Five-Year-Old Brain

I heard someone say once that horses go through a teenage period around five years old where they are more rebellious. I'm not sure the science behind that statement, but it sure seems to be true of Calvin right now. I've noticed lately that he'll just get kind of sassy. It's not that he's doing anything dangerous, but just something that resembles flipping you the bird. One example is asking for a more enthusiastic canter, he'll just do a little buck, as if to say "I'm not happy with this, so I'm going to let you know, but I'm not trying to kill you either."

Some things he's so level headed about on trail: Huge tractors doing construction? No reaction. Bags on the side of the trail flapping? Maybe a side stare. People on bikes? Running? Dogs? Pricks ears. Not to mention he'll walk over logs, sagebrush, and thick underbrush all day long.

But large birds? Looses his mind. Water he has to cross? As if his brain has literally fallen out of his head.  

We saw water today and about 10 feet away he decided he's not going anywhere near it. My (what I thought was) reasonable goal was to go up and sniff it. It took probably 20 minutes of work to get him anywhere near that water. Now it was kind of mucky and muddy, so I didn't make him go into the water because i'm not entirely sure the footing and didn't want some sort of quicksand situation to happen:

My childhood fears do not need to become a reality

Just to get him up to the edge required an act of God. First, he tried to spin around. No Calvin, we don't spin. Then, he figured he'd just back up away from it all. No, when you back up your human starts cowboy kicking and that isn't the most pleasant feeling. Next, he tried just ignoring my leg completely, but about 10 cowboy kicks later he decided that was annoying. He then tried to walk forward (good boy!), stop, and start pawing like an idiot proving how pissed off he really was about this whole ordeal (pawing has been his go-to lately for when he's feeling very impatient and/or annoyed). Finally, he figured out that moving forward released the pressure (i.e. cowboy kicking), and it was actually easier to walk forward and sniff the water.

Into the jungle where the horse-eating water is located

Needless to say we were both exhausted after that ride. I don't fault him at all, it's all part of the baby horse training journey and in the end, I just laughed it off. You can't take things personally with horses. 

"You still love me"