Getting My Kicks

It was raining hard this morning but I turned the horses out on the pasture so that I could get my chores done in peace. It has been gray and mild here for the past several days so I thought it would be safe to let Tonka graze unmuzzled for an hour. After mucking, restocking the feeders and playing some fetch with the dogs I went to collect the horses. I guess Tonka likes grazing without his muzzle because he took off at a trot when he saw the halter in my hand (Raven hot on his heels, of course). As I walked down to their new location I watched him tuck into a new patch of grass and I figured that small shenanigan was over. But when I approached to offer some skritches he turned his rump, kicked out in my general direction and bolted back up the length of the pasture and into the paddock (Raven hot on his heels, of course). And boyohboy did he look good doing it! He rarely sustains a voluntary canter for more than a few strides, but this was 200 meters of four-off-the-floor flying gallop.

You need to understand that Tonka is sweet and polite to a fault. Food is the only thing that will push him to test human authority, and even his treat-induced bad behavior is mostly just silly antics. He has never avoided being caught before today, and he has certainly never kicked out at anyone. I suppose that I should be worried about this development, but I'm actually kind of proud of him. To me that show of spunk and power means that he is starting to feel spunky and powerful.