Sunday, August 1, 2010

Pretty girl

I got up early Saturday and went for a pretty pleasant ride on Dixie. It took us 27 minutes to make it out of the subdivision - various commonplace sights really spazzed her out - but we made it out and she behaved fine. On the way back home, she clocked her right front with her rear hoof, right above the bulb of her heel. She bobbled once, and that must've been when she whacked it, but afterwards she was rock solid and I didn't know til we got home.

This is the third time in a couple of weeks that she's interfered. I think she's just learning to really stretch her stride out - she was trotting at 11 mph, and pacing downhill at 10 or so - and she's banging herself. But I still don't want her to keep doing it, so I ordered some no-turn bell boots from my local feed store. She's hitting low enough on her foot that I don't think the heel captivators on the Renegades would protect her. Hopefully some time and the bell boots will help her learn how to travel.

After our ride, I gave her a real bath. I scrubbed her mane with tons of purple shampoo and it came out very white and shiny. Look at this glorious mane!

IMG_0794

It's 22 inches long. It's just unbelievable. She has the kind of hair that you only see on Other People's Expensive Horses.

Anyway, I do love her, so after I took pics of her mane I let her roll :)

Clean horse becomes dirty from Funder on Vimeo.



The house is looking good. We got really approved by the underwriters, and it passed the well inspection. A couple more inspections, then we hope everything goes ok at the very last minute. I've heard of too many closing days gone terribly awry to be confident about it. Buuuut I think we really might own our own little suburban farm in less than a month :) Now taking suggestions for witty names - although I think DP's Farcical Farm is probably the best name ever.

10 comments:

  1. Wow, what a beautiful silky mane! My Paj has the same problem with over reaching from time to time, and bell boots do the trick for him. I even turn him out in bell boots.
    Best of luck with the house.

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  2. I always get a laugh after bath time. It takes us 1/2 hour per horse to bath them & about 30 seconds to roll!!

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  3. Ha! Jackson just did the same thing before his new "mommy" got here the other day! But she still loves him, as I'm sure you do Miss Dixie!
    Do you have any trouble with the roots of her white mane looking "greasy" after a while? On Maddie, especially, I just can't seem to get them really clean--they always look oily a few days later.
    Fingers and hooves and paws crossed on the house.

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  4. Same issue with bath time! Never worry about how clean they will stay! Waste of time.

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  5. wow i've never seen a horse get up like that. does she always do that or does she have different styles?

    she's what i call a pantene pro-v commercial.

    ~lytha

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  6. She looks great - before and after bath!

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  7. I've taken pics of every bath I've ever given her, cause I know as soon as I turn her loose she will get filthy again.

    ES, YES! she has this nasty brown stain at the roots of her mane. I think it's like sheep's lanolin - feels sticky like that. Nothing cuts it, not even Dawn dishwashing soap. I just flip it around so it's hidden in pictures ;)

    Lytha, isn't that trippy? She does it every time. If you wake her up peacefully from a nap she'll sit like a dog for several seconds. I think it's totally weird and cute.

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  8. Hahahaha!

    Fiddle does that sit-like-a-dog thing too! In fact, she will sit-like-a-dog in the middle of a good roll: get one side of her body all filthy and horrible, then sit up on her butt and flop down on the other side.

    Dixie is a very pretty girl. Do you need to roll her toes to speed the breakover in front to keep her from interfering? We do that with the shod horses (roll the toe AND the shoe) but I'm not sure if it's the same concept with barefoot--and would the boot negate that anyhow?

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  9. Hahah, another dog-horse! Hifive!

    Her toes are pretty short as is. I've been meaning to take new pics of them - I will get pics and think about shortening them a bit more. Good idea.

    I have been riding barefoot since Moonshine. Every now and then I'll put on boots to see how she goes in them, but her feet are just so nice bare. Except there's nothing covering her heel bulbs, grrrr!

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  10. oh, jealous! Stormy's mane used to be about 24 inches long - now it's just 8 or so. Don't know why - he doesn't rub it, and I certainly never trimmed it...
    : (
    - The Equestrian Vagabond

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