Time for a bath

Today's picture was taken just 1 day after Harry and Daz met.  They decided to be best friends right away.   Daz is on the left.  Harry has the halter on.

Time for a bath:

Well, part of a bath anyway.  Harry needed his beautiful tail washed and braided.  Braiding the tail and stuffing the braid into an old sock keeps the hairs from breaking when it's being swish-swished at flies.  His tail had not been washed in a long time and was getting kind of gunky with Cowboy Magic moisturizer.

He was an absolute prince for his 'part bath'.  When I was done washing his tail, I let the hose run over him.  This was our first time seeing how he was with water.  I couldn't have asked for a better boy.  Hubby held the lead line and let Harry chew on the chain leader while I was busy at the 'business' end of the horse.

I turned him back out to pasture while I worked Daz, my other horse.   Harry loves Daz and doesn't mind if I talk a little about him in his blog.  I haven't ridden Daz in a long time and he has gotten fat (he plumps very easily) and out of shape.  I had him 10 minutes on the lunge.  We were both hot and sweating.  Enough in the heat!

By the time I finished with Daz, Harry's tail was dry.  I braided it with 3 strips of old bed sheet and then taped some bailer twine to the sock so he could still swish flies.

Let me tell you about Harry chewing on the cross ties.  Harry was a stud horse for 4 years and they tend to be mouthy.  Harry likes to chew on anything that comes near his mouth.    At his old house, his crossties were made of chain.  It can be risky to let a horse chew on chains...not good for their teeth.  His other mom and dad put the chains through sections of pvc pipe and Harry enjoyed chewing on that.

Our crossties are made of nylon cording...he would chew through that in no time.  I priced chains for replacement and that was way too expensive.  Besides, I wasn't sure my personality would go well with the racket that pvc pipe on chains made.  So, I decided to cut up some old garden hose and put that over the cord crossties.  I figured he would chew on it and I'd have to keep replacing it but it would be quiet and I have LOTS of old garden hose.  Seems to be a simple solution.

Well apparently old garden hose tastes REALLY REALLY  yucky because everytime he goes to chew on it, he spits it out and makes a face.  He has learned to stand quietly in the crossties without chewing.  He 'tastes' it every once in a while, but has not really chewed...gnawed...on it.  A wonderful solution that ended up teaching him how to stand in crossties.

We had a wonderful time together and are getting more and more 'in tune' with each other.  

I won't be riding for a while.  About 1 month ago, I had his shoes taken off.  We weren't going to be showing, he was just out to pasture with a little riding.  It seemed like a good idea.  Well, he doesn't 'go' the way he did with the shoes on.  I'm scheduled with the farrier for July 29 with a call in to see if I can push the appointment up sooner.  

In the meantime, it will give me a lot of time to work Daz and a lot of grooming and cuddling for Harry.  I'm sure he'll be good with that!  And so will I!