Zap In The Face

I went out today to go apologize to Moose yesterday, and so wanted to have a little fun day today. I hid treats around the pasture on various items so we could play with our Touch It becoming a little better, and get him interested at the same time.

So, we started out, and he wouldn't put his nose on anything. Being in a better mood today than in our session yesterday (and stopping my leadership experiment, BTW), I just noticed this and kept on trucking instead of getting emotional. Well, after he discovered a treat inside a tractor tire I had him touch, he started investigating the objects a little more. Score! So, I took him to another tractor tire where the treat was balanced precariously - in retrospect, this was stupidity on my part - on the tire (it's at a funny angle). He noticed it was there after a second, and knocked it on the grass. Upon trying to retrieve it, he got stung by a bee on his nose!!! Then, he gets into a mad rush to itch his nose on anything within walking distance. And by pure chance, Bella is close by. So, he rubs himself all over her and Bella of course retaliates with a kick, but she missed him.

So, first time I've ever had a horse get stung and hopefully the last. I've got to say that I wasn't really sure what to do in that situation: I just let him go itch, because I'm sure it didn't feel good, but should I have become more of a leader and said "I'm more important than your itch?" Just something to ponder.

After that, things went alright, but the bee ruined his good mood. He no longer investigated anything, so I felt bad that just when he started to become brave it got knocked out of him. And he got extremely bugged-out after that, too. Every time I asked him to go touch the next obstacle, he'd start tossing his head. And if any bug came on him, he stopped thinking for a second, and then had to itch.

And to top things off, Bella was feeling  a little RBE because of how windy it was today, so after Moose got stung he tuned right into her mood. So, a very strange day, but not necessarily bad in my opinion. We'll see what he thinks about me tomorrow.