It rained all night last night – not complaining, this is California after all…
When I emerged to feed this morning – remember, I spent all Spring and Summer working for and erecting lovely shelters – I had 9 mudballs, instead of 9 horses.
Why do they do this?!
Usually, I find that they are more prone to mudballness after the initial rains of the season. If it is a plague of rain or Noah Epic rain, they usually take cover – eventually. But for the first few downpours, they all stand in it, lay in it, look up and marvel in it…
On a side note, ‘horses marveling in the rain’ always reminds me of when I had newly rescued Sam. She had been rounded up in Nevada and probably hadn’t felt rain for a very long time. So, during the first downpours in Grass Valley, Sam stood out in the rain with her head raised – as if she was at a spa. She loved the rain that day and no amount of coaxing or cookies could bring her in. As the years went on, she was totally normal about rain. But that first time, she reveled!
OK, back to my mudballs.
As we all know, the earth here at the new place is clay and sand. Very slippery. So my guys all look like they’ve just emerged from a potter’s wheel. Or maybe they look like artists’ sculptures before they are turned to bronze.
BEHOLD – THE CLAY HORSES!
This is Dodger and he doesn’t look totally caked in mud… but that was because I saw him first and I always make sure he has no mud on his back so that he will never be chilled. Dodger is in his mid 30s… But as I was running my fingers through his coat, I noticed that they were ALL claybots. So I got my camera.
Here is Finn, purposefully standing OUTSIDE of his shelter… after rolling around in the mud. You can see where I rubbed on his back.
This is Missy Miss …
Yep… Annie has 2 shelters in her paddock.
Wrigley must have rolled around in the mud because his hair is all matted on top.
Gwen was a bit more gentle about it… only one side was caked. Her mane is going to be awful to fix. Arrgh.
I GAVE THEM ALL BUCKETS AND WENT BACK INSIDE…
As you can see, they were all eating when I took these photos. It was also raining. Everyone had their buckets full of goodness and I ran back inside.
Missy Miss looked up just as I was taking this pic.
ENJOY YOUR WEATHER, WHATEVER IT IS…
He’s wild… caught in the field. They do the best they can and usually it is really good… Great vets out there who
doctor the wild ones…
Just wondering. I’ve never seen a horse have the type of surgery Grosh had in the dirt.