The Big Blue Tarp

Back to the barn on Sunday. The weather turned out fairly nice. Warm but super windy. Surprisingly enough the horses weren't acting too weird. I brought Beau up to the barn to groom. Cody followed us and tried to make friends with Beau but he's just too scared and wants to get away. So I had to bring Beau inside to get him cleaned up. Found a scratch on his leg that looked fairly new so I got out the betadine and cleaned it up. I tried to clean up some of his spots that look like rain rot as well as his tail which was looking kind of crusty. I left him in the barn for a while munching on some hay and went and brought up Axel.

I ended up tying Axel inside so that he wouldn't chase Beau. Groomed Axel and tried to clean up his back foot. He apparently has Mud Fever, which isn't as bad as it sounds. I guess when they stand in the mud too much bacteria can get in tiny scratches on their legs and cause an infection. It's itchy and the hair falls out but it's just a matter of keeping it cleaned up til it goes away. In this case it's probably a lost cause until the mud goes away. But I cleaned it up the best I could. Axel didn't really enjoy putting his foot in a bucket of cold water so I could get the mud off but he was polite about his objections. Goofy horse has gotten so good at picking up his feet for me to clean them now when I just touch his foot he picks it up. Made scrubbing it kind of difficult. I guess you get what you wish for!

I did a tiny bit of work with Axel in the barn on the lead rope. He's backing up like a champ now and moving his hind quarters pretty well. We even had a bit of the driving game going on. I let him go and I groomed Cody quick just out in the paddock. It was way too windy to even think about riding so I tried to take Beau for a walk. He wasn't really into it. In fact he drug me up to the water and then drug me back to the barn door. That horse has a lot more strength in him than I thought! And he's been eating like he's starving to death yet at the same time he's probably gained weight this summer. I guess a good appetite is a good sign in an old horse.

I decided to do a little work with the Big Blue Tarp. Cody was all over the tarp, standing on it, smelling it, had it wrapped around his legs. Unfazed. Kiko wanted to kill the Big Blue Tarp. She stomped on it and bit at it but she wasn't really afraid of it at all. Kalani stood back for quite a while just watching. I held the tarp up and the wind just took it like a flag while Cody, Kiko, and Corey stood there inspecting it. Finally Kalani joined in the fun by biting it. He was still a little skiddish about it. Kiko would shake it and he'd shy a bit. But overall they thought it was a toy more than a scary monster. I'll have to do some more work with it. We didn't really wear the tarp yet. Cody and Kalani wore it a bit folded up.

It's still muddy in places but it should be drying up pretty quick here, thank god, it's such a mess.