It was cold, I know most of my postings have been starting out that way. Winter in Maryland, go figure. I headed down to see the girls thinking maybe, just maybe I could get in a ride if the footing in the ring wasn’t frozen. When I went down to the field, Jezebel was napping in the round bale. Not by the round bale but in the round bale. Jes who lives in the stall across from her was standing guard. I love how they do that. I approached thinking Jezebel would get up. Nope. She opened her eyes saw me and decided that maybe she should have a hay snack while she was laying down. Okay then. I walked up to her and she nosed me looking for carrots. I always have something in my pocket when I go into the field. I fed her carrots in between her taking bites of hay as she just lay there in the middle of the round bale. I was so touched by her trust of me. Her acceptance that we could hang out in the round bale together. After a little bit I put her halter on her, she just kept munching hay. I let her and told her “whenever your ready miss we will go to the barn”. She just wanted to hang out which we did for a good 10 more minutes until she was ready and stood up and walked with me up the drive way to the barn. I chucked her into her stall with a flake of hay and made my way to the ring to see if the ground under the thin layer of snow and patchy ice was frozen. It wasn’t. I walked around a lot to see how slippery it was and if the ice crunched under my feet or if i slid around. It was dicey in some places but it wasn’t as horrible as i thought it might be. I decided that maybe i would give it a try.
Before I could tack up Jez I got distracted by a vet who was there to pull my farm owners new quarter horse Diva’s wolf teeth. I’ve ridden Diva and she has a terrible head tossing habit likely because she has big points and both her wolf teeth we came to realize. I’d never seen wolf teeth pulled before so I stayed to watch. I love hanging out whenever any vet is on property because I always learn something, always. Diva was a champ and the vet thought maybe the 12 year old had never had her teeth floated before. She did quite a bit on her but she will need to be rechecked in 6 months. Then I heard the tractor. Damn! They were moving the composted manure, and the mini horses pen was the access path so the minis were put into the ring. I missed my riding window! That will teach me to hang out and watch tooth extractions! So I decided to spend some quality non riding time with Jez, try her new blanket on her and give her a mash.
The mash is the tropical twist flavor. Its got bananas and raisins in it. I mixed it up with very hot water and let it set while i tried Jez’s new see it from space pink blanket on her. She looked adorable but man does she hate the blanket. Rather she hates when you put a blanket on her. This one is a little higher on the shoulder then her last one and she sure lets you know her thoughts on feeling more constricted. Air biting me, ugly mare face they both came out in spades! I however won and the blanket was put on and once it was in place she was just dandy with it. It looks great on her, a little warmer then the other with 250 grams of fill, hot pink and band spanking new. Im sure it wont be long before its half mud colored. I brought Jez out of her stall and gave her the warm mash. Id never given her a mash before and man o’ man she loved it. She started off by eating all the bananas and raisins out of the mash first. Of course she did! Then she went back and ate the rest licking her feed bowl clean. I made the right choice on that one. I bought a big tub of the mash mix so Miss Cirie will get her mash along with some special barn time in the next few days. Because i don’t just have one spoiled pampered OTTB, I have two.
