Sponge bath

Axel had a sponge bath today, it was too hot to ride.

Saturday WCR was cancelled because of the potential heat. So when I got up at 9am and it was only 82F I ran out to the barn hoping to beat the high temps. Of course all the horses were down the back pasture grazing and trying to stay cool. My aim was to work more with Cody on the yo-yo game. Once again I failed. He just stares at me, doesn't even make an attempt to figure out what it is the crazy lady is trying to tell him. I moved on to try the thing where you wrap the horse up with the rope once and they're supposed to unwind themselves. This took us several tries, he'd just keep backing up instead of turning around. He finally figured it out though. But we're still a no-go on the yo-yo. I tried the yo-yo with Kalani, another no-go (he can unwrap himself though). Tried a third time with Axel, nothing. I'm starting to think I am just not doing this right. I mean how many times can you get wacked in the face with the clip on the rope before you decide to maybe move out of the way? I even wacked myself in the face with the popper on the opposite end of the lead rope. If I was a horse I woulda moved. I've been trying to do this stuff in the pasture. Taking Cody away from the herd up to the round pen will just get him worked up and really not paying attention. But I think I'll have to work on these things when everyone is up in the drylot and not preoccupied with grazing. Or something, I'm running out of excuses!

So I finally decided just to lead Axel up to the barn to give him a bath and put oil on his feet. Like the last time I tried to lead him, he was just not having any of it. Usually he leads without an issue. This time (like the last) we got to the middle of the woods and he wasn't budging. It took many circles and poking and proding to get him to finally move. We made it up to the barn eventually. He doesn't seem totally sore any more, still a bit stiff but doesn't seem too terrible. Hopefully by Wednesday he'll be good as new. And I'm hoping it's the heat that's making the horses all so ornery. Once we got up to the paddock he followed me around, knickered at me, and all the usual love. It was just a pain to get there. Instead of dragging out the hose I just got a bucket and sponge for the bath. But I think Axel likes the hose better. He was a bit disturbed by the sponge. But then again the water was probably ice cold. When we were done bathing and getting oil on his hooves he follwed me back down to the pasture. Stopping for a roll in the sand pit. I was going to give Beau or Cody a bath too but neither of them were overly interested in leaving their almost cool grazing spots. So that was that. Too hot to do anything else this weekend.