Jet Needs Rubber Duckies and Squirt Guns

Since it is a crisp 110 degrees in the desert by 6am, Jet's playtime comes in small spurts. By 12 or 1 o'clock, the dust is so thick and the sun blazes like it came from Hell itself that all Mom, Jet and I want to do is stand in the shade and guzzle water.

I've had two major accomplishments in savviness so far. Jet comes when I call him and is always willing to come out and play (thank god for treats and supplements). Catching Game - check. He has also finally accepted the carrot stick. Yeah...I was too embarrassed to post on the Forum that we had issues with the FRIENDLY Game. Jet thought it was a longe whip, of course, so every time we swept it over him, he took off. It took a large arena, the 22 ft. line, and singing "Rock-a-Bye Horsie" (don't ask) while rubbing the savvy string up and down his body slooooooooooooooowly for over 2 hours before he showed curiousity in the Scary Orange Weapon and tried to eat it. Now when we run it over him, he falls asleep. He's not big on using his energy, but since it takes ME awhile to lick and chew, I'll worry about it later and brush up on that segment in L&HB. At this stage in the game, I am perfectly content to have a lazy, 1/2 dead horse who enjoys standing quietly in the round pen while I try to figure out how on earth to communicate that I want him to yield Zone 1 during the Driving Game. He will take a step or 2 when we drive him from Zone 1, and then he throws his head up and walks toward us (there's that Man O' War again, alive and well). I wonder how my fellow Parelli-a-holics were able to win the Driving Game with THEIR dominant horse.

He's also turning into a real butthead at the wash rack. He gets a rinse off nearly everytime Mom and I see him. For a horse whose favorite activity is to stop, suddenly he becomes devestated that he can't wander wherever he wants at Bath Time and tries to leave. Ultimately I want him to be that horse who doesn't have to be tied, but apparently we are waaayyy off from that. We've given him some grain to keep him occupied, but as soon as he's finished, he knocks over my tack box, chews up bottles of water, and tosses my brushes around before he just tries to walk away. He has been especially "naughty" the last two sessions when I merely draped the lead rope over the tie post. The first day, I realized I was getting annoyed with him while he was getting into mischief and I felt bad after I left. His ears were forward and his eyes were big and playful while he happily threw my brushes and watched me run after them. He was definitely winning the Dominant Game, but he wasn't TRYING to be a jerk, he was just being playful at a time when I would have preferred him to stand still. He started acting pushy and crowdy this afternoon, so I challenged him to Let's Back Up. I'd call it a draw. I guess in Horse though, that means I was the loooooooooooooooser. I wonder what it is about the wash rack that gets him all riled up. He never moves his feet so often as to when it's Bath Time. He's not afraid of water; in fact, he loves it when I point the hose to his mouth so he can take a few slurps.
As I said, he was at his fussiest when the rope was merely draped over the post. After backing him up a few times this time around, I then decided I would feel saner and safer by just tying him up. Obviously he takes too much advantage of the freedom I gave him, due to lack of respect, which is MY bad, so knotted to the hitchin' post he was.. Actually, he stood more quietly this time than the other times he was tied up for the hose.
So maybe I have answered my own question. Jet needs playtime at the wash rack before Bath Time? I guess he just reminded me that there's no direct line thinking when you're behaving like a prey animal. There is no catch, tie to hitch post, stand still, get bathed. Hmm...how interesting. Any normies would tell me to cross-tie him or whack him around a bit and FORCE him to stand still but there's GOT to be a more polite way that will make Jet think, "Hmm, Mom's not as dumb as she looks..."
Thoughts, ideas, advice, stories??