Good Spirits

Bullet points, cuz I'm in a hurry and waiting for T to finish breakfast before leaving for work.

• Ashke opens his mouth for the bit, pulls it up into place with his tongue and lowers his head for me to put the headstall on.
• Last night he put himself to work in the round pen, cantering with high, good spirits for five minutes before starting to pay attention to me. During that time, he chased T around the pen (T was on the outside) bucking and kicking, with a little squeal. He was feeling very good.
• Ashke whinnies from when he hears us to when I greet him at the stall. These are not little nickers, but loud, bugling greetings of a stallion for his herd.
• Ashke loves to tease Cass, the QH stallion in the end stall. Ashke stops and lips at Cass' nostrils, licks his nose, and nuzzles him through the bars. This excites Cass and he has started nickering eagerly every time he hears Ashke. I don't think either of them cares that Ashke is a gelding.
• Peppermints, peppermints, peppermints. Ashke stopped in the middle of trotting yesterday to swing his head around and ask for a peppermint. I didn't give him one, but it did make me laugh.
• We turned him out into the pasture and went to Costco after his work out. When we came back it was full dark and Ashke was just a vague splotch of white in the field. When he heard the gate, Ashke stopped grazing and walked up to put his head in the halter. He's so hard to catch. When we were walking back into the barn, Ashke stopped and inspected the Beast, slipping his head over the tailgate to see what we had in the back. So curious about everything.