Val's "training session" consisted of ground manners 101 and he showed a HUGE improvement. 180 degree turnaround. He seems MUCH more settled in his new environment now and is handling haltering and leading much better. He stays out of your space (most of the time) and I just need to convince him that when we're haltering him I SWEAR we're not trying to give his itchy, hairy ears a bunch of nice scritchies!
He was a complete angel tonight, standing in the wash stall cross ties for an hour getting unbraided and rebraided while mares got walked right in front of his nose. He didn't even blink. Stood like a champ, even as I was washing his mane, rinsing it by throwing buckets of water on it (so I didn't spray him in the face when I was doing his forelock), conditioning it, and then BLOW DRYING it. Yup, you heard that right. I was dying laughing as, just like at the Hair Cuttery, I'm there giving him a rinse and a blow dry. Never done this before, but he took it like a champ. Brianne was there and helped scrape the dried mud off the REST of him while I did the hair styling. I wrap braids up with vetwrap to keep them clean, and I got 3 braids done in the hour he was worked on. Pictures of some of the process are below.
Val doing his best Fabio impression......
He was so patient as I carefully sorted through his forelock and dried it. We kept calling him "Cousin It" during his hairstyling.
3 comments:
Val loves a bath as long as its warm water. He'll dance a bit with the cold. I am so glad he's coming around...so much to learn. Thank you for taking care of his locks!
I imagine he's shedding like crazy and itchy right now! I am amazed at how well you have come to know him in such a short time. Bravo!
Fran
Oh, gosh.... *LOL* I hate to break it to you, but Val stood there like a champ because this is exactly the type of treatment he's used to at home. Didn't Fran tell you she runs an Ultra Exclusive Luxury Spa for Horses??? When I die, I want to come back as her horse. ;-) I'm afraid to take my horses (who get bathed in nasty old cold water) over to her house for fear they will run away from home!!
Actually, even spoiled Val is getting used to standing rock solid for cold water. We have a HOTT wash for cold weather and bucket water heaters, but it was nice enough temps out to use cold. He danced around on Day 1, but after that he's been fine. Even stopped his ever-so-fun demonstration of Spanish Walk that he does when you get his feathers wet. I got SOAKED standing in front of him while he waved that furry paw at me, flicking me with water. He learned "no!" quickly after that LOL!
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