Sweet Wild Syringa

bobm

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How often should horses be bathed ?
Depends on the type of horse, what work it does, and the ownership / trainer, etc. Show horses... every day using shampoos and skin conditioners. Working horses after a hard workout. Pleasure riding horses, as needed if very sweaty , horse crazy little girls... after every time they ride. Broodmares, maybe once a year or longer. They get a good shower standing in the pasture when it rains. Very similar to dogs.
 

thistlebloom

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Personally I don't bathe mine a lot. They get the sweat hosed off after a good workout, which could be daily during the summer. But I only get them soapy and sudsy maybe twice during sweaty riding season. I may give a mane and tail shampoo more often, but a good thorough brushing and rinsing the sweat off with plain water keeps mine shiny.
 

thistlebloom

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It's now been a little over 5 weeks since I brought Syringa home. I haven't always been able to take her out and actually work with her every day, but I make sure that every day I go in her pen and touch her.

I don't rush this, I go in and stand by the gate a moment or two and observe her. Some days she turns toward me and after some consideration of me will walk up an arms length away. I try to respect that she is new to all this interaction and just take some time to be quiet in each others space.

She seems reassured by my politeness and will then let me rub her forehead and work down her neck and barrel, eventually I rub her legs down to her hooves, and back toward her head. When I am done I stand still next to her, facing the direction she is, or turned slightly away to give her some relief of feeling pressured by my presence.
She will often sigh deeply, and I will let myself out and go get everyone's hay.

This girl loves to eat too! She recognizes me as the food lady and will let out a whinny in the morning when she sees me moving around in the kitchen.
Actually, anytime she's out of hay and sees me she will let out a call for room service.

One night a few weeks ago, 3 a.m. to be exact, she whinnied and I woke up. I lay there listening and she whinnied again. I didn't hear any dogs barking or other sounds of disturbance, but I got up to check things out. I shined my flashlight around but the other two horses were just dozing, the neighborhood was still... I turned to go back in and she whinnied once more. I figured she was telling me to load up her feeder again since she had licked it clean. So thinking I was probably going to regret starting a predawn breakfast habit I threw everybody a little more hay and went to bed. The rest of the night she was quiet.
Anyway, sorry for the ramble, I just thought that was funny.

Now that I have a small roundpen to work her in I have begun a few new things. Today I began an exercise to desensitize her using the lead rope and walking up alongside her and flipping it over her withers. She startled at this like I expected her to and I had to keep up with her moving away from me as I continued lightly flipping the rope over her back. As soon as she stopped and stood I left the rope alone. She caught on pretty quickly that the way to stop me flipping the rope was to stand still. This will need continued refinement, but I was pleased with our progress today.

She is showing greater depths of trust in me daily, and getting used to her new domestic routine.

I am enjoying her immensely and am humbled by her willingness to learn from me.
 
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