Cob Jockey

OF COURSE when I went to get Disco on Friday afternoon, he played hard to catch for the first time in his life.

Since weaning, he's just a hair more on edge than he has been in the past

Not for long, and he had a relatively good reason (he got spooked by the jingling of his new halter and then goosed by a comb), but isn't it just the way that he would channel his Uncle Connor at precisely this moment!

Rey always inserts herself into everything!

He did finally allow himself to be haltered though, and although he had to stop and think about it at the bottom of the ramp, he never stepped backwards, and in the end got on my trailer so quickly I missed the photo op!

Awkward, but it's all I got

That was pretty much his MO the rest of the day - he never said "NO" to anything, he only ever said, "Hang on and let me think about this for approximately 10 seconds before I'll say yes". He stood on my trailer quietly and without screaming while I went to get a barnmate to have her help me unload him - not that I needed it for his sake, I just needed someone to hold the door while he stood there and - you guessed it - thought about it.

Sorry, I know this GIF is gonna be huge, but it's worth it. Thanks to barnmate Leah for capturing this!

Straight off the trailer and looking around

My husband took creative liberty with the previous photo, lol. If you've seen the Rifftrax of Twilight, this will be especially funny to you.

Leading him into the barn, he had to stop and think about stepping up onto the concrete, but led quietly past the gauntlet of wheelbarrows and pallets, through the people door into the dark wash rack and into the aisle without pausing. 

And then he had to stop and think about being in a barn aisle for the first time.

This was the only time he screamed the whole day, when he realized there were horses in here.

Doing the Aeres thing and keeping that one foot ready just in case he needs it for a quick escape

But pretty quickly he was like okay cool, there are other horses in there so this must be okay, and he walked right in. He introduced himself to the guys on either side of him doing the baby mouthing thing:

And then after grabbing a couple of mouthfuls of hay, his very first move was to immediately figure out the auto-waterer and take a big drink. I've always said one of my favorite things about Connor is the way he comes off the trailer and immediately takes a big drink no matter where we are and no matter what the water tastes like, so that made me happy to see.

It did startle him a bit when the bowl tipped over and started refilling, but he got over it quickly.

With that done, me and my barnmate and I had a beverage in the aisle as we watched him eat hay. I had gotten up at 5:30 that morning to do a 6am CrossFit class, driven two hours to Cincinnati to ride Connor, driven back to the barn to get the trailer, driven the 90 minutes to Lisa's and then 90 minutes back with the baby, and once we got him into the barn it just felt like all the adrenaline had left me.

Chillin with his creepers in the background

Having signed up for this entire weekend of barn chores so I could keep an eye on him, I was back out there bright and early the next morning!