Garden Hoses 101
Horses in general do not much care for being sprayed with a hose. We spend hours desensitizing our horses so they accept and learn to quietly stand for bathing or hosing off after work sessions. Knowing how much more difficult and potentially dangerous this job can be with a large, frightened animal, I decided that yearling Donnarwind (who is about 1000 pounds and already stands just over 5 feet tall at the withers - that is the place where the neck and back connect in laymen’s terms) had best be introduced to the hose now, before he gets any bigger.
Conveniently, we have a hose running to the pasture that Donnarwind and his friends are in, so step one was simply to walk outside wearing waterproof shoes. I decided to scrub and refill the water tank, and found that DW and friends were quick to investigate my actions. Pasturemate Mirelle (the Draft cross mare) was very, very interested, so I decided to spray her and see how she reacted. Much to my surprise, she loved it! She turned in small, lazy circles as the water cascaded over her back and legs. Having watched his friend with great interest, DW decided to step into the spray himself. His initial reaction was to turn his hind end into the water, then he too decided that it felt quite nice and allowed me to spray him all over (with the exception of his face). Mirelle became jealous and chased DW out of the way so she could put her entire head in the spray while trying to catch water in her big, floppy lips. Brillar and Killarney stayed well out of reach of the spray, as normal horses tend to do.
It may sound like a fairly ridiculous hobby, but I have found myself coming home from work each afternoon eager to water the horses.
Dino Corvino said:
Jesus, that is some amazing writing
July 9th, 2008 at 4:37 pm #
Alex Tallitsch said:
I love this blog.
July 9th, 2008 at 6:55 pm #
Cheryl Mathis said:
Funny, entertaining creatures, always full of surprises.
July 11th, 2008 at 8:13 am #