Beautification Day

Not that the horses haven't been getting prettified right along, but Wednesday at Eric's place was hard-core pony-spa day.  I arrived at two o'clock (and left at seven) and Eric and crew had been hard at work for hours when I arrived and showed no signs of slowing down when I left.

Eric and I both rode Buddy (he's showing him, too) but it was only about a half hour total - just long enough to get all three gaits in in both directions for both of us, make sure my show tack was properly adjusted, etc.

Then it was bath time for Buddy.  Ham that he is, he strrreeeettchhed and wiggled his nose and just generally enjoyed his scrub.  He wasn't nearly so keen on the vet arriving to draw blood for his health papers.   The others tolerated being stuck with perfect equanimity.  Not Buddy - he had to crane sideways until he almost tipped over.

Meanwhile, the other crossties were occupied by a couple of incredibly patient victims - sorry, horses - getting their final clipping and shaving.  Body clips have been done for a few days, but muzzles and eyebrows get shaved, ears clipped, and diamonds clipped into faces to make their dishes more pronounced.

Once Buddy was shampooed, conditioned, de-tangled, and spritzed with ShowSheen, I got to sort through the large bag of Sleezys (lycra/spandex for horses - better them than me!) and find one that fit him before slipping his blanket back on.

The next to go under the hose was a petite bay mare who sighed when the warm water hit her and leaned into the massage as I worked up a good lather.  She also got the full spa treatment and a Sleezy to finish.

My last bathe-ie was a huge half-Arab palamino gelding.  This will be his first show, too.  Eric's comment as I pulled him out was, "Don't get flat - he's only had a couple baths."  Hmmm...  He does like to joke.  Golden boy didn't twitch an ear.  He even relaxed and unclenched his tail and made oooh-that-feels-so-good-faces while I worked the shampoo in and made sure that all the dust, tangles and shaving-particles were rinsed out.  His bath wasn't completely without incident though.

Unfortunately, the one sideways step he did take resulted in his left front foot catching the edge of his right front shoe...  When he picked the right hoof up... the shoe remained pinned under the left hoof and the right foot landed naked on the floor of the wash rack.  Eric might have been irked about it, but since he was back and forth past us multiple times he'd seen how quietly the gelding was standing.  He just shook his head and said the nails must not have been clinched solidly.  No damage to the hoof - the nails all just pulled straight out, so it should nail back on without too much trouble.

I still have tack to wipe down, but my fleece pads are freshly washed and fluffy and the check marks next to all the items on my list of to-be-packed is slowly growing.

Someone else is finding the packing process a lot more relaxing than I am!

Mabel, that's really NOT a cat bed