Mr Needy MacGreedy

Max had a case of the "cling ons" yesterday. He gets like that now and then, just wants me to stay with him, not making a fuss, just standing so he can lean his big ol' head on me and look soulful. He also wanted LOTS of hay, and anything else I had on offer (not much) though the two issues were separate. If I took him a handful of hay in answer to his quiet whuffles, he would choose to stand with me, instead, until I moved off to get back to my chores, and then he'd get down to eating.

Then, a bumper day for Mr Max, as one more person finally got the better of his evasion tactics. I took him into the school to do a bit of work on the long-lines. The jump stands were gathered in the centre of the school, just tall, weighted white plastic poles, so I spaced them out into a track of obstacles for Max to weave in and out of. We got on pretty well with that; it was an exercise to encourage bending in Max, and also to see just how well we were both doing at changing direction.

The Ent came and joined us, the long lines came off, and Max had a little lunge session, with the Ent at the controls. I stayed in the centre with them for the first little while, then retreated to a corner to leave them to it. Ent was quick to pick up the signals from Max so he could act on them quickly, and before you know it, with a buck and snort of protest, Max found that the pushover Ent was no longer so easy to get round!