So heres the plan.....

I've been kind of messing around with certain ideas on how to work with Ice tomorrow about his food. At first I thought about keeping him loose and then when he got pissy sending him out to lunge, but I scrapped that in case he gets too pissy and has to lunge for a long time, then gets hot and wont be able to eat his grain :/

So my new idea is to work with him on a long line (my BO has a 22 ft line that I can borrow, its got weight to it which is nice) still in the round pen, and since he works well leading and on a lead line, just do the CA sort of method and back him up every time he gets possessive of it. My question is, once he starts behaving, should I back off the food, or stand there till he's done eating? And then do I leave it at that, work on other ground manners before turning him out (He's on night turn out, so he eats and then goes out)? OR, should I lunge him first for like 10 minutes to get him paying attention, then work on the food aggression, and then turn him out?

I'd work with him before moving to the food....just to get him respectful and connected to you since this is still an issue for him....and back him up when he acts ugly....but once he isn't nasty allow him to come in and let him eat in peace. Leave the area and let him eat. A lot of times people want to hang around and love on their horses while they eat but that's really the horse's time so just allow him to eat and process what just happened. Once he's done then you can turn him out, but play as you go...have him go sideways a couple feet, back him up some of the way, things like that.

Sounds good. He's definitely a "crack under pressure" kind of horse, as we found out, so I don't want to just throw this at him while he's in his stall, back him up into a corner, and then have him get claustraphobic or defensive or whatever.

TOTALLY unrelated, but I was talking with one of the other girls the other day who rides her gelding in hackamore. She said "yeah, the less pressure on him the better". It never even occurred to me to link Ice's preference of going bitless to the rest of his personality haha. Maybe if I'd done a little bit quicker thinking, we wouldn't be here?

Sometimes less is more, for awhile anyway. Some horses really need us to back off and do almost nothing, if that makes sense....even though we are still doing something. Sometimes people with horses like that have a tendency to fall into the trap of tip-toeing around their horse and they never help the horse's tolorance and confidence build.

Yeah I plan on for the next week or so working with him, and I'll be moving him from the round pen to one of the outdoor stalls, back into his stall, and then taking off the line and working with him in his stall without it.

So of course, it started pouring down rain at 3 o clock right when I was gearing up to go to the barn. By the time it stopped and I texted the BO, she'd just finished feeding. -sigh-

There's always tomorrow. And I'm checking the weather report!

Weather ALWAYS gets in the way! Lol

So, here's what happened. I texted the BO at like 3 to just give him 1 flake of hay instead of two for dinner, and then I went out at about 6 when he would normally get turned out, and worked with him on the other flake. I mostly just tried to piss him off, to see if I could piss him off; I mess with him, messed with the hay, took it away, backed him up, and when he wouldn't back up I stepped over it so he couldn't get around me....nothing. I could have probably run around him in circles screaming and he wouldn't have cared at all. So its either his grain or his stall that he gets so protective of.

Anyway, I let him eat about a half of the flake before turning him out. I then gathered the rest of the flake and to put out with him, and then at a spur of the moment decided I was just going to free lunge him, or see if I could get him to free lunge, on his quarter of an acre pasture. I actually expected him to just run the fence line and stop when he was far enough away from me. Nooope, he actually started circling me in a really nice 10 m circle. The only problem is he wouldn't turn in a smooth motion like he usually does in the round pen---he would stop and turn in to me, then I would have to bother him with the whip to get him to turn all of the way. Still, I was very impressed. He did try once to do an unsolicited turn around....I cracked the whip and he turned in, pinned his ears, and gave me a little bunny hop, and then when I waved the whip again, he turned around and resumed his circling.

I will definitely try for a repeat tomorrow or Wednesday and get video!