Guys.  I really feel that the Archer and I had a breakthrough.

Just a wee bit sweaty.  :)

I know I've bitched enough about how he loses his shit when the Skinny Guy gets ridden out of the pasture.  Well, yesterday, I'm tacking up when BO shows up and asks if Archie will be okay if she takes a quick ride around the dirt road.  I tell her to go for it.  I'm a big fan of putting us in conflict in an effort to develop.  Occasionally, we all need a catalyst.

I think a big part of our success was that I took Archie away from the Skinny Guy before she mounted, so that by the time Archie saw him walking through the woods, I already had his brain.  I already had him marching.  When the eyes started to bulge out of his head, I squeezed, then kicked, then overflexed him to the inside so he couldn't focus on his buddy but had to work his body.

We trotted for a solid twenty minutes.  Seriously.  He's going to be sore today.  And he probably screamed for the other horse a dozen times, but I kept him trotting while he was screaming.  That made for a few pathetic screams.  :)  "Mom, Mom... I can't trot and scream and breathe!"

I'm just so proud of him.

I've mentioned that this experience in Savannah is the first time, since I've owned him, that he's been out with other horses, right?  So he's stupid married.  And, were he human, he would probably have some abandonment issues from being separated from the herd a million years ago in Augusta (he was too aggressive).

So, yeah, he did all the extra stuff that I asked him to and only had two little temper tantrums (one, I think he was bit or something because he hasn't bolted forward like that in a while).  He also tried to do the lesson pony speed and slam:  let's go really fast all of a sudden and then slam on the brakes.  But when he tried to slam, I pushed, pushed, pushed and he ended up having to hold that faster trot.  :)