A new brand

Yesterday on our little ride I saw a blond woman on a big flashy chestnut making her way quickly down the hill. I decided to stalk her. I like to follow people stealthily in the woods, it's a game I play. If the horse notices us, we lose. As long as we're just out of sight, usually not even the horse will notice us.

This time the lady let us catch her. Her horse was doing an impressive sidepass, refusing to go any further. I was leading Baasha, cuz it was rocky. The lady started talking to me rapidly, I have no idea what she was talking about, but finally caught on that she needed to follow me a bit, cuz her horse was afraid. I asked, "What's he afraid of?" and she said, "Everything. He's a Turnier Pferd (jumping/dressage horse). He doesn't get out much, and he's only 5." I could see that, his big eyes were bulging out of his head. He had draw reins he was pulling against, trying to get his head up so he could see around him. His veins were all sticking out, and he had no winter coat at all. No clip, just no coat. He wore a cozy-looking blue quarter sheet, which the woman had over her legs.

"What kind of a horse is he?" I asked.

"A Holsteiner." Hm.

I told him, "It's not so bad out here, is it? It's ok!" trying to be friendly.

She saw Desitin on Baasha's heels and started telling me her preferred treatment methods, but I have a hard time understanding the names of medicines which I've never heard of.

Eventually they went their own way, I hope they made it home. That was one of the fanciest horses I've ever encountered here. He was huge, but his head was so small and fine. I wonder if that is typical for his breed. (The picture is the Holsteiner breed brand - a new one for me!)

At home I noticed hair falling off Baasha's pasterns - up high on the fetlock joint, not down where I've been cleaning and medicating. I felt the dreaded little bumps that signal new scratches and I kind of panicked. I don't know what to do about treating that, cuz his fetlocks are covered in long hair and I don't have clippers. I sprayed salt water on the skin there as best I could, but there is no way to get Desitin or Neosporin up there. I'm worried because I know if this gets any worse, he's gonna have to come out of the mud. And there is no "out of the mud" for him, except into a stall in the barn, or perhaps one of the fields, which are closed for the season. I don't want to have to move him to another facility altogether, just because of this, but I can't win a fight against scratches when he's standing in mud up over his fetlocks all day. The little tent+pen we built for him this summer is mud free, but it's in the middle of the mud swamp. Hm. Hopefully it won't get any worse, or the ground will freeze solid soon.