Let The Barbering Begin

Horses of the outside world. “But it made me realize how painful eye injuries can be … . Putting yourself in another creature’s shoes helps you to imagine what they might be experiencing.” The Backyard Horse Blog: Usually, It’s The Horse With The Corneal Scratch . . . I agree. Relatedly, I think sometimes we focus on the specific injury and forget to cut the horse slack. We forget how irritable and uncooperative we can get when we are in pain. Injury affects the entire system, in us and in horses. (The search box tells me this is the fifth time I have cited this blog. Thank you!)

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If it’s spring, it must be time to cut names and tails.

The horses are not going anywhere, They don’t need fancy show trims. Manes and tails were cropped strictly as a tick prevention measure. Keeping the hair off the ground takes away the tick ladder.

Rodney’s Tail Remnants

Milton’s Tail Remnants

Milton’s Mane Remnants

Milton’s Mane Before

One doesn’t think of ticks crawling up the mane, until one thinks about horses with their heads down to graze.

Milton’s Mane After.

It’s fluffed up a bit since and doesn’t look quite so bowl cut.

Milton’s Forehead. Getting in touch with his Inner Saddlebro.

BSF, Milton likes to stick his head into all kinds of places, is really bad about getting ticks, and is even worse about letting us get them out of his ears. No touchy! No touchy!

Didn’t have the heart to cut off Rodney’s Fabio mane. He’s not the tick magnet that Milton is, at least not on his head and neck. Plus he’s better about letting us near his ears. We’ll wait to see how the summer goes.

I did, once again, send pics to Coach Courtney. She’d be disappointed if I didn’t. 🤣

For those who are not up on the joke, Saddlebreds are kept with long, flowing manes and tails. This level of tonsorial butchery is anathema. OTOH, they do shave the forelocks. It looks very odd on a Thouroughbred.

Previous hair-cuttery [Mane and Tail Time, 2023, looks like I skipped 2024]

Onwards!
Katherine