Showing posts with label washing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label washing. Show all posts

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Clarke's Corollary

I don't think Clarke had any horses, but if he did he would surely have said:

Any sufficient quantity of dishwashing soap is indistinguishable from magic.

Today it got up around 75 and I scrubbed Dixie's mane and tail. FOUR full scrubbings with a vast amount of Dawn got all the brown gunk out of her mane. Two scrubbings got her tail cleaner, but I need to scrub it again. I'm not as concerned about her tail - I don't feel too guilty washing tails in cold weather.

Dixie's mane was as clean as it'll ever be, but it was still yellowy, so I blue'd it. I put a couple drops of bluing in a gallon of water and dumped it slowly up her neck. That helped, but not quite enough, so I added a good squirt to another gallon and did it again. That got me something like a slightly greenish wet mane, but it dried to a lovely white!

Before (testing spray-on hair color):
IMG_4617

After:
IMG_4627

I also used up the last of her Suave deep conditioner. Only the best household products for my girl. Gotta remember to pick up another bottle.

No full body shots because the rest of her is still utterly filthy - I'm not willing to drench her in cold water this late in the year. Can I actually brush all the dirt out of a thick winter coat, or should I take my life into my hands and try to vacuum her?

Also, yesterday I trained some of the longer bits of my rose bush into the fence. I had these fantasies of covering my chain link fence with a living wall of red roses. Today Dixie shattered those dreams by eating all the rose bits that were poking through the fence. Le sigh.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Leprechaun horse

Had a nice ride again yesterday. Dixie is finally starting to figure out longeing - she doesn't get personally offended when I ask her to w/t/c in a circle on a line anymore, and she rarely freaks out and tries to run away from me.

I rode for just a little while, got her to pick up her head and calmly do some serpentines, then calmly pick up a faster walk, then I tried moving my hands down and out and wiggling the reins and ohmygod, she dropped her head and relaxed. Katphoti, DiJ, it's finally starting to work!

But then the depressing part. Dixie had gleefully laid down in some bright green manure, so I wanted to bathe her and try to get the huge green spots off her butt. She was fantastic in the wash stall - she's finally figured out the water doesn't hurt - but she is not white. :( How am I supposed to get grass/manure stains off of her? What is the Magic Horse Shampoo I'm lacking here?