Ascension day

Today's a holiday in Germany and it was a blessedly sunny warm day so I spent half the day with Baasha, making him miserable trying to get him clean. The holiday is Ascension day, but translated directly from German it is "Jesus drives to Heaven."


I hate that I could not make noise today - my man tells me that it's not just Sundays that silence is enforced by law, but Holidays. Bummer, the grass just keeps growing around here.

So I washed Baasha's mane and tail and legs (it's not warm enough for a full bath, isn't he glad). Then I had to reapply this oily medicine to his mane that supposedly keeps him from rubbing. So basically I washed out th oil, and then put oil back in. You have to imagine how his mane looks with oil added after he rolls. It's a greasy disgusting mess that I will not take a photo of: )

I also scrubbed his legs and treated them for mites. I hate the insects in this country so much. Ticks, mites, fire ants, horse flies, giant Mai Kaefer,  it's just one thing or another. Today I got stung by nettles on my hand and bit by an ant on my foot at the same time. I was so mad!

I filed his hooves and trimmed his frogs again even though I did it a few days ago. The overpriced natural hoofcare trimmer is coming on Tuesday. She charges a lot, probably due to the amount of advice she gives, cuz she certainly doesn't have anything to rasp when she arrives. She explicitly asked that I not trim for two weeks before her visit. She said it too late.Oh well. I was able to find a different trimmer that will do donkeys and for a reasonable price. Anyway Baasha's hooves are very respectable right now and the tiny cracks in the hind central sulci have neosporin and a small amount of cotton pressed in. The fronts get vinegar as usual. It's been dry a few days so washing his legs first really, really helped with the rasping. Of course having a good hoof jack is indispensable for him because he has a hard time holding up his hooves for me. He can lean all he wants on that thing and I can work without frustration. I'm tempted to try to trim Bellis but really want to see a professional do it first.

I also shaved Baasha's face today - it looks so nice clipped!

He rolled with a vengeance, both sides, as soon as possible, and spent the rest of the day far far away.

I was careful to clean up the poop in the pasture and paddock 24 hours after the last time, so I can count and find out what normal is. 16 piles, and the donkey likes to keep it together, rather than randomly spread like Baasha does. I think she's training Baasha to do this too. Anyway, Before Donkey I had 8 everyday. I guess that means when I find a riding horse someday, I'll have 24. That can add up if you miss a couple days.

We did a geocache on our neighborhood trails tonight at the watershed. It's raining caterpillar poop under the oak trees lately. Have you ever experienced that? I hadn't until Germany. You know it's not raining but you hear droplets falling all around you. Then you see they're tiny black dots. Just don't look up. I don't like going down there cuz it's my horse trail and I have memories of riding there and don't want to be there on foot. All I could think about as I stepped in hoofprints was "How long before I get to ride here again?"

Bellis and Baasha are getting along and there hasn't been any braying this week at all. So nice!

Tomorrow I check out a possible lease horse in Cologne. I'm not too excited, I want to buy a horse, not rent.

If you've read this far I have to include something I read in a German horse magazine last week. It was about equipment and clothing and it said "For large breasted women, use Google and search for American sports bras. America has the best sports bras for larger-sized women." I thought this was interesting because I'd recently done this myself, based one some other bloggers' recommendations. However I was lucky to find a local distributor of Moving Comfort products. So I didn't have to pay 20 Euros shipping from America. It reinforces the truth - Americans are bigger than Germans and German bra manufacturers have it pretty easy.