A Windy, Horsey Day

I know I know, as the great Funder would say, "Pics or it didn't happen!"   My husband had my camera with him today so there are no pics. But it did happen! All of my horses, evil little mini horse included, behaved excellently for the vet and spring shots this morning, despite a bitterly cold day with an unfriendly, gusty wind constantly stirring things up. I needed to get Desire's Coggins and health certificate in order for crossing the Nevada border for Rides of March in a few weeks, and Desire, Blaze, and El Bandito the mini were all due for spring shots. Sheza had her vaccines in the fall so she was just a background observer today. She was showing just how independent she was by grazing at the far side of her paddock without the slightest observable interest in all the goings on. I honestly kind of prefer that to throwing a baby shit fit like she usually does!

I had some doubts about how successful rounding up El Bandito by myself would be. Usually I have at least my husband to help corral him, and with today's gusty wild weather I didn't see him being any sort of sweet. Here's the thing: I was completely wrong! I did drive him up to the gate so he had nowhere to go, no fooling. But once there I walked right up to him, haltered him, and away we went. He has had about 2903747 stickers in his hair for the last few months, and you can say I'm a bad horse owner but I'll say I'm just over itttt. Let me explain: our 21 acres boasts just about every conceivable form of sticker, pricker, and thistle. Blaze and El Bandito's favorite past time is sticking their heads in bushes and coming out looking like frickin unicorns. I can pull Blaze, comb him out, put him back, and he will walk back up the gate five minutes later full of stickers again. We will eventually get a handle on the sticker problem, but it's a work in progress with limited funds and no big tractor/sprayer combo to work with (in fact, we're working with nothing more than me and my push mower and backpack sprayer). Sooo, Blaze gets tortured with incessant hair combing, but El Bandito tends to just rock his stickers without further correction. Until days like today come around, and then it's spa time for mini man. His mane and forelock are SO THICK, it's ridiculous. There are like three different layers to each. Cowboy Magic may be expensive but with the kind of stickers we have I swear it's worth the money, I just spread that all over the stickery dreadlocky mess and start separating/working the Magic into the hair. It's pretty impressive the relative time it takes to turn a hot mess into a normal mane and forelock situation. Bandito was a little hesitant for all the attention but mostly was too busy gobbling grass to protest. He took his de-wormer quite well and then stayed grazing til the vet showed. Since I didn't have a great place to tie him safely I had the vet give his shots first and he took them like a champ! Quite a surprising display of behavior from him, especially considering the crazy weather, but I appreciated it.

Desire, meanwhile, tapped and danced and stretched and looked and just generally was an impatient Arab in the cross ties. The entire hour and a half she was in them. Lol. Sometimes she is just silly, but that's her prerogative considering she is all business under saddle. Blaze was literally asleep in his cross ties. He woke up to see the vet but didn't so much as flick an ear when she gave him the shot. He is generally pretty good but even I was surprised how calmly he took it. The vet loves him, she was talking to him today saying if he ever needed a home he should come to her house! I told her I'd be more likely to send my husband to go live there than Blaze, LOL. My husband did laugh about that later, by the way... Blaze was pronounced in great weight and overall looking healthy as, well, a horse. Desire was still tap dancing and did a little snorting when the vet went to her BUT she did the blood draw and vaccinations without any drama, which was awesome! The vet couldn't believe it because when she came to do vaccines when Desire was pregnant last year Desire was so bad we almost couldn't do the shots. She had been planning to do an exam but Desire was so bitchy we decided to skip it. It was nice to receive glowing compliments from the vet on all the animals--oh yeah and Sheza got a "Um, you know, she's BIG!! How old is she again???"  Hahaha, oh dear.

It's still windy and bitterly cold here now, I blanketed Desire and Blaze and feel totally guilty Sheza doesn't have a blanket but at least she has a good coat and a shed (she's outgrown 2 blankets now). Blaze doesn't have a shed and Desire doesn't have a winter coat, so I'm telling myself it all balances out. After the good vet session (and lovely accompanying bill) I spent the afternoon at a friend's house helping her blanket her big herd of Arabs and just hanging out. There are also going to be some new additions of various species to the Redheaded Endurance family soon, it will be fun to post photos and info soon, but not yet!

My husband just made the most delicious steak dinner, YUM!


Oh, technology. I just grabbed this off Facebook, where I had posted it from my cell phone..so there is a pic! See his nice hair! It happened :)