The Open House Countdown - Bathing

The open house/barn is finally over and I can breathe! (I think my Arabian horses are relieved as well.) Hopefully I'll be able to do that for a while and nothing else will come up. But then again, you never know around here.

Looking over the last week I can't believe I actually got through this without having a stroke. It seemed that every turn something else was happening that messed up my plans. Maybe that's my problem.........too many plans.

Thursday, I found out that my friend, Jean, would have to work on Sunday. I really rely on Jean to help me with whatever I might need. She has many years experience with horses and I really respect and trust her. I know that Jean can fill in wherever I need her. Particularly, I never have to worry about having someone qualified to handle stallions is Jean is around.

If Jean wasn't coming, that meant that another friend wasn't coming either. I'm not sure why she doesn't want to come unless Jean is there, but that's just the way it is. So instead of loosing one set of talented hands, I lost two. That made me worry just a bit.

Because Jean was unable to help on the weekend, she came on Friday and helped me bathe Arabian horses. Originally I didn't have help for Friday's bath session so having Jean then was actually a great break. I got all of the young horses that required a "holder" done before Jean had to leave.

The only exception to that was Scarlet. She and Lucy would be the last horses that were done on Saturday so there was a better chance of them staying clean.

I have to admit that I scared both Patriot and Andy with the hose. I hit them with the water before they saw it coming and they both jumped sky high. Patriot settled in pretty well though but then I have been rinsing him off after free lunging to get him used to the water.

Andy on the other hand has only just gotten off of stall rest. That meant I'd only rinsed him with the hose once or twice to Patriot's dozens of times. Poor Andy wasn't sure what got him. Between the catching him off guard and the fact there was a different type of sprayer on this hose, he was terrified. It took a bit of dancing around chasing him to even get him wet enough to apply soap. I even tried using a sponge but that only scared him worse.

When it came time to rinse, I took him up to the hose I use to rinse after free lunging hoping he'd remember it wasn't so bad. That actually worked out ok and the horse finally sighed this huge sigh of relief. I hadn't really thought about making sure that the youngsters "saw" the water coming before it touched them but you can bet I will from now on.

After Patriot and Andy we bathed Surprise and Trouble (who were both very good for a change), Rhapsody, Dancer, Gypcy and Echo. All were pretty good except Echo who was not only pushy but a bit offended with the whole bathing process. I wanted to kill her........but settled for getting her bathed....even though it took a while.

I was supposed to take Jean to pick her car up at the repair shop after we were done but ended up stuck waiting for the delivery of the port-a-potty. So while we were waiting we went ahead and began bathing Storm.

Just about the time we got the horse wet, the truck and trailer rig showed up with the longest trailer I've ever seen. The driver wasn't sure he could even come into my place and turn around. I assured him that semi-trucks come in and go out the other gate just fine so we should be all right.

And we were all right except for this goofy driver deciding to gun it as he went underneath our power lines flipping them with the two san-a-cans still left on his truck. Jean and I both cringed thinking he was going to jerk those lines down. Instead they danced for a while making us both nervous.

Once we got the gates locked back up and let the mare and foal back out to graze we went back to bathing Storm. He was really a good boy for Jean. But then I think he knows how much she likes him so he's always on his best behavior for her................me he gives fits whenever possible.

Later on Friday I was supposed to pick up three of the six horses from the other barn. Rachel was to call me when the last horse was finished being bathed. It was well after Dave got off work, before I ever heard from Rachel. It was beginning to get dark as we finally pulled out of that barn and onto the roads only to find I had a short in my hook-up and my running lights weren't working properly. I was crossing my fingers and hoping we'd get home without incident.

Also, it turned out that Rachel only had 3 of the 6 horses bathed that she was responsible for. She'd had problems clipping their legs so it had taken much longer than she anticipated. She and her friend, Summer, were planning on going to the barn early the next morning to finish up so they would still get out to my farm by 9. We still had another 11 horses there to bathe as well as getting other things in order and I had to transport the remaining horses to my farm. The plans were beginning to unravel, I just didn't know how badly yet!

To be continued...............

Saturday

This picture is Rhapsody.........I'm thinking it should have some kind of name. What do you think?

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