Summer's Gone and Scarlet is Terrified
I know most of the country is still languishing in the heat but the temperatures here today were below 60° and very, very rainy. The fact that normal late fall weather is already here leads to depressing thoughts since we didn't ever really get a summer.
Way to wet to ride outside, I decided to spend some time detangling manes. I've commented about how laborious that job can be with as many horses and long thick manes as live here but I was determined to get started. I thought if I could get through even a few today it would make the whole task not look quite so daunting.
It was raining so hard when I started for the barn, I turned right back around to grab a rain slicker. Otherwise I'd have been soaked to the skin before I even reached the first stalls.
I know they say that horses cannot see color but I swear my horses just hate that yellow rain slicker. I have other raincoats that are a different color that don't seem to cause problems but this yellow thing seems to set the horses off big time.
Each of the boys in the first barn snorted at me as I entered their stall. Most of them, now even Rhet, like grooming so once I got started working on their manes their apprehension over the yellow coat from h*ll seemed to wane. I did have to put halters on Rhet and Suede to begin work, but then Rhet I attempted to clip his bridle path first and that always requires extra restraints. Still, the boys did good and the coat didn't eat anyone.
It was poor MizScarlet that could not contain herself with me wearing that jacket. My usually adoring Scarlet tried climbing over the wall to escape. Even scratches on her whithers didn't ease her discomfort. She was not being fooled by any yellow fire breathing monster sporting her owner's voice. Scarlet knew, beyond any doubt, that she was about to be eaten.
I did manage to get her mane untangled but the wild eye never left her eye. The filly tried to duck out the door a couple of times and did pretty nifty spins on her haunches whirling around to escape me moving to the next knot. It was quite a display of athletic ability all to avoid a hair brush wielded by her supposedly favorite human. Who knows what goes through their minds...........Any bets on what she'll do when I try to wash her mane if I am still sporting that yellow rain slicker?
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Funny how some things will set them off. I have the ssame old Carharrt that I wear all winter, well it got wet and I put on a purple downfill for a day, well you would have thought I had turned into a horse/cow eating monster! they were all bug eyed and gone! Johnnie came back when I called, but pretty cautious
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's the sound it makes? The bright color might be the thing they are reacting to, like it means danger or something.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it is funny how horses just get fixated on something that looks so scary.
ReplyDeleteBrandy spooks at dandelions and butterflies, but would probably handle the slicker fine! Trail riding is always an adventure with her.
The weather has been just terrible and I still can't believe that summer is almost over, wait, what summer? You are so right, we hardly had a summer! Sad.
i used to have to keep baasha's mane in braids (20 years of braids!) so all the people we met called him a girl.
ReplyDeletebut otherwise it would tangle horribly.
now he lives with me and i have plenty of time to fuss over him and his mane gets show-sheened and brushed every couple days, so no tangles unless it's rainy and windy and he rolls in the mud.
i'm so glad to have my boy out of braids! (oh, and recently i discovered that if it grows longer than 12 inches it will tangle more easily, so i trim the bottoms a bit (and try not to make it look like it's trimmed!).)
i remember the stable where i got him (auburn), the entire barn was full of long maned arabians with braids or tangles.
You never really know what's going to set them off. Poor Scarlett, maybe at bath time another color might be better for her.
ReplyDeleteI have a few slickers that get the hairy eyeball when I wear them to the farm. The worst is if I am riding with one one, and then need to take it off mid-ride. Do i take it off while on horseback? Can you imagine a horse seeing a big rubbery pink flashy thing in the corner of her eye and freak out? Or do you take it off in sloooooow mooootion so the horses sees but does not quite beleive? Yes, raincoats are tricky! Sometimes it is easier just to be wet!
ReplyDelete