Well, the snow melted here today and Zano had a whale of a time, literally! Now, this is a horse who will normally go out of his way to avoid the smallest of puddles in his path. He’s been led through some on the lanes during hacks, but in general he’s always been far from impressed by anything murky and puddle like. But today, he decided that water is good – in fact, he decided that water is AWESOME!
There were lots of puddles on the way to the paddock too. Maybe I should have been warned when he paused, uncharacteristically, to stomp in one. I moved him on then let him loose in his paddock. There was a melted snow mini-lake in the middle of it. I went back into the stables, only to be told by Nicky that Zano was ‘taking a bath’. I headed out to see Zano rolling over and over in the huge puddle. I stood next to him as he proceeded to paw the ground, while lying down! Water was splashing all over the place. He then scrambled up, only to vigorously stomp about, sending water flying everywhere. He turned round a bit, then repeated the exercise until he’d sput a full circle. He clearly then decided that there was yet more fun to be had getting back down for another roll, and another paw from his horizontal position.
At the end of ten minutes water play I had one drenched, heavyweight rug but one very, very pleased with himself and ecstatic horse. It was worth it just to see the delight on his face. The only downside? I didn’t have my camera!!!
I lunged him soon afterwards (he hasn’t been ridden for nearly 3 weeks because of the snow and ice!). When I took his rug off he was soaked and grey / brown with mud from half way up his chest all the way along to his rump. Looks like I’ll have lots of grooming to do later!
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