De-worming Day

Had a PERFECT weekend for working with the horses, but I was locked up inside working at a gymnastics meet. Sunday was finally a day off and it was also time to get all the horses dewormed. In addition we got a new border - a chestnut thoroughbred gelding named Rein (1st photo) and all the horses were all wound up vying for his attention and to see who could stay above him in the pecking order. I have him in the adjacent pasture so they can get acquainted over the fence for a few days before putting them all together in the same pature.

Anyway, since they were all a complete mess (snow melting, lots of mud, plus shedding), I spent 2 1/2 hours out there -- about a half hour with each of them. For each of them I gave them their worming paste, some oats and then spent the rest of the time grooming. MAN was there a LOT of hair flying around! And it all seemed to want to stick to me! I used the shedding blade most of the time along with brushes and then picked out everyone's feet as well. They all stood quite nicely for me while I grooomed them -- everyone but Indy. Indy just kept walking into me. Took me a bit of time to get her to respect my space and keep her feet still. Lots of blocking and yoyo-ing her away from me. Skittles was the best for me -- she practically fell asleep while I was brushing her. Looked like she was really enjoying it. She started out flying around me on the lead since Rein was galloping up and down the fenceline in the other pasture making all kinds of fuss. But eventually Skittles settled and decided he wasn't worth worrying about. My daughter and nephew were also driving around in a little electric jeep which I thought would freak her out, but didn't. Again, very impressed by my little Skittles.

Gypsy was the last horse I caught -- mainly because she stayed at the other end of the pasture, not interested at all in being caught (but LOTS more interested in the handsome gelding across the fence!). However, once all the other horses were out of the pasture and she was alone, she figured being caught wasn't so terrible. I waited by the gate until she approached and then came up to her with the halter, then waited until she brought her head in close before putting the halter on her. She's never been very good at taking the worming paste, so I squirted some on a couple of cookies which she took, although wasn't pleased about the taste. So I mixed the rest in her oats, and carried on grooming her like the rest.

They all looked almost pretty once I was done with them (photo 2 shows Skittles, Indy and Yarrow and photo 3 of Gypsy)... at least until they - one by one - got down and rolled in the mud again. Sigh...

No Parelli work today ... except for porcupining Jake and Gypsy to move them away from the fence while putting the halters on, yoyo-ing and blocking Yarrow and Indy from getting on top of me and yielding Skittles hind end away from me while she was trotting around on the lead.

But they all got the royal treatment and seemed to have smiles on their faces after being groomed.