She got crazy zoomies after her bath, rolled in the dirt, and ran around the round pen for a few minutes before she wore herself out. She had a great time and lots of people really liked seeing her enjoying herself like that lol. This pic was taken a few hours later after she dried completely and I did her braids and brushed her.
She got really spicy when I tried to clean one of her back hooves and almost kicked me in the head. I gave her a lil smack on the butt (not hard at all) and yelled at her and she stopped misbehaving and let me clean her hoof. I think she might have a little bit of arthritis in that leg and that's what had her so uncomfortable until I was able to get her foot held and supported properly. If she continues to show that discomfort, I'll get some horse arthritis gel to try out.
Wow I have never given a horse a bath, can't imagine what that is like ๐ we do have a mule who enjoys having his butt washed but that is because of other things going on.
Giving Sandy a bath is different than bathing other horses. Sandy hadn't been bathed in so long, that she forgot what it was like. She developed a fear of the bathing hose and a sponge. I had to slowly introduce her to each over a few sessions over the course of a month, and even with all that, I was consoling and soothing her the whole time.
Her bath wasn't even what I'd consider a complete bath. I used a bucket of soapy water and sponged her off with that as best I could. She moved and danced for a while until she realized that what I was doing wasn't bad and actually felt good. I didn't even try to clean her legs. I only did her body, mane, tail, and teats. Once I used up all the soapy water, I gave her a pep talk on the way to the hose, introduced her to the hose nozzle for the millionth time, and rinsed the suds off over the course of 20 minutes. I had to do it in tiny intervals because she insisted on dancing around nervously after like 10 seconds of the water touching her. Then I had to squeegee the excess water off of her, which was a challenge because she was already wound up and I was coming at her with yet another strange object. I'm hoping I'll be able to hose her down without her dancing and apply soap directly to her someday, but I'm taking what I did as a huge win lol.
Most horses who get bathed regularly just let you get them wet, put soap on them, scrub them with something, and then hose them off. Just like bathing another person, pretty much. Sandy's neglect has led to her not knowing how to handle a lot of things and I'm trying to reintroduce stuff so she can get properly pampered in her last few years.
You treat Sandy well!
I do my very best. Nobody else does anything with her except an old guy who just puts her out to pasture for a bit when he's there to see his horses. I appreciate him letting her out when he does. I can't go out every day, but between the two of us, Sandy gets to leave her stall for a bit almost every day, weather permitting. That alone is so important to her well-being.