Well, Arthur and Phoenix got to meet today. The up side to their meeting was that Phoenix was VERY friendly to Arthur and really curious about my little fur-beast. On the other hand, Arthur acted like an utter jerk-face. =( Phoenix came over to say hello through the fence and Arthur seemed OK but I could tell he was scared... I had a feeling that was going to happen. Tied Arthur up next to the shade of the car, haltered Phoenix and brought him out of the paddock to do some grooming. Phoenix was interested in Arthur so I let him walk over to A and check him out. They got so far as a couple of mutual nose sniffs before A freaked out (not really badly, but enough so that I know he's not going to be safe around P for a good long while, if ever). While I wasn't too thrilled with Arthur's reaction, I did expect it. He's always (we're talking, since I brought him home at 12 weeks old) been aggressive around anyone/anything bigger than him until he gets to know them. I'm pretty sure it's a fear related aggression but that doesn't make it OK. What I didn't expect was how calmly Phoenix would handle Arthur's ass-hattery. During their second nose sniffing session, when Arthur got scared, he growl-snapped at Phoenix and Pheonix didn't even flinch, just moved his nose away from A and looked at him like he'd lost his mind.
So, for now, A's going to continue to come with me to the ranch but he's not getting near P again (aside from greetings through fences) until he (Arthur) can learn to relax.
Didn't do too much today, just some socializing, a good grooming, practice picking up feet and letting me hold them for a bit, messed with his tail some to see how he'd act if I had hold of it and pulled it out to the side (he was fine but curious what the heck I was doing) and, a walk where P got to check out some motorcycles rushing by around a corner. His head went up and he was in alert mode but he didn't jerk or run or anything which was really good. We'll keep doing short walks and getting him acclimated to the traffic slowly.
The only major victor today was that I was able squirt the fly spray within 10 feet of P (into a rag) and he didn't act like someone was coming to kill him. Awesome! End result? He got slathered in fly spray and didn't seem nearly as cranky as he has been. Very cool. Also, pre-fly spray, we worked on him getting used to a soaking wet rag. He didn't like it at first because (I'm sure) it was NEW and SCARY but by the time we were done, he seemed to quite like it.
I'm going to have to really work on this who's the boss thing because he's acting awfully pushy and I am NOT OK with that.
Tomorrow, round pen, feet, fly spray... and if I have time, I'm going to try to tackle that nasty mane.
