he got sent out to work again and then halted and backed. He. Was. Livid. Then he'd try it again. And so on.

I finally got him up and into his stall and fed him breakfast. I went back in to get his hay net to fill, spoke to him to let him know it was me (his feed bucket is in a position where his butt is toward the door), and here is what he did: he turned around and looked at the sound of my voice; SAW that it was me; then pinned his ears and let fly at me with a back hoof when I asked him to move over. He connected, too; caught me in the rib cage, albeit not hard enough to do any damage.

Well, he got read the Riot Act at that point; because that was deliberate. It would be one thing if I had walked in unexpectedly and startled him, but no: I did exactly what I do every single morning; brought him in, gave him his feed, went back out to put the bucket down, went back in, spoke to him, and asked him to move so I could take his hay bag. And he LOOKED right at me and then took AIM.

I keep a whip next to his stall door for a very good reason. That is simply not acceptable behavior, and he has to learn that it's not. The training axiom is that you have 3 seconds to administer punishment. So I admit it, he got a couple of good ones. Then I left him to his breakfast and to contemplate the error of his ways. After breakfast I lunged him for a few more minutes in the indoor and worked him respecting my space, just to be REAL clear on who Boss Mare is. By that point (he really DOES have a good brain) he understood he had truly Gone Too Far, and was most apologetic. When he was licking and chewing, I gave him a cookie and a pat and put him back to bed with his hay and his alfalfa cubes.

Sometimes he stays in a snit all day; there have been times when my groom turned him out in the morning and he gave trouble, and then gave me trouble again at the other end of the day. So when I went up to feed him this evening, I did so with whip in hand. Luckily for both of us, he remembered the result of the morning's riot act and moved ALL the way over at the first request, for which he received much praise and patting. Fair's fair, after all.

I guess I'm racking this one up to a 3 y/o "headdesk moment" - at least for now - but the pure deliberate *nastiness* of it really ticked me off.

The adventure continues. With prejudice!