Saturday, June 07, 2008

sponge bath anyone?

so after eight hours of working, i drive an hour and a half to retrieve my girl from my new jersey best friend, and then make our way up to horse country.

we listen to books on tape when we ride that far, and talk.

she enjoys my music, too. there's no end to this kid's refined taste. (what can i say?)

so we get to the stables, and it's damn hot. at least 95 degrees. felt like 100. i had bought my girl a cooling vest, soak it in water and put it on, keeps you cool for hours.

i put it on first to see if i could get myself one in bubble gum pink (my girl's suggestion), but since it's a child size, and while it did fit, it fit more like a child's size, anyway, it worked out, because it soaked me through then i took it off and she wore it.

lovely idea. she'd been bugging me for months to order it, i finally broke down and got it, just in the nick of time, it seems.

so, her favorite (she has two favorites now, as do i, actually, i'm probably nearing closer to three or eight).

anyway, her favorite arabian pony is all sweaty in his stall and she wants to give him a sponge bath.

i'm not about to let her just give one horse a sponge bath when all of them are hot and sweaty, and as much in need of tlc as the arabian. barnaby, by name.

so, she sponges him down while i'm doing whatever it is i do (i lose track and we piddle about a lot now).

but there's this small chestnut pony whom i've never much been drawn to, but she's nice enough. only dragged (or drug) me across the field once. amazing how a small pony, twelve hands or so, my girl says, twelve point two hands, when she wants to go graze, can make me follow. and i'm not wanting, so not wanting to manhandle these lovely creatures. i'd rather just let them graze, but then i run the risk of being viewed as a pushover, so the compromise i strike is, a few nibbles of grass when they behave (unless i'm specifically there to let them graze), enroute. and i move them forward nibbling along the way. i don't always let them nibble. i don't want it to become a requirement. but i hate to deny them fresh grass when all i've got to do is be with them anyway.

so, bitty, that's her name (more because she bites than because she's tiny, though she's never bitten me). she's ridden a lot, lots of little girls like her and i always see her getting groomed, etc. this is not the kind of horse i tend to give my attention to. i'd rather attend to the lesser minded horses. i don't know why, something makes me want to groom the ungroomed, i guess.

well, i started stroking her neck, and she loved it. i scratched that spot on her neck that makes her elongate and smile.

at one point, we had three horses smiling at us and we were standing there laughing. amazing. wonderful and amazing. my girl tells me velvet never smiles. (she has, however, turned her back and farted at us when we were all tired after camp week). but today, all smiles after her sponge bath.

it was gorgeous.

and the big baby is bandit, he's skittish, hates to be groomed. hates to the point of practically ripping the crossties down. but i've been trying to get him used to my presence. and he followed me around his paddock the other day, right with me the whole way around while i picked up trash in there. he's a pushover when he wants to be.

he's giant. just huge. but i lost my story.

no matter.

i wanted to sponge him down because he was one of the hottest of the group. and standing in the aisle with the cool breeze and a light bath, before they had to get closed up in that hot stall again, i'm sure it really made a lot of difference.

anyway, just getting near bandit (the big baby) is iffy. but getting near him in a grooming capacity carrying a bucket, is something i wasn't sure he'd let me do. but i stayed calm and he let me. once i got his neck and chest wet, he was glad to have me do his body. it was lifesucking hot today.

and there he stood. like a gentleman.

and we opened the stall doors, some of them just enough so everyone could poke their head in the aisle and feel the breeze, and that's when time just fell away. we worked and sweated, sponged and played. groomed and loved the horses today.

and there was no place else we'd rather be.

we were supposed to have gone camping after the farm today, but with the heat had decided we'd forego the pleasure of sweating it out, and we were so glad to just have hours to waste on our dear friends.

bucky and prince were out in the far paddock battling flies and gnats. i struggle seeing them bearing the brunt of the heat in the day, unmasked, untended except for hay and water.

but we come to the fence and they let us stroke their necks and kiss their muzzles. my daughter weaved a daisy into my braid. we stayed as long as we could with the flies pestering the boys, and then we went to say another round of goodbyes.

nickering and contented sighs, since they had all eaten. we mucked any new remainders and drove away, just before godzilla (the nickname we've given the owner) pulled up.

perfection.

utter and complete.

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