It didn't look quite so good by the time we got it home. Since the pickup is currently out of commission, we had to take the minivan. My mom suggested that we use a sheet to protect the van from pine sap. I thought, "Good idea!"
Stable Boy tied the tree on the roof with the "good" side up so it wouldn't get flattened and wrapped the excess sheet around the tree. After an hour of 65 mph wind, the sheet was shredded and had literally whipped all of the pine needles off a large section of tree right at eye level. The "good" side is now the "bad" side.
The moral of the story: sheets belong on beds, not cars.
In other news...
I spent a couple hours with him this afternoon running through my groundwork routine as well as working on transitions. Some of the things I asked him to do were clearly unfamiliar to him, but he seems very willing and eager to please.
The only thing I don't like about this horse so far is that he seems to be seriously addicted to cribbing. I even sprayed the panel rails with a bitter, anti-cribbing spray. All he did was lick his lips and go right back at it. I think he needs a cribbing collar. I really don't want him scraping all the paint off my panels or teaching my horses this bad habit.