So today I met up with an online friend who wanted to meet Solomon. That went okay, I suppose, if one bears in mind that an animal will often not show off that cool trick he does with you every single time if you actually try to show it off.
I was going to tack him up and ride him to show her how he did under the saddle. He opened his mouth dutifully and took the bit with no problem, but the pieces that hold the bit were too long, and I spent too long fiddling with the throatlatch bit so he spat it out and refused to take it again. Fail. Well, that's okay.
I took him out to the arena, but he wouldn't do the leading without a lead line thing, prolly because he knew she had CARROTS, and well, CARROTS, you know. And NEW PEOPLE!
Solomon almost got in a fight with Hollywood too. The lady looked at me annoyed but I think she tied Hollywood after I tied Solomon, though I'm not 100% sure on that. :p
After the friend left, Solomon did the leading by sticking his whiskers against my hand thing. We went all around the arena, did figure eights and stuff too. Attempts at longeing were a complete fail though.
Here's Solomon following me while lightly brushing his whiskers up against my hand.
This is Solomon's "worried" eye. I had the lunge whip in my hand. He is still sure I'm going to beat the hell out of him with it, I think. Eventually he'll figure out that I won't.
See these ponies here? They are escape artists. The place is falling apart, so it's a little easier for them to escape. The first time the barn owner caught them. The second time, I caught them, but they had gotten to the fermenting apples before I could. I wonder if they got a little tipsy? :(
I ended up sticking them in Solomon's stall until to BO could find a pony-proof spot to stick them. Ponies are smart and a little bit evil and I think they're awesome. I'm not sure what it is with me liking horses that are jerks, but I do. The white one tried to threaten to bite me, but when I didn't act scared it gave up. Not sure if it was a he or a she.
The one-eyed chestnut mare was in heat, squealing and presenting, squatting and peeing and all that at Solomon. Sol did not show the least bit of interest, heh.
Since it took a while for the BO to find pony accommodations, and since there weren't any kids around, I decided that today was the day. The day to do... that. Sheath cleaning. The responsibility of every male horse owner. Ya know, I wanted to bond with Solomon, but not really like this. Still, it needed to be done, and I'm not sure he'd EVER had it done before. The BO said that she hadn't seen it done in all the time she'd known him.
So. I put on my shoulder-length gloves, got my bucket, sponge, and bottle of excalibur, squared my shoulders, and went to work.
It... it was really filthy up in there. The first time I touched him he went "WTF?" and pawed the ground with his back feet. After that it was easier though.
I was unable to get the bean. He would drop when I stuck the sponge up in the sheath part, and I managed to get the bits of crud, hay, and shavings off his little mister happy, but every time I tried to get up in there to get the bean he'd retract again. It was like a yo-yo... down, up, down up, down, up. It occurred to me that he seemed to kind of enjoy the outer cleaning part of it. Eek. Did make it a little easier though. I told him "no happy endings."
But aside from the bean that's probably there, he's clean now! I'm sure it feels a lot better now. Poor baby, it was really bad. :(
Anyone here know how to best get the bean out? He really wasn't having any of it when I tried.
2 comments:
Ponies rock. I love ponies. I wish I were small.
So, the bean. In my experience, the sponge is useless. It's all about the hands, if you know what I mean :)
Hehe yeah, well I used a combination of both. The sponge was good for getting the filth out, but the hand was better for the more uh, delicate work. :o He wouldn't even let me get a pinky in there though.
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