Thursday, March 15, 2012

Clean white horses are a freak of nature

When the boys have to stay up in the barn because of rain, I try to get them out every day for at least a little exercise. If it's too wet for turnout, it's also too wet to go on the trails or to the grass arena, so we're limited to walking up and down the street.

The most expedient way to exercise the boys is to ride one and pony another one. I only pony one at a time because I'm not talented enough to control more than one, plus there's traffic on our street and I want to be sure we can squish over to the side of the road to get out of the way.

So the question then becomes, who do I ride and who do I pony? To be honest, I usually pick whichever horse is cleanest, since less grooming time means more riding time. I'm pretty sure that Cash knows this, so he makes sure to never be clean. He makes the most of any chance to roll, and he often has extra opportunities that the others don't get - since he just stands there and grazes (instead of running around like the others), I sometimes let him out in a pasture when it's still quite wet.

Cash explains how to take advantage of any special turnout privileges in a few easy steps:
  
First, choose a nice wet muddy spot to begin your roll, and get the left side dirty. Grind it in really well so you can get chunks of mud stuck in your mane.

If you can, flip over to the other side without getting up. Squirm back and forth while you're upside-down so that you can really get your bum covered in mud.

Thrash around on your right side a bit too. Be sure to coat the saddle area as well as possible.

If you do it right, you'll be able to get parts of your face muddy too. This ensures that your mum can't easily put the bridle on without doing a major grooming effort. She'll also have to spend extra time cleaning your mud-encrusted fly mask, instead of riding.

After you're done with your rolling, there should only be two clean spots left on you: your bum around your tail...

...and your chest. Besides, if you're naturally spotted like me, you won't need extras in these locations.

Cash wants to know if Lilly is taking notes? She's always faaaar too clean...

10 comments:

  1. O M F G that horse! I am speechless.

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    1. If you bring Dixie over here, Cash can show her his technique. She's got lots of white too... just imagine the muddy possibilities!

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  2. Bummer.

    If you squint, you can pretend Cash was born that way!

    We don't have mud here for my grey to decorate himself with, so instead, he sleeps on poo pillows. ;)

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    1. CFS, I'm pretty sure Cash wanted to be a black horse with white spots, instead of a white horse with black spots. This is just his way of evening things out!

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  3. LMAO! He did an outstanding job... mission accomplished! Heh, you should have seen Lilly today. She was so clean that when the sun hit her white coat, I had to squint! She has a reputation to uphold, and a barn full of boys to impress. :)

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  4. And I thought some of the horses at my barn got dirty, wow!

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  5. Don't give my charges any ideas! For some reason they are all incredibly clean considering the mud.
    I guess I just have about 12 grey freaks of nature??

    Cash has a good system working for him there. :P

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    1. Yes, but your horses are technically GRAY. As in, they have black skin. Cash is WHITE, with pink skin.

      I'm suuuure that makes a difference, lol!

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  6. Greta never gets that dirty, she's too girly *knocks on multiple pieces of wood*.

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