Sunday, April 26, 2009

80 degrees!!!!

Last Saturday, Ed got water to the barn.... this Saturday, "summer came to the farm" and when two good things like this come together, it just has to be a day for bathing horses!!!!




thank goodness!!!!Betty was available, because I never thought it would take the entire day to bath four horses.... but it did!!! (we did take a little lunch break, and then another when some visitors came to the farm.... ) but all in all... it was a whole day's project. Course the fact that the horses haven't had a bath since last August might tell you what kind of "shape" they were in!!!



We began with Mocha, she can chill easily so I wanted to be sure that she had plenty of time to dry before it got cool in the evening. She is pretty easy to bath and the fact that we even had WARM water, just made things all that much easier.


Betty is getting quite fond of Mocha and has been doing a lot of driving work with her... however, Betty's big Newfoundland (dog) is almost as fond of Mocha!!! here, he came over to offer his support!!! (I love the fact that he is nearly the same size that she is!!!)








And then after that, he decided to cool off in a mud puddle... (course that meant a good rising off of him at the end of the day!!!!)











Duke was our next project. I haven't bathed him before, but being a public carriage horse for so many years, I figured that baths were probably something he was quite used to. He was a dream to handle, except for one thing... he wanted to play with the hose.... and the more you sprayed it towards his face... the better he liked it!!! goofy boy!!!!







Here he is ... all cleaned up and shiny!!! He seemed sort of sad that his turn was done.. I think he really enjoyed all the fussing and attention. (notice the hair still hanging from his belly... he has only begun to shed out winter coat!!!!)













Silver came next. I think he was the dirtiest of all... not just because he's white, but it takes him longer to get up after a roll (what would you expect at 30+ years old). We soon discovered that it would have been better to groom him first and then do the bath... but, we weren't thinking that far ahead....








"How many people does it take to bath a white horse???"









Tonka was last. I don't know if we were all tired, or if he was "mad" having waited all day for his turn, but he wasn't the best to do. Here, I am having some "words" with my boy...... he did settle down after that, but I expected better of him!!!!

It was quite a fun day, and we all felt like we accomplished something at the end of it. Course the one "problem" with all of this work... there are still some pretty good mud puddles in the paddock area, and I fear tomorrow, we might be back a square one!!! However, we at least got one layer off the them and some coat to boot, and with the water and warmer temps, this will be the first of many baths for sure!!!!