Ticklish Little Devil

The other day when I was handling Ace, I realised he is pretty ticklish on his sides. So, today when he was having his tying lesson, I got a hand towel to groom him with. Talk about ticklish! He did his best impression of the Tasmanian Devil. I toweled down his side and under his belly. First he tried to reach around and bite, but I smacked his hiney. So, he took out his anger on the rope. Then I went across his flank, and between his hind legs, and the fun really started. First he crouched until his belly was only about a foot off the ground, then he commenced kicking. It's really difficult to grope a horse, and smack them around at the same time! I pushed him against the wall, put my arm over his back, and just polished away. He was kicking double time with first one hind leg then the other. Armed with the determination that this would be a lot less fun as he got bigger, and Bill Cosby's sage parenting advice ("I brought you into this world, and I can take you out") I polished until he gave in.

All the while, he was attacking the rope, and untying himself, or at least letting out more line. A couple of times he did rear up and fight the rope, just because he couldn't stand to be around me anymore, but I could tell he didn't think it would do him much good. After he submitted to the flanks, I started on the chest, which was just as bad, only closer to the biting end. And ended with the neck and face. Then I picked up each leg, and worked with his tail (which oddly enough, he doesn't mind at all).

After about 15 minutes, he had pretty much given up, but he was still pretty pissed off. I can tell you, if I had waited until he was a yearling or two year old to do some of this, he would have broken some stuff. When he was done, I unsnapped the rope, and pulled him away from the wall, telling him he was free to go. He immediately launched himself back to his mom where he shook off all the nasty human, then he came racing back to me, reared up to his fullest height to tell me just how happy he was to be free of me, than started a bucking and running fit as he worked off his frustrations.

Is there any better toy than an old juice bottle?