One of my uncles once made the comment that farming was like trying to dip out the Mississippi River with a tea cup. He was very right. You are never done, you are never caught up, there is always another project, chore, repair job, etc. waiting for you.
I thought I was done for awhile with round two of body clipping last week. I was wrong. I had my eye on Maisie and Lily as they were both growing back hair, but not enough to warrant clipping them again. In my mind I was thinking sometime in August would be the time. This morning as I was doing my check over of the horses in their group as they were eating they both seemed to suddenly have a lot more hair. Just like that my day got a lot longer. In addition to all of my other jobs for the day I added bathing and clipping both Maisie and Lily.
In our seven years together Lily has always disliked having a bath. Her feelings have never moderated on the issue. She used to really dislike clipping as well but her feelings have definitely changed on that topic. Over the last 5-ish years she has become one of my favorite horses to clip because she’s so good about it and because she clearly appreciates you getting the hair off. Maisie is always very sweet about everything, and I love clipping her because you always unveil a gorgeous, rich coat underneath the hair you are clipping off. It’s like watching a transformation while you clip.
To date we’ve now done 23 body clips this year. In the first round of 16 body clips I did 12 and Kate kindly clipped four horses. In round two I’ve clipped 5 and Kate has clipped 2. I know I’m not yet done for the year as I have one resident that always gets his second clip in August, and I have my eye on Cuffie as a possible second clipping candidate as well. We have all of the hair and we like to take it off.
Maisie getting bathed in preparation for clipping
love seeing that shiny coat underneath
halfway done
Lily’s body language says “not happy to be having a bath.” I finally got her to put her ears forward for this picture by bribing her with a treat.
Lily had plenty of hair that needed to go
Lily at the halfway point
Sabrina and Bonnie
Donneur and Gibson
Baner and Havana
Faune and Flyer
Lotus and Cocmo (if you haven’t noticed grooming was the activity of choice the last couple of days)
Happy
Roho, Gus, Toledo and Rubrico
a closer look at Gus and Toledo
Johnny and Ripley
River; the compost pile is always a prime napping spot
Moe, Trigger, Homer and Chance
Rocky and Gus
