Consistency and Routine

I've noticed that when it comes to feeding, consistency is bad. He learns to expect his food, or grass at certain times. I've got hell to pay if I decide to switch things up and do groundwork or *gasp* ride before he gets his food.

I first noticed this over winter and partially attribute this to a couple of falls I had.  During the heart of winter, I would get home from work around 5 most nights and run down to the barn and feed before going into the house.  My reasoning was "F*** it's cold and dark!" I wouldn't want to venture back outside once I was warm in the house.  When it started getting lighter out and a bit warmer, I wanted to ride, but needed to do this before I fed. It takes him a couple of hours to finish a net of hay, and by then it would be dark. Taking him away from hay would guarantee a fight, so why not get the ride out of the way before feeding.  Well, he would still argue and try his tricks (spinning and bolting).

The mane, it's crazy

Clearly I'm not as smart as he is. It took a while for me to realize what was going on. So, I would wait until just before dark to feed. This helped quite a bit with the arguing. Max didn't like it at first, but he got used to it.

Then the grass came.  Lately, I've been putting him out on pasture for an hour or two right after work most evenings. Then feeding before dark. My stupid self didn't think this would cause any problem, but now I see that it is.

You have grain. I want grain.

The other night I decided to try some groundwork before he went out on grass.  Lets just say that he had other ideas.  So now I am tasked with trying to figure out how to break this routine up. There is limited time in the evenings and sometimes all I want to do after work is veg out for an hour or so. Sometimes I realize that if I don't do chores or ride as soon as I get home, then nothing will get done. 

I will say this...the boy is smart. I'm afraid I might not be as smart as him.