The Great Ciscini

Cisco is a smart pony. He's also very mouthy when he's tied up in the barn. Blankets folded up on stall fronts last about 3.2 seconds before they are being flung through the air.

He's also kind of figured out how to untie himself.

It's not a new thing - it's happened on a few random occasions. It usually happens if I leave the barn for a few minutes while he is tied up (for example, taking Phantom out first).

How he showed up when he untied himself last summer.

My routine with Cisco is this: he gets ridden, untacked and groomed. Then he gets fed. I go down to my tack stall at the end of the barn, mix his feed into a rubber dish, and bring it back to him down in the aisle.

The last two times I was out, I popped into the stall to prep his dish after grooming and I hear hoof sounds on the cement. I look down the aisle, and guess who is on his way to get his food, trailing his lead shank? This has happened twice in a row!

That's Cisco in the doorway. He was tied up by the grooming kit at the bottom of the picture.

I haven't actually seen how he unties himself.  I know he does a lot of head flipping, which can do it. He also has this thing he does where he circles his nose under the shank and then flips it up. And once I saw him chewing in the end of the lead.

The last time, it took him only seconds to get loose. I want to know how!

I ordered a cell phone tripod mount so that I can use my Gorilla Pod and my phone to catch him in the act. I have a feeling that since Mr. Smartypants has been rewarded after untying himself by getting fed that this is going to continue.

It will be easy to stop. I bought a trailer tie with a panic snap on the end just for this reason. But I really want to see how he does it first! I hope to have the hidden camera set up this weekend and get some damning evidence!