Thursday, April 28, 2016

Lucky 13

My life continues to be an exploration of horse hair and dirt. Thanks to Kate's help thirteen of the horses have been body clipped. I've clipped 9 and she's graciously clipped four so we've made serious progress. I'm hoping to clip two more tomorrow. Then I'll go in a holding pattern for a week or two with body clipping. I might be done, or there might be 2 or 3 more horses that need to be clipped. The horses in question are teetering on the line of maybe they need to be clipped and maybe they don't, we'll see if they finish shedding or not over the next ten days.

We're also marching through the spring baths. Sometimes it is better described as an excavation of dirt and hair rather than as a bath. Often the same horse gets bathed more than once, along with extensive currying, to get to the bottom of the dirt and hair. Over the last couple of days we've body clipped four more horses and bathed eight.

I woke up last night because I was sure I heard clippers running. Thankfully no one was standing in the bedroom with clippers, so undoubtedly my mind was just replaying the humming noise it has heard for far too many hours over the last two weeks. Here's to reaching the end of the body clipping marathon very soon.

_____________________________

After all these years I finally found the most obvious way to keep Lily occupied during a bath, let her eat. Lily is a gem about being clipped, she's not so fond of baths. 

Lily had plenty of hair but I've clipped much more off of her in other years

Lily in progress

a clipped Lily checking out some of her hair

Maisie had lots of hair

bathing Maisie

the first few strokes

clipped Maisie; there was lots of shine underneath that old winter hair

Lily and Maisie having a post-clip grooming session

Norman and Cuffie having a pre-clip grooming session

Cuffie in progress

Cuffie being very polite for Kate

Clipped Norman; it's a real shame I forgot to take any before or during pictures as Norman won this year for the most hair.

Gus having a bath

Grand having a bath

Miss Lyle and Mina having a very lazy morning

Silver and Flyer

Lofty and Faune

Asterik and George

Cocomo

Rubrico, Toledo and River

Traveller

4 comments:

EvenSong said...

A marathon, indeed!
I have two I'm thinking I'll have to do this year. Been a looong time since I've done a body clip!
Love how Maisie and Lily are still such good buddies after all these years.

Unknown said...

There is a slight chance that I might be a bit prejudiced, but when Grand is cleaned up he is one good looking horse.

lytha said...

Thanks for your answer regarding my clippers - I'm going to try to find a sharpening service in the area, no idea, but now I know.

It's below freezing at night here so I won't be clipping anyone for a while.

Norman looks awesome!

Anonymous said...

Lily and Maisie have been together now, I believe, for about 14 years.

Norm sure looks fine when he's de-haired!