Pony Grooming

Yesterday I decided that I would pull Tommy and Skippy out of their pen into their "day" pen by the barn. Their "night" pen is really mushy with the ice starting to finally thaw in their pen. So I haltered them up in the dark and walked them over to their pens. Skippy is always right there and lately Tommy is learning that he can be right by me too. He's so timid.


They looked like such wooly mammoths when I got home that I wanted to try and help them shed out. So I again haltered them up and tied them to the fence. Neither were too impressed with having to stand there.


Skippy tolerated the grooming pretty well. He actually leaned into the brush when I was working on his neck. It's so hard to groom him since he's so low to the ground. I need to measure him. I think he's actually a miniature horse/pony rather than a shetland like Tommy.

When I started grooming Tommy, he got a little irritated with me. He's really not too comfortable with me handling him all that much. Every time he started to get overly uncomfortable with me he started to paw the ground. I took that as my cue to move on to a different spot. He still needed a ton more grooming/deshedding but I stopped after only a short while.

This morning when I went out to put them in their "day" pen, Tommy decided that he didn't want to have anything to do with me. Skippy was sort of the same way. Both were a little standoffish. But I wasn't going to wrestle with hauling hay over to the "night" pen when I had everything set up already in the other pen. I didn't really have to chase after either of them but you could tell they were both disgusted with me.

Well ponies, you'll have to get over it. Because I like to handle all the horses and groom them down. You all should look pretty.

I need to start messing a bit more with Rain. He's been off for the past week or so. He seems a bit depressed. Maybe tomorrow morning I can pull him out of the big herd and ride him around the yard. Maybe Rain is getting cabin fever too.

Bob isn't as depressed as last year but having even one horse depressed really upsets me. I may need to do some extra fencing and separate the main herd for a little while. I sure wish the grass would start growing and the horses could be out enjoying the lush pasture instead of standing in the pens munching on hay. The main herd is starting to waste the hay too. I think they are getting sick of it. Problem is, I just wrote the big fat check to pay for this past year's hay. Ouch!

If those boys are going to be picky I'll cut back on the hay so they'll appreciate what they get. I'm currently feeding them high quality, top of the line hay that the dairy farmers normally get. Good thing I have "an in" with my hay guy. ;-)

The pics of Tommy and Skippy are from the very first day they arrived at Borderlands. I need to get some new pics with them all groomed down.