Filth!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Filth.

Wallowing in filth.

Wallowing in filth till its foul glutinous slime encrusts every inch of the wallower.

Filth.

In other words, it’s mud season, and the horses are making the most of it.

My Thoroughbred Ben isn’t quite so bad as my Morgan Commander, but only because he’s still in a winter blanket, so he has to make do with layering the muck onto his periphery.

Still, he does his best to get down and dirty. It takes some serious wallowing to get his inner ear hair all crusty with dried mud, after all.

But the ear hair isn’t Ben’s proudest achievement in muckification. Oh, no. No, I’d say it’s the gigantic globs of mud crusted in his coat and tangled in his mane that truly impress (or horrify, depending on whether one had any foolish hope of grooming him).

You’ve got to admit, that’s some serious filth there, eh? And yet, if you holler and screech about what an unholy mess he is, and how the devil can I ever get you clean, he looks back at you with utterly uncomprehending innocence.

You gotta admit, the string of mire beads in his forelock is a nice touch, isn’t it?

And then there’s Commander. Commander, the hardy little Morgan whose thick coat needs no blanketing.

Whose long, thick, fuzzy coat is one hideous mass of dried, semi-dried, and still glutinous MUD.

True, he hasn’t daubed and smeared his head as thoroughly as Ben, but then, I’ve never seen another horse as impassioned as Ben is about grinding his head into the dirt whenever he rolls.

Whew, that near side of Commander was truly gross and disgusting, wasn’t it? Perhaps his off side might be…

Um, no. No, it’s just as bad, with an extra heaping serving of muck right where the saddle would sit if one could excavate far enough down to find his back.

True, Commander hasn’t achieved Ben’s brilliance at grinding gobbets of mire into his mane, but he’s done all right for himself.

So, I’d say Ben gets the concentrated filth prize, but Commander wins the overall muckification honors.

I can’t wait for warm enough weather to turn the hose on them.

2

The neighbours have three big black horses and I saw them all rolling around in the mud today.

I have no idea what kind they are, but they’re really big and gorgeous.

3

This sounds great - I think I’ll take off from work early.

4

Long flowing manes and tails? Proud arching necks? Look like fairy-tale steeds?

Probably Friesians.

5

I was gonna say aw it’s just a little mud bath but I gotta agree, they’re filthy!

the mud must feel warm? I noticed some cattle lolling in it the other day in the rain.

6

Vogon poetry at it’s finest.

7

Eeeeewwww. Eye goobers. I hate eye goobers.

8

Scratching an itch always feels good, but it’s especially satisfying when they’re shedding their winter fur and feeling ITCHY ALL OVER.

It’s also theorized that horses and cattle and such like to get plastered with mud as a shield against flying biting insects.

Me? I think they’re all Pigpens at heart. They’re so gleeful when they roll in mud.

9

I hope the weather warms up so you can hose them down. How do you de muck them? I was imagining you let the mud dry and scrape it off or do they just live with it until spring?

10

When the mud dries you can attack it with a curry comb, a rubber mitt with little nubs all over it, and/or a stiff-bristled brush. This grinds off the dried mud and envelopes the groomer in clouds of filthy dust. Eventually the surface is (relatively) clean and perhaps even a bit shiny, but if you slap a hand on the horse puffs of dust erup because it’s still dirty down to the skin.

For deep-down cleaning, after currying and brushing you need to vacuum the horse. Yes, that’s right – there are vacuums made especially for vacuuming horses. They work well, too, and most horses quickly get used to them; some even seem to enjoy it.

Of course, as soon as you’re finished with them and turn them out, they’ll head right back to the muckiest muck they can find and roll again.

11

Ah, mud + horses. There’s a reason I call my mare “Adobe girl.” These are the days I’m glad she’s leased out, so *someone else *can get all the muck out of her coat.

12

Yeah that’s what they are, especially the arching necks.

13

Oh what a lot of work and they go right back out and get dirty again! As a kid we had a beagle that would roll in mud and dead animals and I being oldest always had to clean her up. Of course with a dog you throw her in the tub. It’s a labor of love I’m sure!

14

Why do I hear the voice of Bill Cosby when reading the word “Filth!”?

15

I hear those mud men from the Tick. “We’re filth! We’re filth! We come from filth, we’re going to filth!”

16

Yes, they’re quite distinctive, aren’t they? And every single one is black, all black.

17

My old white trakehner used to positively glow. She rarely rolled, and never seemed dingy. Nakota, OTOH, is just plain dirty.

StG

18

No, that’s “Filth flarn filth flarn filth”.

19

I hear the old woman in the crowd from The Princess Bride.

20

Muddy springs is why the good lord made turnout sheets :slight_smile: No its not the keep the rain of their precious hide – its to save me from bursitis in my shoulder from scrubbing them down.

I’d wear out a nubby glove per month just on the legs – our soil had a lot of clay. One spring I was less than diligent and my horse got Scratches (a bacterial/fungal infection around the ankle) --not serious and not hard to cure – and I STILL feel guilty about it.