Steve - 2, Horses 0

No kicks today, or yesterday for that matter, despite working with the Herd of Glue more than I ever expected.

Tia left town last night and when I woke up this morning, I had a message that it was supposed to be warm today and she wanted me to remove the blankets from our boarder, Abby. She's a good horse, very calm, a little lame, so that makes it easy to remove stuff from her. It's the other horses that get in the way. Tia actually got kicked last week trying to remove stuff because another horse started acting up.

I didn't do it first thing because I didn't have time when I fed. I dropped hay before taking the kids to school and was on a schedule, so on the way back from my massage, all the horses in the SW pasture, I decided to give it a try.

It's windy today, howling actually, and so I was a little nervous. I stopped the car in the driveway and I pulled out my jacket. I got it on and when I did, I turned to see all 5 horses standing at the fence looking at me. All except for Abby, the one I needed.

Still this was a good time and I thought since it was 50, I should give it a try. Worse case I think she'd be OK since it must be a 20-25mph wind and not exactly warm, but I decided to try.

First I walked over to her, and of course everyone followed. I shooed away Gemini and Nina, who are the two most troublesome. I had to wave my arms and shake my finger, but they backed up. I turned around, felt a light push, and had to turn around again and back Nina up again. It worked OK, and I set about removing the top blanket from Abby. That one went smooth, she stood there calmly, and I managed to pull if off on the windward side easily without freaking her out. I dropped it, and took a deep breath.

It seemed windier, and I had to shoo Nina off again. In fact, I had to do that two more times as I tried to unbuckle this blanket with Nina bothering Abby. She walked forward a few times, and so it was taking longer than expected. Plus I didn't want it to take off. Finally I had things loose and it slipped off the other side before I could grab it, one loop still around Abby's rear hoof. Fortunately none of the other horses were causing trouble, so after two steps, Abby stood there, shaking her rear hoof and I managed to pull off the loop.

Then of course I turned around to see Gemini with the first blanket in his mouth. I waved some arms, yelled at him including a couple choice 4 letter words and he must have been upset since he started to run away with the blanket. A couple more yells and quick steps got him to drop the blankets and I picked them up and got back in the car.

Quite a horse day for me.