Bath time!

First off, UK would like me to say that I'm a cruel and heartless mommy. I not only forced him to take a bath before he got to go out and play Saturday, but I did the meanest thing to him as well! I WASHED HIS FACE WITH A SPONGE! Oh the horror!

Ok, now then, for my side of the story....

Saturday dawned bright and hot, I had planned on taking an early morning ride after I'd fed the critters. I was forced to rethink my plans however, as I'd woken up with a strange new rash that seemed to get itchier when I got hot (more on that later). So I decided that my mission would be to give my disgusting smelling horse a bath instead. Needless to say he wasn't as excited as I was about getting him clean.

I fed them, chatted with the barn owner's dog sitter, and then started prepping him for his bath. I'd carefully considered Savannah's feelings and made her a small paddock near the bathing area to graze in while I bathed him. Hoping that she wouldn't yell at me for taking him away if she was only 5 feet away.

Then it was bath time! I led both horses out, letting Sav into her grazing area and brought UK over to our very fancy bathing area. The bathing area is the driveway, and there is a tree for tying although it's rarely used (I did use it this time with haystring). Well once he realized what I was doing, he was not pleased at all. Thus began the battle!

In his defense he's pretty good about everything up to half way up his neck. He'll go backwards to test you a few times, but if you stand your ground and don't give in an inch, then he'll pause, give up and walk back towards you (THIS IS THE MAJOR DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MARES AND GELDINGS FYI, as a mare will drag you to hell before she gives in).

So the bath went pretty well, with a couple of silly spooks to try to distract me. However I was determined to wash his face, as it was gross due to daily flymask wearing. So I rinsed him off and filled a strongid bucket (most useful buckets by the way) with water and a small sponge. I proceeded to not give in and just keep at him, never mean, only chastising him when was being rude, and repeating over and over "I'm not going to wash your ears, I promise."

HUZZAH! It took fifteen minutes but I got all the grime off his face with just plain old water and a sponge.

His reward was to get turned out immediately afterwards. So we collected Sav and went back in the barn for flymasks and flyspray.

Normally UK walks calmly out of the barn, but not then! He couldn't get away from me fast enough! So I give him a few minutes, then walked out to the field with some treats as an apology for all the horrible things I'd done to him. I knew how he'd react, so I brought my phone with me. The video is below, the funny breathing noises are me trying not to laugh out loud. I eventually gave in and laughed.