Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Manes and Tales

So its been warmer, much warmer, so one wants to stay out as long as one can. But what to do when you are in a flooded state, the round pen still has a sheet of ice on it, and you personally sink to your knees in the muck and mire?

Well – the barn is still dry, mostly anyways. So you decide to start tackling manes and tails. Of course everyone thinks you are nuts because all of sudden you care about their personal hygiene?

But as you work your way through the barn, everyone stops eating and watches you groom somebody else, with such disdain and jealousy……to the point that we try squirming our way into the way of you and the pony being groomed.

Everyone has their own stall you see, but everyone can see everyone and most ponies are paired off in teams of two.

Tonight I was determined to get to Opal’s mane and tail, she has the most damage this year it seems to her mane. So I pull out the hanging bucket of supplies. Tie her to the end of the stall and start the long process of picking out all the mud caked in to her coat, her mane and her tail.

Now she is paired off with Tulip, who normally could care less if I am working in the barn, until I start messing with her partner. Tulip watched with extreme interest. Often trying to move Opal out of the way so she could see what I was doing. She careened her neck, stretched it 3 feet longer than it really is, stuck her nose into the liquid I was putting on her mane and tail and had the biggest eyes I have ever seen watching me apply Listerine and baby oil.

Several times she thought if she just backed up to the wall between her and I, I would take the hint and scratch her butt. But each time she was a tad disappointed as I was seriously into getting Opal’s tail unraveled from the mud that she had carefully placed there today whilst rolling in the fresh mud patches.

I have never seen a pony quite so taken with the grooming process before. It was as if she was living vicariously through Opal.

Mind you, she was just brushed last night, but I didn’t add oil to her tail.

So where did that leave me….I couldn’t leave her without doing her mane and tail, after all, she did so kindly presented her butt to me without hesitation. So I transferred the products to her stall, got her halter and proceeded to start grooming her. Of course I started with the curry comb and then the wire brush and then the dandy brush. By the time I was coming around third base and heading home, she had had quite enough of being brushed – she wanted her tail done! She promptly side stepped into position and lifted her tail for me.

‘Silly girl’, I told her. ‘There is a process and you have to be patient for me to finish brushing you.’ So I pushed her back into place and proceeded to finishing the brushing part. She watched me carefully, waiting for me to finish with the brushing – PLLLLEASE ALREADY!

So I finally started on her tail. She lifted it up again and I started adding the Listerine and baby oil and started rubbing it into her tail bone. OH MY – you would have thought I had struck gold. For 20 minutes I massaged the mix into her tail and she blissfully stretched her upper lip out higher and higher. I could just hear the ‘AHHHHH’ coming slowly out of her breath.

To Tulip’s disappointment, I finished her tail and started working on her mane. Ah yes folks, we have grown about 6 inches of mane over the winter. So I explained to her we needed another 4-5 inches by Congress, so please don’t tick anyone off that might want to chew your mane off this year—and I looked sternly at Opal as I said it!

Tulip didn’t appreciate her mane being done as much as her tail, so she fussed some, but we got it done.

So what was the point of this blog??? None really, just that it was a great evening out in the barn, making ponies blissfully happy (and myself, i secretly enjoy doing it!)

2 comments:

Boogie said...

Awwww, that is too cute. Tulip is such a riot!

muffntuf said...

She definitely was riot last night. I almost split a gut when she kept backing up to where I was a lifting her tail to see if she could get it over the wall for me to brush.