Big bad fly spray

Sam and I paid a quick visit to the pony today. I had two goals in mind for the visit: 1) get some sunscreen on his nose and 2) get some flyspray on him. I also wanted to play with his feet a little to reinforce the positive experience he had with the farrier the week before.

It was a lovely day out and Sam parked himself in a folding chair under the pine trees next to the driveway. Everyone was hanging out in that side paddock enjoying the grass and the buttercups. I had my bag full of grooming stuff and Gobie was pretty nosey about it. I really enjoy it when horses are nosey about stuff--going through bags, sniffing around your pockets and so on. I think it's the mark of a curious and thinking horse.

Gobie sniffed out the sunscreen right away. I remember from first meeting him at HorseNet in September that the white part on his muzzle gets pretty sunburned. It was already getting pink but I thought I'd at least make an attempt to keep it from getting too burned. He didn't mind getting the sunscreen on his nose at all! And comedically he flipped his upper lip in the air at the smell.

I brushed him off a bit and combed his hair. Pretty much all of his winter coat is gone now, leaving him pretty shiney and trim looking.

He was a little paranoid about Sam in his folding chair. Everytime he would shuffle around a bit Gobie would get more alert. I think because Sam was in the shade of the pine tree and he couldn't see him that well.

I picked up and scraped out his feet no problem. They are looking pretty good although the outerwalls are a little dry and cracked looking. I've got some hoof oil that I'll try to use, but I was feeling a bit lazy and didn't want to attempt it the same day as flyspray!


Speaking of that--you'd think I was trying to spray battery acid on the poor guy! He was very nervous about the whole thing but really was trying to be a trooper about it. I started by spraying a little into the air and then getting closer to him with the spray. He would try to back up and run away but I would stay along with him. When he stopped, or looked my way, or made some other attempt to face his fears I stopped spraying and gave him a good pat. He was curious about the bottle and sniffed it a bunch. I was able to get a good coating on him, but he really wasn't a fan of the whole thing.

By then it was feeding time for the rest of the gang so I let him go. Sam and I picked up some Black Oil Sunflower Seeds that I'm planning on feeding to the pony. Hopefully that will help with some of his hoof and coat conditioning and serve as a vehicle for the vitamin/general supplement I got him!