Southern Snow!

Found on Facebook... This is roughly one block from my apartment.  Total driving fail.  This seems to happen a lot when it snows in Knoxville, which is why I stay off the roads.

Needless to say, I did not make it out to the barn today.  Luckily, the lovely E, who is a fellow law-student and boarder, was up at the barn with her truck at 9AM to meet the vet, who was going to give Dee and her boy Patrone their spring shots.  I was going to have to go up this afternoon, and after looking at the weather, I texted and asked her if she would be kind enough to check Dee's rugs and give her some lovin' from me.

I did get to go up yesterday, though.  It was pretty cold, so Dee just toodled around on the lunge a little bit, trotting poles and stretching her legs.  All in all a good day for her.  Love my girl.

"OMNOMNOMNOM These leaves are delicious!"

Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Poor Dee.  I don't have body clippers, but she is such a fuzz-monster that she sweats like a pig every time I work her and I couldn't stand it anymore... So, I gave her a little haircut.  With regular handheld clippers.  And it looks... ehm... not great.  First of all, I can't do lines to save my life.  That said, I saw this picture on Tamarack's Facebook page and thought "Hey, I can maybe do that!":

I liked it because it wouldn't involve TOO much in the way of making straight lines, and heck, if I messed up the lines on her withers, they would be covered with the saddle pad or her blanket.  Unfortunately even with good body clippers my skills are only so-so.  I did a nice job on Sitka when we went to Florida, but it's been years, and that was with heavy-duty high-end clippers.  The ones I used on Dee are meant for dogs.

I figure the lines will be less noticeable in a week or so:

"What have you done?  I hate you."

Serrrrrious hack job.

But it was a success in terms of her not being a sweat-monster!

On the bright side, she was a VERY good girl for her hack job clip.

To The Fruit Wizards Of Donnington

Dee got a massage today.  She spent most of the hour making faces, trying to put anything within reach in her mouth, and just generally being a busy-body.  When I threw her on the lunge after, though, she seemed much more relaxed throughout her body than she has been.  

Reunited and it feels so good.

I'm finally back in Knoxville after a [way too long] visit to CT for the holidays.  So of course, I rushed up to the barn to see Dee.  I waited until about 10:30 to leave, figuring that would give her a few hours with her friends before I disturbed her.  Unfortunately, when I got to the barn at 11, the horses were JUST being turned out.  Luckily (or, from Dee's perspective, unluckily), she was not out yet, so I didn't have to deal with the fact that she would be incredibly angry at me for grabbing her right after she got turned out (and let's be real, she probably wouldn't have let me catch her).
Since she's been on vacation for awhile thanks to me school schedule, the plan is to get her legged back up for a week or two before I really start riding again.  That means lots of in-hand walk work and trotting on the lunge.  She was... marginally well-behaved yesterday.  It took awhile to get her listening and settled in the trot work, because what she wanted to do was fall into the circle, get on two wheels, and bolt in a fit of bucks and leaps.  I was able to keep that to a minimum though, and by the time we changed directions she was mostly listening to me--with some eye-rolling and giraffe-impersonating thrown in for good measure.

Looking very proud of herself.

Back in the barn, she promptly started throwing a pawing tantrum whenever I walked away from her (she knows better when I'm working on her), because she wanted to go out.  If she could talk, I'm pretty sure the dialogue would have been something like "You are the worst mother ever and I hate you and I want to see my friends."  I imagine there would have been some expletives thrown in, too.

Notice the wide-open mouth... Very classy.

On the way out to the pasture we had to have a bit of discussion about not being a disrespectful cow, since she suddenly decided that she didn't need manners and could just barge ahead to the gate.  False.  Once she was back to acting like a lady, I released her back into the "wild" and she never looked back. I could really feel the love.