Thursday, February 11, 2016

I've owned you how long?

I bought Tango August of 2014 - so I've had him well over a year now. In that year, he has never been a fan of brushing. Or scratches unless given exactly as he dictates.

Whatever, I've known plenty of thoroughbreds or similarly sensitive horses that simply aren't a huge fan of the grooming process.

I had written it off.

Until one day I was super limited on time and he was my last horse of the day and I just took him up to the arena to longe him without (gasp) grooming beforehand.

I reel him in when my phone rings after he'd been trotting around and over poles for a few minutes. He's a little warm, but certainly not remotely approaching sweaty.

Absently, while catching up with my mom, I start scratching him.






He indicated that he was enjoying being vigorously scratched.

Perplexed, I repeated the experiment the following day. It appears that if lightly lunged before grooming, this horse THOROUGHLY loves a good grooming with scratchy curries and soft dandy brushes. Whodathunk. Any theories as to why that might be?
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4 comments:

  1. emmaFebruary 11, 2016 at 8:33 AM

    so when i started with my mare she was kinda a wreck. brushing, tacking up.. hell, even just tying in the aisle was not really pleasant for either of us. she'd dance around and i'd get frustrated and we'd end up super irritated before the ride even started.

    so i changed up the routine to essentially getting into the saddle asap and not dawdling in a situation where my mare was not likely to be very successfully behaved (while not rushing tho - no rushy the princess!), skipping all but the most rudimentary of grooming tasks until post-ride. bc i found out that post-ride, she was a completely different creature. all her nervous energy and anticipation of what doom might befall her during our ride had dissipated and she could relax and just chill and enjoy the attention. even now, she's still much quieter post-ride (and i'm talking about wearing her out either)

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    Replies
    1. emmaFebruary 11, 2016 at 8:34 AM

      *not talking about wearing her out haha

      Delete
    2. KateFebruary 11, 2016 at 11:19 AM

      Ahhhh that's a good thought, I wonder if we keep this habit for too long he'll realize that the bulk of the ride is yet to come... I'd thought maybe his skin was a little less sensitive with more blood in it or something, but it could be a mental thing too.

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