First Bath

We've been having some beautiful weather here but I have a strict "no bathing until it reaches 70 degrees" policy.  Some do it when it's cooler than that but I don't have heated water so it has to be warm enough to dry them with the horses getting chilled.  So this past weekend we finally had our chance!  It was a beautiful 75 and sunny so little Miss Melody got to learn how to take a bath like a good girl.

Hubby helped me with the bath.  I held her and he sprayed her.  He started at her front feet and slowly worked his way up her legs.  She stood there, didn't move.  He moved up to her shoulder and onto her neck.  Again she just stood there.  Her eyes were started to get a little big but she didn't budge.  When hubby moved the water to her back she dropped her back so low that I thought she would scoot forward but she didn't.  She only took a small step to the side.  I was expecting a huge fight from her but at that point she wasn't too worried.  Licking her lips and chewing the whole time!

Hubby moved on to spraying her butt and that's when she started dancing.  She wasn't pushy towards me at all - only danced from side to side.  So I would lead her forward and bring her back to the hose.  (On a side note, we don't have a wash stall.  We just bring the hose outside of the barn and spray where ever it's convenient.  Someday I will have a proper wash stall but it's not high on the priority list right now.)  Then it was time for the other side.  I might as well say "see above" for how it went.  I was beginning to think that this was all it was going to be - which wasn't bad at all!  We raised a colt several years ago that tried to kill hubby during his first bath so I always have that in the back of my mind during the "first bath" experience.  I will never forget that colt!  Anyways, just as we were about to call it quits, Melody wasn't amused anymore and decided it was time to leave.  She reared up and started falling backwards, twisting the lead rope around her neck in the process somehow.  Hubby jumped in helped me get her lead rope from around her neck.  At that point he took her and lead her around to get her nerves settled.  This time we switched roles and I was the sprayer.  We started over at her front feet and moved the same was as before, but this time with breaks when she was being a good girl.  We were able to get her sprayed down all over without another freak out so we called it a day with that.  We didn't really "wash" her but got done what we had set out to do, and that was get her used to being sprayed.  We will try again next time we have a 70+ day.

Overall, I think she did amazing!  Her intelligence and trust in us is very evident when we try new things.  She's gonna be a great little mare!

Until next time!


Quote for the day:
"Question everything.  Learn something.  Answer nothing."

-Euripides