I thought I had the advantage today as its cold and wet and raining. I went out to the paddock with the lead rope and Teddy's rug determined to catch him as I don't want the bugs to attack him when the sun finally comes back out. My mission was to get the rug on him but in order to do that I needed to catch him.
For an hour and a half (without exaggeration) I kept the pressure on, sometimes running, sometimes crouching in a prey position and crab walking, sometimes just walking by his side with my hand on his bum or back. A few times he stopped and sniffed or engaged with me in some way but as soon as that lead rope went anywhere near him he was off.
I was determined not to stop but the wind got stronger and I was being blown backward, and the sides of my legs from hip to knee were aching from the walking, mud, knee high grass, wind and rain. I just couldn't do it any longer though I tried.
I'm pleased to say that at no stage did I get angry with him and I talked nicely too him the whole time. But I didn't want him to think that he had won so I had to go to plan B (which I made up on the spot).
I picked up the rug and headed back to the shed, got a bucket of his food and went to the opposite side of the paddock, to an area we call the hallway. I called out to Teddy who instantly recognised the feed bucket and came waltzing over. He check out there was no lead rope then approached me cautiously, stopping at the little river in front of the gate caused by the rain. I encouraged him through the gate, gave him the feed and closed the gate behind him. I left him to the feed and went to tend the veggie patch.
While tending my celery I heard the thunder of hooves gallop passed -Teddy had finally worked out he was locked in and couldn't get back to the big paddock. He cracked it badly! He ran up and down for ages, churning up the grass as he screeched to a halt at the crush then turned around and ran back up to the back gate again. He kept this up for a while occasionally stopping near the fence next to me to snort and protest. I just left him to it.
Later I went out to get him some water, but he didn't want it. He was still pacing, not at a run though, and he just looked from me and then back at the big paddock with a longing look in his eyes. When I turned to leave he neighed out to me loudly. I turned around and he looked at me pleadingly then back at the big paddock.
I told him "Suck it up princess" and came inside.
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