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Things seem slow at the stables, so I figured I'd pop in after the long holiday break and share some cute pictures of Bodie and a buddy...

Back in late November, one of our American O-judges (dressage judges who are qualified by the FEI to judge up to the Olympic level) came to do a clinic for our local dressage association on the new US Dressage Federation dressage tests that are taking effect starting next year. The USDF changes the tests every few years - they're very similar to the old ones, but there are some differences.  Bodie was chosen to demonstrate Training Level, Test 4.  My trainer was riding him - it was all professional riders doing the demonstrations in the clinic, which, when you think about it, really isn't as helpful to us amateurs as it could be, but this judge is known to be very, very tough, and the clinic was going to be well attended, at least as these things go, so it was kind of a "formal" occasion.  

Which meant, of course, that Bodie had to be all prettified - which he really doesn't like - he gets all fidgety.  And of course we were riding in the morning, which meant I had to get to the barn at some god-awful early - dark - hour to bathe him, and it was cold!  

Then the girl who braids came over...  We have two barn kittens - they were given to the barn about four or five months ago, and in November they were still little things.  They loved the horses even then, though.  Their names are Athena and Pandora, and they're both tortoiseshells, with almost identical coloring, except Athena has long hair.

So my trainer, Carolyn, plopped Athena down on Bodie's butt, and she sat there happily the whole time he was being braided!  

 

Bodie didn't mind at all - he seemed not to notice, even when she padded around searching for a comfortable spot.  We thought maybe Pandora might want to visit, too, but after a few minutes she'd had enough and was ready to have her paws back on solid earth:



Athena stayed there, though, until the braids were all done - occasionally when Bodie shifted the hind leg he was resting and his hindquarters heaved around, Athena would look at him reproachfully but just resettle herself.  Eventually we had to remove her forcibly from his back as she mewed pitifully (extracting her little needle claws carefully from his very dirty Goretex sheet!).  

Bodie acquitted himself beautifully - and he looked lovely in  his braids, and with his trace clip showing up so nicely, as they do on chestnuts (there was a break after Bodie's session, and when I went out into the ring to take him from my trainer and lead him in, the judge/clinician came up to talk to me.  "That's a very sexy clip," he said.  :eek )



And then when I took the braids out when we got home, he had that adorable curly look for a while...



And that was the end of our "season." No more showing or clinics - no beautification required (and no packing tack and horses into trailers, etc. etc. :D) - until the spring.  It's nothing but work in the ring and hacks when weather permits until then - well, for the one hour a day that he's ridden, I mean!  Carolyn has begun teaching him his changes - and he's getting them, slowly but surely.  She gets at least a few each time she rides him - not necessarily clean, but changes nonetheless - and he's finally really figured out that he's supposed to do something when she asks, which was half the problem!  He's not ready for me to try them on him yet, but we're getting there.

And when he's not working, which is most of the time, he gets to engage in his two favorite pastimes: eating, and rolling in the mud.  I have never encountered a horse who can coat himself as thoroughly and evenly and deeply in mud as this one.  I suspect sometimes that the neighbors go out there with trowels and spread it over him.  He has raised it to a high art - maybe it's a form of self-expression!  I've tried to catch it on film and not succeeded very well; here's one effort:



And I think that's enough of Bodie for the moment!  

I hope Clyde (and any other interested equines) is doing well and had many holiday apples...  I enjoyed seeing him in his holiday garb!
What a simply lovely story - and wonderful pictures!    :D

The curly picture is speically lovely, with the flirty eye - Bodie is very beautiful, both plaited, curly and au naturel - Clyde has no great claims to beauty (except in Jay's  eyes  :rolleyes ) but he can certainly match Bodie in the mud department.  I don't know how he does it, he comes in completely caked with the stuff.  Never mind, Jay is more than willing to go over him with a fine toothcomb until every hair is shining clean.

his two favorite pastimes: eating, and rolling in the mud


Clye's with him on that for sure!    Beats dressage practice every time doesn't it!   :lol
Trace clip? Is the two-tone effect? How does that work?
The thick coats that horses grow in winter protect them from the cold, which is very good if the horse just stands around outside all day - but if the horse is exercised hard, the extra insulation causes them to sweat more, and the coat gets very wet.  If it's cold out, you can't put them back outside while they're still wet with sweat; this will make them even colder - and the thick sweaty hair takes a long time to dry.  So often horses that are exercised and ridden hard throughout the winter have their winter coats clipped off.  But if they are in a cold climate and spend all or part of the day outside, clipping their entire body will make them less tolerant to cold and wet; then they have to be blanketed much more carefully.

As a compromise, there are a number of partial body clips that remove hair from the areas that tend to sweat the most (typically on the underside of the horse's body) while leaving it on the areas most exposed to the weather.  For example, there is the "pony clip," which removes just the hair on the underside of the neck and chest to just behind the front legs.  The "blanket clip" removes all hair except on the legs and a "blanket" across the back.  The "hunter clip" leaves only the legs and a small area of hair under the saddle.  And there are others, like the "chaser clip," and the "full clip" - which removes all hair, even on the legs.

The "trace clip" is between the pony clip and the blanket clip - it removes all hair on the underside of the horse's body - jaw, neck, belly - and partway up the flanks (how high varies).  It was often used on carriage horses and follows the lines of harness traces, which is why it's called a trace clip.  This keeps them cooler and much more comfortable when they're worked, so they sweat less and dry more quickly, but they still have a lot of coat to protect them when they're outside all day in the winter.  It's ideal for horses that are outside during the day but stabled at night.  Still, they do need some extra blanketing, compared with an unclipped horse, which might not need to be blanketed at all in our winters except on very, very cold nights or when it's precipitating (the wet is more difficult for them to handle than the cold).

On Bodie you can see the trace clip very clearly:  the clipped areas are the light areas on the lower half of his body.  On some colors of horses, including many chestnuts (like Bodie and my other boy, Griggs), the contrast between hair color (especially his winter coat, which is a bit darker) and skin color is quite marked; this leads to the two-tone effect  On the other hand, some horses, like dark bays, have very dark skin, and the contrast between coat and skin is much less; for these horses, there isn't as much of a two-tone effect.  

Because it's so noticeable, I have someone do the clip who knows what she's doing.  Making that straight line is actually quite difficult - if I did it, it would be a jagged zig-zag! :D  And on my guys, you'll still be able to see the demarcation well into the spring, so I like it to look nice.  

And that is probably more than you wanted to know!! :)
Thanks -- another area of pristine ignorance forever sullied. I'd never thought about them getting winter coats!



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