Yesterday I had another longe lesson, and due to the heavy rain (the Governor declared state of emergency kind of heavy) the horses had not been turned out that day, so they were all a little funny. With Odin that resulted in sideways stepping at the mounting block, and looking at everything in the arena as if he had never seen it before... He really is a very calm horse.
L. noted that I compromised my position quite a bit still when I had a lesson Saturday, so she had me hold the reins on the longe, not using them other that keeping a contact with Odin's mouth. Turns out that make my whole body tense up, so I fall back into my bad habits (leaning forward, clamping with my thighs). Sigh. Well, it was good to get this next step on the way, I think a lot of it is me re-learning how to sit, so I don't do this thing.
Much more longing to come, I suspect.
Odin got (another) clip last Wednesday, because it have been so cold he was getting really furry again, and sweating after just a little bit of trot. He got a nice full body clip again, this time I remembered to tell the clipper to leave both the whiskers and the inside of his ears. The other people of the barn think is quirky, but let me be the quirky European...
The clip revealed that he really has a bit of dandruff here in the winter, his hind quarters were full of white dirt. I don't brush him there always since he hates brushing, but since last night was somewhat warm, I decided to bathe his hind end... Yup, he sure doesn't like someone scrubbing in shampoo either, but he looked a lot nicer afterwards. I think I will have to torture him occasionally, but I don't feel compelled to bathe him all the time...
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Their skin naturally produces more oils on the top of the hindquarters, so they will always be more dirty there than everywhere else, even if you groom every spot equally.
All the horses here have also grown a lot of winter fuzzies compared to normal, many have already been clipped twice (including Barokko), which in other years is really unusual. Definitely not because it's super cold, maybe they know something about the winter ahead of us that we don't???
Yep - don't clip the whiskers! I know it's a fashionable showing thing, but unless you are planning to enter a show horse class it's unnecessary. I like the idea of your horse being fully clipped with fluffy ears - very cute!
Yeah, Echo, here in the US is the norm to clip the whiskers, which I don't get. Horses have them for a reason, and I don't think they can see distances close to their muzzle very well with the eyes on the sides of their head.
Even when I (hopefully) start showing in spring, I will leave the whiskers on... But then you sometimes see it in dressage horses, good thing I have no hunter ambitions.
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