Winter is slowly loosening its icy grip on us here at Western Pleasure Guest Ranch and I am suffering from some serious cabin fever symptoms. So today, I left the kids with mom for a couple hours so I could go outside for some winter horse therapy.
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| JR = Practically Perfect in Every Way |
Of the many horses here on the ranch, three of them are my very own. I have JR, my 21 year old Quarter Horse who is practically perfect in every way and has been my partner, teacher, student and friend for 17 years. Little Horse is a 15ish year old POA mare and Zeus is her yearling POA/Appaloosa colt.
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| Little Horse = Nervous Nelly |
I headed to the barn and caught Little Horse and JR to groom away some of that winter hair. Little Horse is always a bit of a nervous Nelly when she's tied in the barn, so she danced around while JR stood quietly enjoying the brushing and scratches I was giving him. While some may consider getting covered in pounds of white horse
hair a pain, I consider the time spent in the barn brushing away those winter coats to be very therapeutic.
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| JR Thinks spring is coming! |
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| Little Horse doesn't think spring is coming very soon. |
After JR and Little Horse were brushed out, I turned them back out and got a little show from them and their young pen-mates. Even my gimpy old man got in on the fun.
Then I went and visited Zeus at the little horse barn. A winter of very little attention from me has caused him to be a bit jumpy and stand-offish. He is coming around however as he has discovered that I can scratch and rub away that winter hair in places that he just can't reach to scratch.
It was very refreshing spending an hour with my fuzzy ponies. There is a quote by Winston Churchill which I think is very true: There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man. ~Winston Churchill
