So as any of my long time readers know, I LOVE having a clean horse. The first bath of the year is a holiday in my world! Last weekend it was warm enough to FINALLY scrub my dirty pony down and make him look white again! I cannot even tell you how happy I am when I get Gen all clean. It is almost like I forget how handsome he is when he is hiding under all that dirt! And for those of you new to my blog Gen HATES getting a bath. It is always entertaining to watch him turn into a kicking monster while I am singing and dancing around him in joy. I cannot help but torture him because the feeling of satisfaction is so strong as I watch the icky brown water slide off his coat.
Ewwww…please take note of the yellow tail. When Gen was my show pony he would get his tail cleaned at least once a month all winter. It took some dedication to plunge my hands (and his tail) in an icy cold bucket when it was 30 degrees outside! This year I only washed his tail once all winter! I am sure I will pay for that with a nice yellow tint in his tail until August. Man my horse knows how to get himself gross!
This is a picture of him soaking wet post bath. Notice the worried “I am being tortured and need to be rescued” eye? He was by far the best behaved he has EVER been for a bath! He only kicked out a dozen times and was just much easier to work around. My little drama loving pony was so good he got about 10 of the treats that the Young Rider made for him before getting to hand graze while he dried.
I love a good after photo! He is just so much whiter I love it! And he should feel extra lucky about getting a bath because every single person who saw him nice and clean all said he look thin so Gen is getting a nice little up bump in his food much to my dismay (I think he looks PERFECT the way he is…but I was overuled 3 to 1). Who knew that dirt could ad on pounds? Maybe that is why he was so good when getting his bath. He wanted to show off his model thin figure 😛
So like clockwork every year after the first bath I let Gen out and he happily takes off as soon as I unclip the lead rope so he can find a good spot to roll. I brought my camera with me to turn him out expecting his normal shannagans. This year he must have known how good he looked because not only did he not roll right away…Gen didn’t roll for 24 hours! That is a total record as far as my horse is concerned! He normally rolls at least twice, and often 3 times in a single day. Clearly he is trying to impress all the lovely mares at the barn 😛 Did I mention that it kills me that I own a gray most of the time? The only time I am proud of his color is when he is all clean looking…which is yet another reason to love the first bath of the year!
A Horse and a Half 
He looks very handsome. I love a clean horse. I’m surprised he didn’t roll right away all of mine do the minute they get released from the torture of a bath.
He looks great! And you got the tail clean! I don’t see any yellow! I learned a trick! Use Ivory soap and it gets the white really while without much effort! I need to give my pony a bath this weekend. I just hate doing it without warm water. He hates the cold well water!
Skinny? I think he looks great! I washed my girls last weekend too. I love clean dappled horses! 🙂
Lovin’ that clean horse….I’m the same about super clean animals. But after two grays, I’m loving my bays….although Rafi is Miss Piggy personified!I could show bathe her everyday!!! I keep trying to buy a horse with zero white….The Christmas horse has white socks…not too bad….
He looks so handsome – love that last picture.
My horse desperately needs a bath too. His whole body is yellow-ish/brown-ish instead of white/roan-ish. (We have good mud here!)
Oh Gen, what a handsome man! Good job on the bath, he is GLEAMING white in front of the yellow bushes.
He seems to be a good weight to me too, especially healing but I guess with older horses a little cushion weight never hurts.
Do u ivory for his tail? Do u think you’ll ever hop back on for a walk around?
xo
Handsome boy!
Awesome lookin’ horse. I’ll wash mine once I get my wash rack set up 🙂
So handsome! He looks great — what a relief that first bath is. I can’t wait to bathe Rev for the first time this year; it hasn’t been warm enough yet.
To your comment and question: thanks! We got a 55 our first time on Training 1. Not great, but not terrible either. We had some good moments and some really bad ones. She stumbled on the first canter depart, and I had to reorganize and pick it up between A and F, rather than K and A. There was a horse-eating something round about F, too, so our circle wasn’t all the way to the edge. But overall, I was satisfied, and I’m looking forward to improving!